Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993 TAG: 9307160009
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And it might have been a good idea, too, had it not been for:
1. Mother Nature.
2. Budget Cuts.
Because this ride was going to take place on the back of a horse, along a 2-mile trail supposedly designed for such animals. Only somewhere between the design, which took place in the 1960s, and July 10, 1993, there came a breakdown in maintenance.
It probably came as recently as June 4. Remember that ferocious storm that knocked out everybody's electricity while dabbling in a little creative landscaping throughout Central and Southwest Virginia?
Well, if you don't, there are remembrances of it aplenty strewn across the trail on the way to the Knob. Big, green, leafy ones. Once-tall, brown, degrading ones. Little ecosystems in the making, home to all sorts of bugs and perhaps even a few skunks and other mountain dwellers.
The fallen trees no doubt today provide an important link in the food chain up there but they caused more than a few hooves to hesitate Saturday.
Eight hooves, to be exact. Four under me, and four under my trainer and friend, Susan Viemeister.
Susan was riding a trusted old pony we now believe may be part mountain goat. But a tiny creature nonetheless, whose pony-sized heart skipped a few beats when confronted with what must have looked like Giant Redwoods crossing his path.
When Rocky the Pony bellied up to his first bark-covered barricade, he did what any intelligent beast would do. He balked.
And Susan did what any human crazy enough to be out in 94-degree weather, who had just spent an hour packing horses and gear into a trailer and navigating Bedford County's winding, country roads with 5,000 pounds in tow, would do. She looked for a way around it.
Me, I just followed. Bucky the Wonderhorse will bluster through just about anything, good idea or not. Besides, he carries that incredibly powerful horse gene that overrides all other commands - he hates to be left behind.
Rocky's plowing through sticker bushes and scrambling up a steep embankment? Bucky's right behind him.
Rocky's ducking under dead branches and trotting around the bend? Bucky takes aim and catches his rider's helmet (containing an important piece of the rider's anatomy) squarely in said branches, one of which then hangs from his ear, making him look even sillier than usual.
No comments will be made regarding the appearance of the rider, or the whereabouts of the rider's helmet, or lessons learned that day regarding the importance of chin straps.
Meanwhile, I'm wondering why those nice park rangers I spoke to just the day before, who told me about this trail, failed to mention that it had obviously not been groomed since the demise of the dinosaur.
Which brings us to Budget Cuts. And park grooming philosophy. And golf courses.
Once upon a time, when planners first conceived of the Blue Ridge Parkway, it was supposed to be kept neatly trimmed and meticulously clipped - groomed to look like a golf course, according to Peter Givens, interpretive specialist for the Virginia unit of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Not so today, said Givens. The trend these days is to go natural. Cut the lawns less. Let the wildflowers grow. Create a parkway that lets its hair down, so to speak.
That fits in well with the federal government's idea that the only trimming needed is around the edges of park budgets.
But that doesn't mean they've stopped clearing fallen trees, said District Ranger Richard Morefield. They just can't do so as often as they'd like.
There are only eight people to groom trails this summer, three less than the year before, said Maintenance Supervisor Danny Peters. The number drops each year.
"We do have quite a few [trees] down," confirmed Morefield, when told of our little adventure. "It's not only Stewart['s] Knob. It's over the complete horse trail."
Now's a good time to tell me.
Morefield said Stewart Knob, less popular than other trails closer to the Roanoke River, was last on his crew's priority list. Parts of the 18-mile hiker/horse trail near the parkway campgrounds have been cleared, however.
Morefield neglected to give me this information when I asked him for maps of the horse trails (and where to park the trailer) because, well, shoot:
"I didn't realize you were going to ride your horse up there," he said. "Better luck next time."
\ LAURA WILLIAMSON covers education for this newspaper.
by CNB