Sawgrass Island Preserve Ride – Sept. 19, 2009

The first fall ride for the Altoona Trail Riders last Saturday was a successful one. We had about 25 riders out on the trails for what Bill Boston called “a perfect riding day”. The weather certainly was on our side. We did a slow, meandering ride throughout the trails at Sawgrass Island Preserve in Umatilla. This area is an expansive marsh area of 1,100 acres that is under the control of the Lake County Water Authority for the protection of the water quality of Lake Yale. The area is also a wildlife habitat. We can verify that as some of our riders did run into a bear on the trails. The trails are pretty with a lot of shade. We rode for about two hours and then came back for lunch at the trail head. After our ride we all gathered around for lunch and social time. And the club provided ice cream for dessert. Thanks to Jack and Sandy for getting the ice cream for us. And thanks to Linda Harrington for getting the head count. And thanks to Dot Gross for riding the trails with me on Friday to figure out where we were going! We had some new folks join the club and we look forward to riding with them again