Foxtrotting Trail Riders Of Tennessee: Felix Walter Memorial FoxTROT National Trail Ride June 19-23, 2013

The Felix Walter Memorial FoxTROT National Trail Ride took place June 19-23 at beautiful Orchard Cove Stables in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. This trail ride was renamed this year in honor of Felix Walter, who we lost last November. Felix was an original member of FoxTROT and Sam Gerhardt brags on how much Felix and Rose means to the group. It was an honor to be able to participate in this trail ride.

FoxTROT once again had a multi-state assemblage of riders with the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee represented. Orchard Cove was sold out well in advance of the trip and was filled to capacity with horses and riders alike. On Thursday, the group took the familiar trek up the hill and into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to ride the School House Gap Trail. On Friday, the first round of loading the trailers with horses and cars with people was completed with the destination being the back side of Cades Cove to make the ride up to Gregory Bald. On Saturday, the trailers were loaded once again and the group was off to Tremont to ride the loop. After riding up the mountain at Tremont and a stop to walk to the waterfall, one group began the return trip back the same trail while the other group continued up and over the mountain to complete the loop. We easily could have done without the axle failure on the one horse trailer, but the important thing was everyone made it back safely.