Hardy Creek Trail head

Let me tell you about the first time we tried to ride this trail. Rachel and I got off early from work and had decided since my daughter in school we would try a new trail. I had found a description of this trail online somewhere and it seemed like it would be about an hour away. 

I HATE GOOGLE MAPS!!!! It tried to take us 6 miles down a gravel road that crossed private property then told us to "turn right." No street name, no street view just "turn right." After about 3 hours of searching we gave up and went back to town to eat. We were so frustrated we decided to call it a day and shop the local tack stores. That was a bust too, little did we know they are closed on Mondays. The only thing that saved the day was we decided to ask for directions at the ranger station. They gave us nice easy directions, paved roads the whole way. It was however, more frustrating when we found the place as we were only about a mile away several times!

It was about 5pm but we were not going to finish the day without riding so we hopped on our horses as fast as we could and went exploring. Our moods soon improved because it is a great place to ride. The first mile or so uphill is on an old gravel forest rode but after that it is single track dirt. It was so pretty we lost track of time before we realized even if we turned around right then it was going to be dark when we loaded the trailer.

We did make it down around dusk but by the time we were on the road again it was dark. Good thing we have great horses, they are very patient with us crazy horse owners.

That ride only wet our appetite so we talked Josh into coming with us and we went for a serious ride the next day.

Josh at Hardy Creek

The trails offer something for everyone from easy gravel fire roads to "Black Diamond" trails. Note, when it says black diamond take heed, it is very difficult!  We were riding the Rim trail which is generally rated as "more difficult" I would rate it about a 5, not very hard if you have a trusting horse. We did find a few logs to step over and small water crossings. One section of the Rim trail has the BD rating. As we continued along we were all wondering why the trail was rated so difficult, it seemed more of the same. (que scary music) You guessed it we turned the corner and found ourselves looking almost straight down, large boulders and sharp corners to add to the excitement.

I have to tell you a little about ourselves here. Rachel is the experienced one, she generally leads. I have some experience and Josh just comes along for the ride. When we came face to face with the drop of doom Rachel had been leading. It didn't take her more then a second to turn around and smile sweetly, "Turbo should go down first", she says. I trust my horse, I trust Rachel so I headed down the hill. Another surprise waited us at the bottom, a sharp turn into a water crossing. Then looking on the other side an even steeper hill with even bigger rocks to get back up. I figured we are half way in now so I kept going. Once we reached the top Rachel tells me how nervous she was. Nervous !@!@# Now she tells me. Last time I trust her!

Truthfully though I want to go back, it was so exhilarating and we forgot pictures........ Maybe I will take a video of Brownie coming down. Where Turbo and Tango were picking through going slowly and carefully down the hill, Brownie just kept on walking at his normal pace as if we were back on the fire roads. Crazy horse!

Here are a couple of pictures of the sane areas.

Tina at the beginning of the Rim trail

It is a multi use trail and while we have seen bike tracks we have not seen anyone else up there yet. Don't let the Black Diamond area scare you there are plenty of easy trails and a mix in between.

Directions that don't take you off road