West Virginia

So we’re back in West Virginia and taking it very slowly mostly due to crappy weather forecasts, it’s of thunder storms forecast so we’ve stuck around places to wait it out. Sometimes it back fires as they never really materialise but it’s good for ringo as he gets to rest and eat. The first 60 miles were pretty uneventful, far to much tarmac and roads but we met some lovely people along the way who gave a place to camp along the way.

The wildlife has changes as well from when we were in Maryland. Hundreds of damn deer that seem to be hiding behind every bush, chipmunk which ringo’s terrified of, a rattle snake as we crossed a road and a couple of raccoons. We’ve also been told there’s bears in the area.

Then we got to Dolly sods wilderness and the roads changed and we were back to dirt tracks and ringo perked right up, he wasn’t so impressed with the 2000ft ish elevation climb tho. He had tantrums where he just lies down and refuses to move (first time I thought it was colic but it wasn’t) and he also started nipping. I think we only managed 10 miles one day as it was a constant fight to get him walking even though I wasn’t riding.

Our main aim was to get to a horse motel before the 4th July and everyone’s fireworks. I’d given us 3 extra days to get to Hendricks on the other side of the Dolly but that really didn’t go to plan….