This is part 2 of my story. If you haven’t seen part 1, go back a post and read about the start of an “eventful” CMO at Stoney Run park in Indiana earlier this year!

So I’m back on my horse, Jeanne and I are heading towards camp, now looking for clues 3, 2 and 1 that we missed on the way out.  I’m probably not 100% accurate in my memory, but you’ll understand the type of clues we were looking for.

The clue for #3 was something like “a widow-maker branch over the trail”.  Wait, we remember seeing that on our way out!  I looked at the map, saw that the circle was after a 90 degree turn that would head towards camp.  Confident, we’re trotting along with me and Raz in the lead.  But I heard a noise – a loud tractor noise up ahead.  I warn Jeanne that something is on the trail, so let’s get around this right turn so we can see it coming.  I’m at the turn when – HERE’S THE TRACTOR!  A giant tractor with fork-lift type thingys in front.  A couple more feet and Raz would’ve been between the pointy arms.  Driver stops, Raz nicely stops, Jeanne and Mocha stop behind me, no drama.  But now the hand signals begin. He doesn’t shut the tractor off, there’s nowhere for Jeanne and I to get off trail for the tractor to pass (which the driver seemed intent on doing).  I signal for him to back up to a clearly open space and finally he gets it, backs up, our horses are wary but they scooch around the tractor, whew.  Resume trot.

Wait a minute, more tractor noise in front of me.  Here comes a 4-wheeler pulling a small trailer behind it. The girl immediately shuts the gator off, greets us, horses pass without a problem.  Was beginning to wonder what would come down the trail next.  Would a T-Rex be out of the question at this point?

So now we finally look for the over-hanging branch.  Nope, no branch, and we have clearly passed out of the circle.  How could we have missed that??  We turn around and try again, no branch.  Jeanne timidly asks “Karen are you sure we’re…”  “YES, I am sure we’re in the right place!!!!”  Well, I thought I was sure, I’m mostly sure.  Jeanne would like to help me with the map, but she forgot her reading glasses at home.  She was pretty much blind as a bat on the ride. 

Oh well, we’ll find plate #2.  One clue was a large dead log alongside the trail.  We should find that!  We did not.  Back and forth, no dead logs.  Surely we’ll find #1 and end on a positive note.  Clues were a red ribbon around a tree and a branch on the trail.  Jeanne remembers seeing a red ribbon at the start of the ride and had wondered if it was a clue (which of course it was, had I known where we were when we left camp).  Woo hoo, trot on!  Wait a minute, where’s the ribbon? And now we’re out of the woods and staring at our horse trailers.  Let’s go back, we gotta find it.  Nope, up and down, no ribbon, no branch on the trail.

Defeated we come back to the ride manager and turn in our disappointing results.  After taking care of our wonderful horses (aside from Raz’s terror over the rolled fence), we join the others at the tables.  Just in time to hear the RM say “it’s weird that the forest preserve decides to go on the trails on a Sunday, isn’t it?  Did anyone run into their tractors on the trail?”   Uh, yeah, Jeanne and I did.  We were the only ones, everyone else was already in.  Okay, now it becomes clear.  Everyone else found the clues for 1, 2 and 3 on their way out of camp.  The over-hanging branch, the dead log, the red ribbon, trail debris, everything was there.  We were the only ones who misread the map (well I was the only one) and were looking for 4, 5 and 6.  The forest preserve was doing trail maintenance and had cleared the trail of everything!!  The giant tractor was lifting dead logs off the trail and pulling overhanging branches off trees.  The girl in the gator had a huge pile of branches and logs in the trailer (didn’t put 2 and 2 together on that one at the time).  Gonna guess a red ribbon was somewhere in the pile too.  So an explanation for our inability to find 1, 2 and 3.  A little consolation, some consolation, not much consolation actually.  It was a long frustrating day.  But every CMO comes with stories to tell, don’t they?  It’s just that our story is SOOO very long.  Thanks for riding along with me and my most excellent friend!  See you all next year!!         From:  Karen Tellef (co-starring Jeanne Kent)