Trail Riding Videos

A 3 minute video of Sasquatch Trail....turn up the volume and enjoy.
Set your video quality as high as allowable with your service....1080p is recommended.

More to come as I edit the videos and work thru the worlds worst internet service. We had better service in the hills of Eastern Ky than here in Bowling Green...go figure.

Island Hopping is the name of the song, and it fits with our journey down this creek.

Eastern Kentucky Rides 2

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Well, we broke camp at Wildcat this morning and loaded up our toys and headed over to "Mine-Made Adventure Park" in Knott County Kentucky.

We are camped on top of an old strip mine that has been reclaimed about 30 miles from Hazard, Ky.  The trail system was developed by the County to promote tourism.

Looks like great weather again for this part of our Eastern Ky. tour.

Mama says she feels like she is camped on a prairie out West somewhere.

Her and Annie are enjoying the peace and quiet. Not many people here this weekend but over 400 campers expected for Labor Day Weekend. That's why we are here this weekend.

Very friendly and rustic area. We weren't here 15 minutes and was invited to a Country Wedding on the premises.

A not so good picture of some of the trails up here on the mountain top.

The campground is far left in the photo. Should be an interesting venture.

We will head out tomorrow for a full day of exploring and charting the trails on our Ride Command GPS.

These trails are also used for horseback riding when the ATV's aren't here. They hold some huge events during the fall season.

Got an early start tis morning and what a morning it is. You can see for "Miles and Miles" as the song says.

We are on top of a knob looking over the Knott County Recreation Area. Free camping anywhere you choose but no facilities.

One lonely camper down there but they are waiting for the group to arrive. We met them later on the trail and there were about 10 vehicles.

Christine and Annie are getting that "Open Prairie" feeling high up here on top of what was once a mountain top, now just a reclaimed knob.

Heading down to the woods trails from here to see what today brings.

One of the first interesting sites we came cross was this early, early 1800"s cemetery way back in the mountains off a dirt road.

We noticed lots of flowers on the markers so we stopped. Most of the headstones were hand carved from sandstone rock from the area and the names were weather too bad to read.

However, the ones we could make out were from deaths around 1802 to 1910. The latter were on marble and easier to read. Seems most of the 1800 markers were children that only lived one or two years.
So sad to think how tough it must have been to live in these hills at that time. Evidently there must have been a community back here for many years before the coal companies bought them out. The cemetery is well preserved and taken care off as well as could be. Just think the parents of these children were born in the 1700"s.

We spent miles in and out of this beautiful creek so we stopped on a gravel bar and had lunch.

No one around for miles, quiet and very enjoyable.

Notice the clean wheels, lots of creek running.......

And about the time I said "no one around" we came across this group of 10 units on the same creek trail.
We had just went thru a "Very Deep" section of the creek and on the other side was a Honda Pioneer that didn't make it thru. It died in the creek and was towed to the other side with a locked up engine.

They had removed the spark plugs, the air filter, the starter, etc. but the engine would not turn over even using a screwdriver to turn the flywheel. It was toast.......
They didn't want to hear it when I told them they probably hydro-locked the engine and bent a rod. So we just quietly left. They had plenty of push power anyway.

Another site was this spring falls that looked like it might have been an old water stop.

It was right on the dirt road that the cemetery was on. People used these springs back in that era to fill their water cans from a horse and wagon.

The old piece of pipe stuck in the ground was the giveaway.

And another great sunset to end the day.
Gotta head home in the morning....so much to do, so little time.

EASTERN KENTUCKY TRAIL RIDES...2017

August 23 thru 30

Arrived and checked in on a gorgeous day, mid-week so hardly anyone else in the campground until Friday.

Everything unloaded and setting up the toy-hauler for a three day stay here at Wildcat Park near London, Kentucky.

Looking forward to a week or so of camping and riding. Just Me, Momma, and Annie.

First stop was up on "The Dome", an overlook high atop a rock dome overlooking I-75 and a small lake below. I-75 is between us and the lake..The trail going up is getting real bad and it was a nail biter. Mamma did good, she hung on.

A perfect weather day for this adventure, hard rain yesterday was just enough to settle any dust issues and there was less mud than expected. Cool mornings, perfect for camping.

Rock climbing at 70, what's wrong with that. My grandson Austin would be proud.

Day 2
... we meet our only campground neighbors and hook up for a joint trail ride on Thursday. They have two dogs that never ride with them but when they met Annie it was "get in kids, we're going trail riding. Their dogs were loving it.

Annie says "come on guys, I'll show you how it's done out on the trail.

These three dogs had a ball running and playing everytime we stopped.

The little one is bringing up the rear and hard to see.

Buster and Skeeter are their names.

Eastern Kentucky has some of the best rock formations in the East.

Here Danny and Vicky are checking the map to see what's next.

Christine is logging the trails on our Ride Command GPS and placing waypoints at trails to match the map.

We have been here once before but riding trails this time we have never been on.

A group shot taken by Danny. We usually don't get in the same picture very often.

So many different "Photo Ops" of the rock formations we got tired of stopping so much.

This one was a little close but we managed to get the "General" thru the Sasquatch Gap....

So far the new unit is performing great. All upgrades have been worth the trouble, especially the suspension and fender flairs.

Nice soft ride and staying clean inside.

We got this shot as we were squeezing thru the Gap.


Looking straight up.

This Gal never ceases to amaze me. She has hung in there with just about every crazy thing I have ever done.

Sometimes I think she likes this "Trail Riding" as much as I do.

She had a big hand in outfitting this new unit to her liking. And Annie's.
Including Annie's custom designed, hand made, over engineered doggie seat.

Danny, Vickie, Buster, and Skeeter squeeze their 800S RZR thru Sasquatch Gap and down the other side. Lots of fun riding with these "new found friends" this weekend.

OH LOOK....

ANOTHER ROCK.

OH THIS MIGHT BE THE BEST ONE YET.....

Let's go in and see where this one takes us.




More to come tomorrow....











Friday, Aug. 25th

Annie says, I think I'm ready for another day of riding mom.

She is loving her new doggie seat, she can lay down, sit up, stand up, or give mom lovin'...

Not many pictures today, spent most of our time with the GoPro making videos but we did run across this poor guy trying to get his 4-wheeler out of the rut.

We offered to winch him out but he was waiting for his riding partner to turn around and come back We stayed and helping them muscle this machine back onto the trail without turning over.

After we finished our ride we headed down Highway 25 for a couple miles and took a little side trip back a gravel road for 3 miles to see the Camp Wildcat Civil War Battlefield Memorial. Quite a story, seems this was one of the very first battles fought in the Civil War.......after both Leaders said they would honor Kentucky's Neutral Position in the War.

A beautifully manicured little piece of history sits back in these hills and I doubt if it gets 50 visitors a year.

No one on site to ask, just lots of markers and placards.

Just couldn't resist a picture with this old Civil War cannon.
With all that's going on in this country today it's a damn wonder the   protesters aren't here to remove this piece of History.

It's hard to believe these snow flakes won't take the time to read and learn the true reason for the Civil War. It was all about States rights and later became a slavery issue.





Hopefully we can get some GoPro clips on here when we get better internet service. It's not easy posting a blog from the hills of Kentucky.......