Friday was dreary and rainy, so we delayed heading to Ocala until 1pm. No sense in hurrying up to set up camp in the rain. By the time we arrived around 3 pm, the rain had stopped with just an occasional mist. We got the horses comfortable, set up camp and met the other folks who had come up from South Florida Trail Riders and were camping in the same area.
Saturday morning was overcast but perfect for riding so we headed West through the FHP trails towards the I-95 Landbridge trail. After crossing over I-95, we enjoyed the section called Christmas which took us to the 49th Ave underpass. Since that was a 2 hour journey, we headed back towards the park for a total 4 hour ride. After having a nice lunch back at camp, we set up our chairs to watch some polo. There was also a horse show going on in the park for pony jumpers. (Ponies that jump - not people that jump over ponies:-)
Sunday dawned crisp and clear and the plan was to break camp and trailer the horses to the Shangrila trailhead which is only a 15 minute drive from the park. We found the Shangrila trailhead being well used, with about 6 trailers there ahead of us. We decided to head back East and ride the Shangrila trail back to the 49th Ave trailhead where we left off the day before. We really enjoyed the Shangila trail the best. It had a lot of winding single track trails with some gentle hills. (There are more challenging trails and hills available on some loop trails that go off from the main yellow trail that we followed). The ride with a quick rest stop at 49th was right at three hours. 
We plan to get back sometime this fall/winter season and hit some more of the sections available. We'd like to go east from the FHP and ride to the Santos trailhead as well as continuing west from Shangrila and going to Ross Prairie.
Here are more photos of our rides. PICS
Looks like a lot of fun!!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had the time to do more trail riding...
Oh wow, that sure looks like a lot of fun!! And that second day of trail riding looked beautiful! I love how florida has such sandy trails.
ReplyDeleteYour prize is in the mail!! :)
Sounds like a relaxing, beautiful ride.
ReplyDeleteOh wow. This is just the kind of trail riding I love. Wish my horse and I could join y'all some time. What fun :)
ReplyDeleteDo the horses ever get nervous about walking under or over I-95 and those bridges?
~Lisa
New Mexico
I just love trying out new trails. I used to be a Nervous Nellie, but my friends and my horse gave me confidence.
ReplyDeleteThe people are almost almost more nervous than the horses with the tunnels and bridges. :) There's one really high bridge that we go under that I'm nervous about. When the vehicles go across they make a lot of noise, but since the bridge is so high, the horses don't see them coming or know where the noise is coming from.