ATR Cross Florida Greenway Ride

The Altoona Trail Riders had their Cross-Florida Greenway ride this weekend which started on Friday at the Santos Trailhead. The group consisting of Sue Rogers, Margaret Shuman, Michelle McWilliams, MaryAnn Lichtenberger, Janet Neville, Nancy Alford, John Sparks, Julie Olsen and myself started out at 10AM. We had helpers moving our trailers to our first stop of the night. Thanks go to Sandy Walsh, Pat Baker, Mark Wolcott and Richard Lamb who did the moving. We rode through the Santos Trails crossing the two roads on the way to 110th Street Trailhead where we stopped for lunch. From there we crossed CR 475, rode around the Florida Horse Park, crossed CR475A and managed to get caught in the rain. We donned our rain gear. Sue had a lime green rain slicker that blew up around her and made her look like Kermit going down the trail. The other horses found it interesting! We made it our first stop at Lynn’D Farms for the night after almost five hours out on the trails. Lynn’D Farms has plenty of stalls and some electric hook-ups for the trailers. They also have a very nice bunkhouse with six rooms, each with a kitchenette. There is a bar-be-que grill out back for the guests to use. If you are looking for a place to get away with your horse where you can ride the trails you might want to give them a try. We enjoyed our stay there.
The next day we saddled up and rode across the Land Bridge, over to the 49th Street Trailhead and through the underpass and on to the ShangriLa Trailhead where we stopped for a break. Then we continued on, crossed CR 484 to Ross Prairie Trailhead where we had lunch. We met Marcia and Andy Michel on the trail to Ross Prairie. The trailhead has water, wash racks, picnic tables and flush toilets. And you can camp there with your horses. We took about an hour break and then headed off across SR 200 with Marilyn Hart who led us to her place on the Pruitt Trails. We camped at her place for the night and she was a wonderful hostess. She served us Mexican dishes for dinner. The next day we drove over to Inglis Island to the Withlacoochee Bay Trailhead where we rode down to gulf to complete our cross Florida ride. We got several good pictures at the Gulf so everyone knows we made it. Out of all the riders who started out at Santos on Friday, only five made it through the entire weekend of riding to the Gulf. And it was ladies all the way with Margaret, MaryAnn, Michelle, Nancy and myself surviving to the end. After a lunch break at the trailhead we did some riding of the trails. One of them was pretty much underwater with all the rain. We only rode for about an hour before heading home. It was a long weekend and we had almost forty miles in the saddle. Except for “Short Cut” Michelle… she managed to shave off about five miles by taking shortcuts on the trails!!! Ask her about it.