Our friends Jim and Pam invited us to overnight camp with them and their horses (Max & Freck) at Otter Creek Horse Trails. The Otter Creek Horse Trails are a series of interlocking horse trails comprising about 65 miles located on both the Independence River Wild Forest Unit of the Adirondack Forest Preserve. The trail system uses a series of old, sandy roads and woods trails to traverse a beautiful diverse area with the trails winding their way along spirea flats and wooded areas, accessing picturesque Adirondack ponds and following or crossing Otter, Little Otter, Beaver Meadow, Chase, Burnt and Crooked Creeks and the Independence River.
Eric stayed at BillieJo’s and played video games with Stone, while Kathryn and I took our pop-up camper to Helmer’s property just outside the park. After lunch, Jim & Jim tacked up and went for a 90 minute trail ride, followed by Jim & Kathryn reversing the earlier ride. We cooked steaks on the grill and sweet corn on the campfire before turning in at night. The next morning Jim and Kathryn went out for a 2.5 hour ride while I fired up my chainsaw and cleared an area in the woods that expanded the horse corral and gave the horses better shade.