Ride/Walk on the Wild Side!

The first annual “Walk on the Wild Side” walk/bike/ride-a-thon at the Great Pond Mountain Wildlands was a huge success! My neighbor Mary and I staffed the Mile Four “aid station” and had a lot of fun with our theme of Maple Syrup.  I cooked all day Saturday… Maple-Mustard Chicken, Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Pecans and Spiced Maple Sauce, New Orleans Maple Coleslaw, Maple Glazed Pumpkin Donuts, Maple Granola, and Mary brought four kinds of quick breads… maple walnut, apple, banana, and something else.  I even had a 2-burner propane stove to keep the hot food hot.  We decorated with brightly-colored maple tree foliage.  Our station was very well received!  (Those are rhythm bead necklaces you see hanging from the corner of the canopy.  More on those later.)

The first visitors were my friends Lysh and Meg.  Meg came all the way from PA for this!  (Just kidding, she’s from PA but was visiting Lysh.)  The palomino mare is Zandy, and the chestnut gelding is Buddy.

Lysh was bound and determined not to get off, so that she wouldn’t have to get back on, but I coaxed her into it by reminding her of all the food I’d brought… and showing her the stepstool I’d brought for re-mounting!  Her excuses disappeared.  Sadly, so did mine… apparently she’s never letting me get away with serving her franks and beans again!

 

The people came in bunches after that, from both the North Gate and the South Gate, at pretty much the same time.  I think over the 2 hours we got over 100 people, but I’ll have to wait and hear the official tally.  This group had 3 horseback riders and probably 6 people on foot/bikes.  The horses dug right into the hay and water.  One of the riders accepted my offer of a tie-rope in a tree.

When they were just settling in, the next group of two riders arrived.   One of these accepted my offer of a halter AND a tie-rope in a tree!  She was pretty surprised I had brought halters to lend.  I just figure that’s good service!

 

I didn’t get any more pictures when the next couple of groups came through, because it was so busy!  No time for a little thing like pictures.  I got LOTS of compliments on the food.

The food was pretty much gone by the time the last group of 3 riders came back through for the second time.  Kamrie shopped from horseback (bought a second set of rhythm beads) while her horse helped tear down the decorations.

After that, I did the drawing for the horseback rider-only prize giveaway.  Kathy Perin won the rhythm beads… too bad she had already bought a set!  She took a second set to give to a friend.

These three horses left with a total of 5 sets of rhythm beads between them.  The walkers could certainly hear THEM coming!!

Thanks, everyone, for coming to see the property and say hello.  I enjoyed our (brief) visit!