The weather gave us a great week to work on trails at Brown County. Greg Hersberger headed up the chain saw crews and cleared all the trails of downed trees and also cleared leaning and dead trees that looked like they could potentially come down in a high wind.
The Jr. ITRA crew, Gracie, Taylor and Emily, cleaned the campground on Saturday. I know it was hard for members to not pick up any existing trash throughout the week but they did and the kids did their part and were very proud of their accomplishments.
The “Adopt A Road” crew worked their magic in record time on the highway clean up. They are so organized.
Susan Altum, Debbie Maschmeyer and Anna Zupanic in front of our new banner
Sections of trail 6 and 11 were rerouted making them safer.
Mike Shaw, Yvette Rollins, Dave Macsymczak and Sara Davis. Front row. L – R Erin Macsymczak, Monica Oliver and Nancy Brunnemer. Duane Davis Photographer.
Mike Shaw and Sara Davis
Trail 6 crosses the new trail that will take the place of the section of H trail that comes down the side of the hill and is eroding to the point of being extremely dangerous especially to inexperienced riders or young horses in training that haven’t figured out how to go downhill very well with a lot of weight on their backs. Please do not ride on the new trail that the Indiana Heritage Corp is putting in until it is done. It is marked with red ribbons. You will see a new bench, hitching rail and mounting block on trail H as a tribute to Chelsea Lovett, the Indiana Heritage Corp worker who died when a tree fell on her as she was working her weekend job leading trail rides from the Saddle Barn. The bench will be engraved in her memory.
The pitch-in at the Strahl Lake Shelter house was well attended and the food was great. Doug Baird, Brown County Property Manager, attended and thanked us for all our hard work and dedication to the trails in Brown County. Doug definitely looks different when he is not dressed in his DNR uniform. Thank you to Scotty Eskridge and Dave Maksymczak for getting the shelter house ready and for John who supplied all the firewood we needed for the week.
Before we all left for Brown County and the workweek and weekend I got a very nice invitation from Story Inn that I wanted to share with everyone so a part of it is included below. I tested this on Friday and Saturday. I had my two underage granddaughters with me on Friday and they could not enter the bar so we went upstairs and I asked if we could still order from the bar menu with the discount and they were very happy to accommodate us and were very gracious. While I was there I asked if long time member Chris Eickleberry still worked there and they said no. She had knee surgery a couple of years ago and was not able to come back but they paid her the nicest compliment and said she was one heck of a great worker so Chris I hope you are reading this.
Hello All,
We’ve been informed that your organization will be conducting your Annual Park Clean-up In Brown County State Park this coming weekend after Thanksgiving Day.
We’d like to remind you and all of your members that the Story Inn will be open all weekend for our regular hours and the Story Inn Tavern will be open at noon Friday, Saturday and Sunday for your enjoyment.
In thanks for your groups hard work, come in for a visit and we’ll give you 10% off your bar food for your help in making Brown County a great place to relax and enjoy the outdoors.
Thanks and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
The Story Inn
I thought this was very nice of them to send us this invitation, which I sent out on the EDGe, and there are plenty of hitching rails now to accommodate the horses along with picnic tables and a nice mounting block.
It is so sad when everyone packs up and goes their separate ways knowing it is the end of the days of long riding with fair weather and we may not see each other again for another year.