Trail Adventures: Broemmelsiek Park

After only managing on ride last week and then three straight days of putting up hay Wed-Fri (400+ bales up in my neighbor's barn, whee! not bad considering how little daylight there is after work), I was jonesing to trail ride on Saturday. But first I had to run to the grain store for a feed room restock, and then also pop one of my car tires into town for a patch (boo). While I ran those errands, DH was helping the neighbor with some Gator maintenance, so we ended up getting a pretty late start Saturday. Which ended up being for the best, because it was UNSEASONABLY warm Saturday, in the 80s (yo Missouri, it's mid-October, you can give us fall weather any time now). 

After I sent this photo to my friends
Friend: he looks really unenthused about this
Me: no that's just his face, totally normal, don't worry... lol

I had been keeping Broemmelsiek Park in my back pocket as someplace I wanted to try when the time was right, and Saturday seemed like the perfect day. I think in terms of actual mileage, it's a smidge further than Indian Camp Creek, but the drive is far easier (the last few miles to get to ICC feature some really gnarly roads if you're hauling a trailer -- they're not nearly as bad with the new truck, but I haaaaaaated trying to navigate them with the diesel). The drive was easy and there was only one other trailer in the parking lot when we got there, which surprised me. However, we saw TONS of horse poop on the trail so maybe everyone else just rode earlier in the day! Haha. 

Not far into the trail, we hit our first creek crossing, leading DH to ask me if all the St. Charles county trails had a mandatory creek crossing to start off with to weed out the horses that didn't really want to trail ride... lol. 

Bringing up the rear. The usual. 

Starting to see some hints of fall colors. 

So lovely!

Most of the trail was nice dirt singletrack, although there were some rockier sections. 

Broemmelsiek is also in St. Charles County, and was marked/maintained pretty identically to ICC -- good footing, some water crossings, open fields to cross, and super nice bathrooms if you need a break on the trail, lol. Lots of pedestrian/cyclist traffic, but everyone we ran into was polite and we all took turns yielding the trail depending on what the terrain was like and who could most easily get off the trail. No off-leash dogs this time, thank goodness! 

Through one of the fields

The leaves are really starting to turn so the fall foliage was the real highlight of this trip! I'm still not entirely sure my phone camera began to do it justice, but it's what I have, so enjoy! Sorry not sorry the next series of photos is a little repetitive, it was just SO lovely! 

The trail didn't take us super close to the lake, but they had some good colors. 

We ended up riding about 6 miles, which was plenty for the horses, considering it was still a pretty warm day (even though we rode after the heat of midday). It would have been a good day for a splash in the creek crossings, but they were down pretty low. We haven't had a lot of rain lately so things are pretty dry, so I wonder if they're more full in the spring or after a heavy rainfall. Although Broemmelsiek, like ICC, is closed after a lot of rain (there's a number you have to call to make sure the trail is open). 

Delicious fields for a bit of canter!

More pretty fall colors

Off roading a little bit to let the horses splash in the creek and have a chance to drink. 

Trying to decide if I should re-roach or let her keep a dressage length mane. 

Perfect timing to end the ride, headed home before the sun set. 

My husband snapped a few photos of me in the really pretty trail section. Unfortunately, his phone sucks. So enjoy this dark blob that is definitely me and Ruby?

On the way home, we passed a huge (relatively) new Rural King. DH was looking for a very specific tractor piece for a finish mower he was rehabbing, so we swung through. I checked that the horses had plenty of hay (they did), and we ran inside for some quick shopping. Oh my gosh, I wish we had a Rural King where I live instead of just Tractor Supply! This place was AMAZE-BALLS. I hadn't been to one since growing up in STL many years ago. 

Bunnies!

Francois 2.0? Except they postponed ticket sales for Land Rover next year, booooooo covid. 

If I didn't already have three teal pitchfork heads at home I definitely would have bought this.

Did buy a teal insulated wine tumbler, since I don't have any of those... lol. 

All in all, a really nice impromptu trail trip! Stay tuned to see if I managed any more riding on my three-day weekend....