By April Herrin

Tuesday was our first official Centennial Ride trail clean up. Bright and early 11 members and their horses met at Pruitt and charged through the dense brush looking for the trail. We did split up into smaller groups as to be a more efficient work force. Pat, Kathy and Susan had the task of clearing the trail between Mills Creek and the first river crossing.

That was a tough section and thank you team for your hard efforts. The middle team led by Larken followed by the women, Pam and April, had the task of chopping down brush where we deemed necessary. The longer we worked the less was deemed. lol Working hard we met up with the first group (Elaine, Marjorie, Bill, Jacque and Donna) who was sent out to tackle the CANE!!!!!!!!!!!. Actually we only saw the tail end of this group. But to our surprise there lay in front of us a 4 ft wide path right down the OLD original trail. I haven’t seen this trail in an eon. WE jumped off our horses and proceeded to replicate their awesome work. Until….. Larken hit a dead end. About that time I was off on my horse to find the new trail that by-passed the cane. Before I got too many flags up (this trail too was hard to find) we were approached by our president who was ringing the dinner bell. Kathy’s group caught up with us so off we trotted to the Little Buffalo for lunch under the shade of the oak and cotton wood trees. At this time much was discussed as to which trail we would cut out and it was decided that we would once and for all tackle the old cane trail and make it a highway. So with that in mind we all ate energizing homemade chocolate chip cookies. Once back on our ponies we ripped through the cane like it was nobody’s business then set off for the trailers. Thank you so much team for all your hard work and great trail ideas.  We really appreciated you taking the time to clear out one of our favorite trails heading down river.