One of the main reasons we bought the farm was because the property was so beautiful… the houses were awful, but the property was great! Over the past year, as weather and projects have permitted, we have been chipping away at a trail system. So far we have close to 2.5 miles of trails with about 1 more mile to go. A year ago we couldn’t even get to most of the property, now we enjoy hiking every chance we get. One of the things that has amazed me as we have been blazing the trails is the diversity! I’ll take you on a quick hike and you’ll see what I mean…

This is what we were dealing with a year ago… we actually uncovered a bridge here.
One of these days we’ll fix it up
One of the most beautiful spots on the property is the main trail leading to the upper meadow
there are several trail options once you reach the upper meadow – wander through or take one of several trails around
Through the other side of the meadow the trail changes suddenly as you enter a pine forest. The shade and acidity of the pine needles eliminate almost all ground cover.
We call this part of the trail the black forest – even on a sunny day not much sun hits the ground. The ground is soft with all the pine needles.
at the fork in the trail for some reason we always go right and come back on the trail to the left. We’ll have to try it the other way around sometime…
At the edge of the property there are beautiful views of the neighbors fields
There are obstacles along the way that make the trail a little curvy
and others that you can just walk under. This tree is about 6.5 feet off the ground and we will put some swings on it and a rope walk on top of it after we add some extra supports.
Some areas of the trail are lush and green and wander past the mile of rock walls that we have on the property
more rock walls
some areas are almost maze like with the thick green on either side
some trails are big enough to drive the truck through
we call this part of the trail table mesa because this is the log that we are going to use to build our dining room table… because we don’t have enough projects already…
There are some great trails in the lower meadow as well!
Jeanie calls her new favorite trail “fern gulley”
part of the lower meadow
The trail to fern gully from the lower meadow
Winter hiking on the trails is also fun!

It is amazing what you can do when you get rid of cable…