Black Diamond Horse Trails

Cross Country Trail Ride sponsors daily organized rides of varying lengths (half day to full day) during the course of the week. The first couple of years we always went on the organized rides. As the years have gone by we've become more familiar with the miles of trails through the Ozark Mountains crisscrossing the Jack’s Fork and Current Rivers. Now we do a lot of riding on our own and pick out where we want to go each day.

A few years ago a friend of Sherrie’s took us on a ride up a mountainside to a summit that overlooks the horse camp and the rivers. We decided one day to try to find that trail again. We could vaguely remember the name of it and so with our trusty (but barely legible) trail maps we headed off.

We came to a new logging trail that was in the general vicinity of the one we had been on in the prior years. It went up the mountain and so did we. Every 100 yards or so there were metal signs posted to the trees with a picture of a “blue” horse on it. We were happy the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had finally started marking the trails rather than having someone in the mess hall tell us “you go down the back camp road and at the second turn off turn right then take a left at the tall pine tree that marks the start of the trail head.” (I mean, come on, we’re in a forest there are pine trees everywhere.)

Within 10 minutes we were miserable. Not only was the trail straight up the hill but we disturbed a swarm of horse flies when we were well past the point of no return. They pestered us the rest the way up. It is not much fun to ride horses up a steep incline when they are shaking their heads, prancing, stomping, and kicking their back legs out at the flies.

The view at the top put the misery of the trip behind us. The camp was off to the left and in all other directions we got a beautiful view of the Mark Twain National Forest. Then it was decision time, there were four trails to choose between to get back down. The logging road we came up was not an option. Neither of us could imagine going back down it with all those horse flies. So we opted for the trail that seemed most likely to put us back near the camp.

It was a narrow dirt trail that gently sloped downhill through the trees. In single file Sherrie and Poncho started down in front of me and Red Cloud. We had not gone to far when I looked up and saw the familiar DNR trail sign; except the horse on it was black instead of blue.

“Sherrie, did you see that sign we just passed?” I asked.

“Yeah, the one with the black horse on it? The last trail had a blue horse.”

“Yeah, that one. Have you ever been snow skiing in Colorado?”

“Nope, I’ve never been skiing.”

“Well out there, they mark the difficulty of the ski slopes by the color of the signs, green is easy, blue is moderate and black is reserved for the most difficult slopes. I wonder if the DNR is following the same pattern.”

“Hmm…..it looks good so far,” she said.

“Yep, so far it does.” I had hardly got these words out of my mouth when we came to the rocks. The trail transformed from a dirt path to a dirt path with knobby rocks sticking up all over it. The gentle slope got steeper and the dirt completely disappeared. The trail was just plain rocky stair steps that descended more sharply downhill.

I just kept in mind that the trusty horse I was riding had four legs and he could get down this hill better than I could on two. We slipped and slid; Poncho and Red Cloud kept their noses to the ground picking their way through the sharp turns and rocks. When I looked out over Red Cloud’s shoulders all I could see was the air in front of me. Poncho skidded once over a flat sheet of rock and the friction of his metal shoes sent sparks from under his feet.

We stopped along the way a few times to give the horses a break and if you know me and Sherrie very well you wouldn’t be surprised that we were giggling about the predicament we were in. We have been through just about everything together during the course of our friendship. She is my ultimate moral supporter and even though the circumstances might be horrible it is always calming to hear her distinctive voice, “It’s looking okay, we’re doing okay, we’ll be out of here in no time at all, we’re never doing this again!”

Finally the trails intersection with the main road was visible ahead of us. It was only then that Sherrie said, “Oh my god”. The last 10 feet were straight down with two or more feet between each rocky step.

On the road we dismounted and stretched our spaghetti legs. She said, “We made it! You made it down that last part fine.”

“Yep, I leaned back as far as I could and gave Red Cloud as much rein as I possibly could and shut my eyes.”

“You shut your eyes!”

“Yep, I knew Red Cloud was better off without any interference from me!”

Then we burst into laughter until we were crying!

(Eminence, Cross Country Trail Ride, August 5-11, 2007)