The Trail That Never Ends

The Trail That Never Ends will be that. It winds on and on. We pass silently along. Through the trees, we catch glimpses of the lake, where Lake People growl by in a flash of watercraft. Dig down deep into Alum Creek Lake, and you will find the farms that were flooded for the reservoir, then the cabins of early settlers, then the longhouses of the Iroquois, and then perhaps a remnant of a Mound.

Tracks tell us that others have passed by on this bridle trail, managed by the Ohio Horse Council. We are reminded that the romance between human and horse did not end with the “horseless carriage.” Meeting a horse on this narrow trail would be . . . interesting.

The small matter of a ravine blocking our path comes up for discussion, and exactly how to double back around it.

Triumphant, we arrive at Ground Zero, to find Long_Lost’s ubiquitous hint, In the hollow of a tree. As always with this hint, we go round and round in circles. We stumble over a fallen forest monarch, its crumbling richness returning to the soil.

But wait – could that be a hollow in a tree . . . and so it is. This gentle, stately ruler of the forest gives us yet another gift.

In return we leave a trackable. Come, rider, and find a little horse on the bridle trail.