Leatherwood Mountains - A Review (or a Warning?)

Last week marked my 7th trip to Leatherwood Mtns. This is a place close to home where you can camp with your horses or rent a cabin and all that cool stuff. Almost everyone in the area knows about it, and they either love it or absolutely hate it.

I understand. Completely.

First off, they have a MAZE of a trail network. Like, just LOOK AT THIS.

Secondly, not only do they have a maze, but they have almost ZERO signage. And the signs you do come across are often unreliable and downright WRONG.

Thirdly, they do a poor job w/ maintenance. So it's not uncommon to plan your route, only to come across a wash-out, downed trees, or some other reason that makes you have to turn around.

First Trip, December 2010. Brought 4 horses and stayed in a cabin with a barn at the top of the mountain. My dad planned out all the routes we were going to take, and as far as I know, we didn't get super lost (or maybe my dad just pretended he knew where we were going the whole time??). We did, however get snowed in, the non-4WD Suburban got stuck in a ditch on the one-way road in the snow, and we at least got to ride the horses in the mountains in the snow. So that was nice.

The only picture of someone on a horse we managed to take (we weren't skilled at taking photos while on horseback then, haha).

Snowy mountains (view from our cabin).

Horses in the snow.

Second Trip, May 2012. Brought our crappy first camper (the one that caught fire)(not on this trip, though)(which I think I forgot to mention in my fire post...tragic) and our 4 horses. We stayed at the river campground with horses in the barn across the road. Nugget fell off the mountain (because he has no brakes and was a bit cooky in the head) and ended up lame. Had to take him to the vet when we got home and put on stall rest (he did eventually heal fine).

The Ambush Trail (super fun).

Camping right beside the river <3

Nugget doing his thing....NOT walking.

Third Trip, May 2015. For my "graduation party slash birthday party" sorta thing, we went with some friends and did a big ol' horse camping trip. Stayed at the campground with a total of 8 equines. This is the first trip where I know for a fact that we got lost on two seperate rides and ended up just finding a road and taking it back down the mountain both times. Spirit choked on his grain and had to be taken to the vet mid-trip (he came back later that day and was fine, though we didn't ride him out on the mtn again).

The barns (view from the campground).

Heading out to the trails!

Tip-toing around the rocky creek.

Fourth Trip, December 2016. Just the family going for a quick trip. Rented a cabin at the far, far end of the mountain, and kept the horses down at the main barn. Pretty laid back and short trip, we did some new trails. A decision was made that Cord was getting too old for trips like this. Another decision to buy some breeching was made when Pepper's saddle ended up at his ears on a long downhill.

Up on the mountain in the dark, looking down at the lights from the trail barn at the bottom.

Taking a break on one of the steeper portions.

Running along a ridgeline.

Fifth Trip, May 2017. Me, Mars Evan, and Sarah went on our own for a "riding and writing retreat". Stayed in a cute little "cabin and barn" combo building which was really cool. Found a trail that went straight up and ended up turning around half-way bc it kept GOING UP. Actually had a lovely time, though getting a 4-horse trailer turned around in the tiny mountain cabin driveway was rather challenging and left a nice dent in the red trailer. There was a obstacle clinic going on at the main barn at the time, and they let us ride our horses through the course....bc we showed up that evening while going for a quick bareback stroll....

Tree down on the trail - Mars and Sarah lifted it up while I led the horses underneath it.

Going up another steep climb.

Coming back down the mountain.

Sixth Trip, May 2020. Due to covid, I was no longer working, so a friend and I planned a trip. We rented a cabin down at the main barn and went for a few days. Got lost once, and got re-routed due to poor trail conditions almost every time. My mom came and hiked along with us once, and Sarah and Joe came up for a run as well. Our two horses were very well behaved and we enjoyed the trip.

Letting the young-un's go for a ride.

Coming down the hill.

Our little cabin down at the bottom of the mountain.

Seventh Trip, March 2021. Camped at the trail barn across the river (for the first time). After the first ride, Shadow coliced and I stayed up late into the night watching him before deciding to drive him to the vet in the wee hours of the morning. After the vet said he was good (but would need to stay for a few days under surveillance) I went back to camp, had breakfast, and we went out again (but one horse short). We took turns walking and/or riding double. But otherwise, had a good trip. (And Shadow is home now, doing quite well.)

Pulling into ride camp across the river.

Whoops!! We just went down a "double black diamond" trail! (In our defense, there wasn't a sign at the other end....)

Our awesome trail mount line-up!

So, what'cha'll think?? A place you'd like to come experience? Or pass up? MWAHAHAHAHA

June Wrap-Up

SOME AWESOME SHIPS, SECRETS, AND SURVIVORS STUFF IS COMING UP but first let's talk about June...

First things first, I got a new bookkeeping job, which is cool. For a local restaurant, run by a local couple. I get to open carry every day, so I basically get to swagger around the place with paperwork and a handgun and look Important. But now my schedule is different and it's throwing me through some loopholes. Hence the short and sweet blog posts and frequent absence on Instagram.

Second things...we sent out a call for folks who want to help with the cover reveal for Ships, Secrets and Survivors (yes, I'm going to mention that book as often as I can now).

So we moved the little pigs into the pasture with the big pigs. And the big guys adopted the tiny ones. :)

A friend and I camped overnight and rode 15 miles.

Went for a ride with Pepper and Max in the rain.

Max got a bath.

A clean puppers gets to stay in the house and help me draw a map.

Hitched Pepper up to the cart and went for a drive (with Max).

Did a Ride and Tie with a friend and her horse (she took the photo).

Going for a drive with my boys.

Did a Ride and Tie with Sister 2. She can't wait to do a "real" race, haha.

Hope y'all got your fill of Pepper and Max. Cuz in July you're going to hear a lot about Ravin and Adi and the Red Wind and PIRATES and TALKING SHIPS and ASSASSINS and the CAPTAIN OF THE SEAS HIMSELF.

 

May Wrap-Up

Guess who barely noticed that May has finally come and gone? Me.

Anyways, my month was super busy. Lots of farm work. Lots of editing. I got a new bookkeeping job, so that's cool. Read a bunch.

Thanks to some fun farm happenings we now have:

1 horse (Pepper)

2 dogs (Louie and Max)

2 cats (Spice and Ragnar)

3 cows (Susan, Sweetie, and Sir Loin)

3 big pigs (unnamed, haha)

4 little pigs (Itch, Hen Wen, Bee, and Red)

20ish egg laying chickens

3 roosters

3 hives of honey bees

1 useless white male duck

1 useless mallard duck

20 meat chickens

10 baby turkeys

60 baby chickens of some weird french breed that my dad randomly ordered

Oh, and some fish in a tank that my mom takes care of.

And approximately only ONE HALF OF THE BARN ROOF (and did y'all know that NC has been getting a crazy amount of rain this month????)

So THAT IS WHY I AM SO BUSY GUYSSSS

Met up with Evan and Sarah for a hike - first time seeing each other since the virus stuff happened.

I WENT HORSE CAMPING

My mom doesn't ride, so she hiked while Jennifer and I rode our horses.

Some of the steep mountain trails.

Sarah and Joe stopped by for a few hours and we went for a hike.

 

Jennifer's girls also came for an afternoon and they got to ride while we hiked with them.

Taking the horse trailer through the drive-thru because we couldn't park and go inside...

Max went on his first trail ride and did splendidly!

  

Such a well behaved puppy!!! <3

The new little piggies!

Going for a drive before the rain returns... 

Cows, horses, and the big pigs out in the pasture enjoying it *not* raining for the moment...

Max enjoying a gator ride.

Ragnar in the flowers.

Busy bees, haha.

I trailered Pepper up to VA and we did a nice 10 miles together.

Hope everyone else had a lovely May. I'm worn out...fixing the barn roof, feeding all the animals, nursing a sick pig, doing a 100 mile virtual race with Pepper, finishing a round of edits on a CERTAIN BOOK THAT SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS BUT I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT, and trying new kinds of teas because JUSTIN THATS WHY.

One vs More

So some of y'all may already know this...but I currently only have one horse.

And coming from a girl who loved having 5-7 horses on the property...from a girl who dreams about owning allllllll kinds of different horses...from a girl who has been caring for ~4 horses for a few years now...it's weird to say this, but...

It's kind of nice only having one horse.

For one thing, my vet/farrier/feed costs have gone waaaaaaaaaay down.

Chores take less time.

And, ultimately, I have more time to spend with Pepper.

I no longer have to juggle which horses I need to ride, or beg friends/family to help me get them all ridden. I just...hop on Pepper and go.

It's nice. Less stressful. But at the back of my mind, I miss having all those horses in the pasture. I think of all the horses I could have, and wish I had tons of money to buy and care for them all.

I need to remember...having more horses will not make me happier. Having more horses will not make me a better horsewoman. Having more horses doesn't even make me more "cool" of a person.

What makes me happy is finishing a quick 4 mile ride with Pepper and realizing he was perfectly behaved for the whole trip. What makes me a better horsewoman is seeing how Pepper wasn't so well behaved when I purchased him, and he's only this way after years of me working with him. What makes me "cool" is that I have a well behaved horse that I trained myself.

I feel like this can be applied to writing.

We pride ourselves on all our stories. Our multi-book series WIPs that we are editing. The new idea that just we started fleshing out. That 200,000+ word draft we just completed. We love thinking about and talking about and fangirling about alllllll our stories.

But I think we all could benefit from taking a step back and thinking about something.

I have a friend who half a year ago, owned 9 horses/ponies. She was always begging me to come over and help ride them. She was paying tons of money for shoes and feed and was only riding each horse maybe once or twice on each new set of shoes/hoof trims. And her horses could be a handful because they weren't getting out a lot.

I have another friend who owns one horse. She rides him once or twice a week, and he is super calm and well behaved and is in pretty good shape.

Now think about all your WIPs.

Do you have a ton of them that are begging for your attention? Are you chipping away at all of them, working on each one a page at a time? Maybe some edits on this book here...some drafting another book there...now worldbuilding a third book for a little bit...all the while telling yourself someday these will all be published and it will be awesome!

My friend knew all her horses were good horses...but she just didn't have the time to devote riding all of them.

Currently she has her numbers down to 6, and is probably going to get them down to 4 by the end of spring, leaving her with 2 good horses and 2 good ponies for her kids.

It wasn't easy for her. But she's already happier and less stressed, knowing she can spend more time riding the few she has.

Are you the one ricocheting between all your WIPs, while another person has published one book and is starting on another new story? Are you tired of never reaching the end and having so many projects halfway finished?

I think we can all benefit from sitting back and saying...I will get all of these done someday, but I need to do it one at a time.

I love all my WIPs. My plan is to have them all published someday. But I picked my favorite and I'm pushing it with all I've got. That will soon be finished, and finished completely. Then I can pick back up with the next thing.

I miss 2018, when I had 4 horses. But I am also looking forward to spending all my evenings and Saturdays riding Pepper, or even helping friends get all their horses ridden. It wasn't easy...but I think it's for the best.

I miss the days when I was working on alllll the stories...but I am looking forward to completely wrapping up The Red War Trilogy this year and having that under my belt so I can begin the next adventure.

What about y'all? Do you need to sit back and decide...it may not be easy, but it might be time to put down everything but one story...and begin the long and slow march to finish one book at a time.

Writing only one book at a time does not make you less of a writer. It helps you to be a more focused writer. And it may be the faster path to you being a published writer.

I don't tell people about the 15 unfinished drafts I have. I tell them "I have one published piece of flash fiction, and a fantasy trilogy that is currently out with a few publishing houses."

And that's what I'm working on.

What about y'all? If I asked the dreaded oh, you're a writer? What are you working on? question...what kind of an answer would I get? Drop it below in the comments!