I have a bit of a confession to make. Here goes – My name is Kerrie, and I have absolutely no sense of direction. Seriously. People always think that I am exaggerating when I say this, but I once got so lost going to a friend’s house roughly 10 minutes from where I grew up and lived for 18 years that I had to call my mom (in tears) to come and lead me home. Anyone who rides with me while I am driving now just automatically gives me turn by turn directions no matter where we are going. Does anyone watch the show “The Good Place”? I am Chidi when he was was asked to walk around and map out his town. I don’t think I have ever identified more with a television character than in this moment.
I swear I will get to how this relates to horses and trail riding soon.
As I said, my brain and directions do not mix. Thankfully, my brain is okay with most technology and I use GPS navigation to figure out where I am going all the time. I am thankful every day that the internet and online maps were a thing before I started driving. I’m even more thankful that GPS navigation units soon became available, and now I almost always have maps on hand through my phone. I use it so much that I sometimes wonder if the next time I ask Siri for directions she will sigh and say “Seriously? Again?”.
Likely in what is some sort of coping mechanism or maybe just appreciation of the technology that helps me get where I want to be, I found myself really enamored with my college courses that focused on using mapping data to study and try to solve real environmental problems. This led me to a career as an environmental scientist where I use maps a lot in my day to day work. I am what some may refer to as a “mapping nerd”, a title I hold proudly.
So, cut to a couple of years ago. There you have me, a directionally-challenged nature-loving horse-crazy mapping nerd. What to do with all of these things? Well, obviously squish them all together in a mappy-horsie-outdoorsy sandwich of awesome. It was a fairly logical leap… in my mind… Thus began my “map all the trails!” project (see, I got to horses eventually!).
Yes, this is a little ambitious… There are a heck of a lot of trails and only one me. Also, my partner in crime, Prophet, and I, being both truckless and trailerless, are really limited in what trails we can explore by who we can hitch a ride with. Also, I have to do this thing called “work” in order to afford to keep my lovely and very expensive pony in the lifestyle to which he is accustomed. He also seems to be having an affair with my vet, but that’s another story. It has by necessity morphed into “map all the trails we ride”. Whenever I go trail riding in a new place (and often when I am riding out from my barn), I wear a GPS watch and map where we go. It’s so fun to me to see not only where we went, but how far we traveled and how fast we got there. Totally normal and not weird at all.
As part of this blog, we are going to be sharing GPS tracks of trails we visit. For new trails we will try to make notes of things like:
- What is the parking situation?
- How difficult are the trails?
- Are there a lot of trails or just a few?
- Are they multi-use trails?
We may include any other helpful tidbits we think are important. We are mostly riding around Vermont these days, but we’re always up for an out-of-state adventure if we can get there.
Last summer we went to the horse camps at Otter Creek, which is located in the foothills of the Adirondacks of New York (http://www.horsecampsatottercreek.com/). What a fun trip! If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it! I wore my trusty GPS watch while we rode. When I got back I made the map below of the trails that we tackled while we were there. These tracks are useful because you can use a free app on your phone to follow previously generated paths while riding or refer to them if you get turned around. Okay, this may not be a problem for most people, but as we discussed, this is my life.
Stay tuned for more detailed maps and information about some great trail riding in Vermont and beyond!
Happy trails!
Kerrie
Thank God that I’m not alone, my family was scared for me always crying in the street for help to bring me home and I was always in fear of losing my way, I never went out by myself without someone calling on my phone at least 5 times Until I reached my destination. I have ADHD and dyslexia and maybe that’s why I thought it my brain going fazy. But now I guess we are naturally people they just build to much streets and building. Lol
Wow I thought I was alone. My first time to New York I was all alone and actually got lost even though I never left the block. I have to use a gps to get everywhere and can not stay from my known path unless I have a gps to turn me back around. People always run out of patience with me because of it and I really try but I just can’t do directions of any kind.