From: HAROLD & ELAINE WILSON
10/30/2005 After 8+ Years of Trail Reports - This is a First.

While we were sitting around the campfire Saturday night, someone said that they couldn’t wait to read our report on this ride. I said that I had been thinking about that and I thought I would just describe the people and what we had to eat and let our readers interpret the omission of any description of the ride or facility.

Lee Lawrence said he hated to challenge me, considering that I always feed him, but that he felt that Harold and I have an obligation to tell the whole truth to our “followers”. He said he could name numerous times he has gone to particular trail ride, with confidence, based solely on our recommendation and he knew others had done the same thing. He felt an omission would amount to an endorsement. This got me to thinking about our relationship with, and obligations to, our readers.

I do know that our newsletters have helped publicize and increase business at several new trail ride facilities in Alabama, because the owners have told us so. I also know that riders from out of state have also patronized some of these businesses based on our personal recommendations. This is a compliment to us and we do feel an obligation to be honest.

Similar to the movie critics, Siskel and Ebert, I guess Harold and I have become trail ride critics. When we go on a ride, we pay our fees just like everyone else. We have never solicited or accepted free camping or any other ‘perks’. We have no monetary interest in any trail ride business. Nor are there any fees associated with being a member of AlabamaTrailRider. We just go on rides and write a report.

So, for the first time in 8+ years of writing ride reports, we are not recommending Bear John Hollow to our readers, based on our personal experiences there this past weekend.

My biggest complaint is with the management.

When I called on Sept 26th, to make our reservations, I stated that I saw they were having an organized ride on Oct 8th and asked if they had anything on the calendar for the weekend of Oct 29th. Sammy, the owner, told me no. I told him that was wonderful because we avoid the big rides!

I also told him that his website listed a $5 per day free for hikers and horseback riders. I asked if this was just for ‘day riders’ or if it would apply to us. He said that he would only charge our group $5 each for the whole weekend.

These were very simple questions. There is no way that he could have misunderstood my questions, or for me to have misunderstood his answers.

In addition, when another ATR member called later the same day to make his reservations, he asked about the $5 fee and was told that it was for day riders only and that he would only be charged for his campsite.

I spoke with Sammy, the owner, or David, the manager, at least once a week from the time I made the first reservations, until Thursday, the day before we arrived for the weekend. They had more than ample opportunity to tell me that they had changed the weekend, and the fees, to an organized ride.

Once David called me at home and said that Sammy wanted him to see if there was anything they could do to make sure our group had a good time for our weekend. He also asked if we were the group that wanted a band. I told him no, that our group is often in bed by 9pm. And that while we were serious about riding and eating, we are not a ‘partay’ crowd.

Now that I can reflect on the whole situation, I can’t help but wonder if David didn’t really call to tell me that they had a band, expecting me to be happy about it. And when I said we didn’t want a band, they just didn’t tell me for fear that our whole group would cancel. This is just speculation on my part of course.

When we arrived on Friday, I was told that we had to pay $15 per person for the weekend. I protested and was told that it’s always $15 for an ‘organized’ ride.

I’m very sorry that I didn’t turn around and go on to Warden Station or Hope Country Campground. I had seen Dawn and Dee riding on the far side of the pond and I could see Craig’s rig set up on the pond bank. I also knew that other friends were on the road, some of which I had no cell number to call. But mostly neither of those campgrounds has a cabin for my family members to use and our trailer just can’t sleep six. So I paid the money and hoped the rest of the weekend would be perfect.

On Saturday afternoon, I told Sammy that I didn’t like the way he changed the fees and planned an organized ride after he had assured me that there was NOT an organized ride that weekend. He told me it was his business and he could run it anyway he wanted to.

I told him he was correct and assured him that we’d never have this problem again.

I’m not asking any of you not go to BJH. I’m simply saying that my experience there was not good and I’m not recommending it. I do have some suggestions that you might want to follow to try and prevent repeating the problems we had, if you do go there:

1. Insist on a written reservation confirmation, showing all fees and your campsite number.

2. Be VERY careful coming in the driveway. The driveway is .7 of a mile long. If it were one way instead of one lane, I’d call it picturesque with the curves and little hills. But as it is, I call it dangerous. There are only a couple of places to pull off to allow another vehicle to pass if you meet on the driveway. Sammy told me if a person couldn’t back a trailer 30 feet they should not be driving one!

3. If you don’t have a bathroom in your trailer, you might want to invest in a porta toilet and portable shower to use in your trailer. I’d call their ‘bathhouse’ two bathrooms. There is one for men and one for ladies. Each has one sink, one commode and one shower.

4. There are no stalls or paddocks and very few trees on the pond bank. I was busy with cooking and grandchildren and never went up ‘on the hill’ but I was told that there were more trees up there. If you go to BJH tell them you want a campsite up on the hill, take your own panels, or be prepared to tie your horses to your trailer.

Toni tried to put up her portable electric fence, but the ground was too hard.

And if you tie to your trailer, make sure you don’t park next to a trailer that will tie on the same side you do. Craig ties on the right side of his trailer and our ties are on the left side of ours. Luckily we were able to run a picket line in a small stand of trees about 100 yards down the pond bank from our trailer. But we still had to be careful to make sure the side door did not hit Craig’s horse when we got out hay or feed. Harold sure got his exercise walking down to the picket line.

And make sure all the trailers are parked as close as they can get to the power poles so you’ll be able to open you awning if you want to.

5. If you rent a cabin, ask if it has heat. When I called on Thursday to confirm the cabin reservation, it would have been most considerate to have been warned that the cabin had no heat. Heather could have brought blankets and heaters from home and been prepared. Sammy told her to just open the oven and run it and the burners all night. We did not think that sounded safe. $100 a night without heat and 34 degrees.

Mischelle Park shared the cabin with our girls. She said she could “see daylight” between the pieces of siding. I guess they just haven’t gotten around to caulking it yet.

Terri and Melinda said there was no heat in the bunkhouse either.

6. If you rent a campsite on the pond bank, ask if the hookups have been rewired. Our electricity kept going off all night and a breaker had to be re-set or something. Then it would go off again a short time later. I didn’t think to ask Dawn if that happened up on the hill, or if it was just down by the pond. If it has not been rewired, bring extra blankets and an alternate source of heat for your trailers. I don’t know much about electricity, but it looked to me like they had two trailers using the same plug that we usually use for just one trailer at other campgrounds. I did hear someone say it was 20 amps, whatever that means.

7. If your horse will spook under a bridge, you might want to lead it under Hwy 231 on the way to the waterfall.

8. If your horse will spook with loose horses running around, you might want to walk between the gates across the pasture up on the bluff on the backside of the cabins. I actually enjoyed the walk and got my exercise for the day!

9. You might want to get your farrier put borium on your shoes so you won’t slip and slide coming down the driveway from the top.

10. If you don’t want to risk slipping on the driveway, ask if the Snowy River descent is marked. It is hard to find if you don’t know where it is. Or hopefully you won’t have Harold’s aversion to making a u-turn and just coming back the same way you went it.

10. If you ride gaited horses, like we do, at least you won’t have to worry about packing lunches or snacks. I think all the trials make a circle back to camp and you’ll be back often enough to just get something good and cold out of your cooler.

11. If you have young children with you, watch them closely in camp. There were numerous times that horses were running through camp. Several times it was one of the guides. One was thrown while he was using his hat to slap a horse to get it into the lake.

My single biggest disappointment of the whole weekend was seeing Heather and Hannah pull out Saturday afternoon. Hannah has had two bad colds and missed two weeks of school this year and Heather cold not risk her getting sick from sleeping in that cold cabin again. I would have gladly stayed in the cabin and let her have our trailer, but she wasn’t convinced that it would be warm either!

Most of our group was very disappointed in the ride and management, but as you will notice in the photos, it didn’t dampen our spirits at dinner on Friday and Saturday nights!

For dinner on Friday night, I made “Really Loaded Potato Soup” and cornbread muffins. Betty Pierce made Brunswick stew and Debi Houston made Chili. Dawn Ringer made a huge Peach Cobbler and Melinda Lovely brought a pretty Halloween decorated cake. Heather brought a wonderful Carrot Cake from Cracker Barrel. Others contributed drinks, crackers and toppings for the soup and chili.

Saturday night was ‘bring your own steak’ night. Lee Lawrence and Toni Prater manned the grills while the rest of us set up our buffet table. To accompany our steaks were baked potatoes, creamed corn, green beans with new potatoes, cole slaw and garlic bread.

Deb Busby made Harold a beautiful cake for his 62nd birthday. I’m not sure it is possible, but I think it tasted even better than it looked! The made from scratch German Chocolate layers were filled with coconut-pecan frosting. And the outside was decorated to look like his ‘signature orange jumpsuit, complete with two Godiva Chocolate cigars in the pocket! It was so pretty I really hated to cut it.

Dawn had brought firewood from home and we had a wonderful campfire for staying warm, visiting and roasting marshmallows after dinner. But you can put this same group anywhere and we’ll eat well and enjoy the fellowship.

We had coffee or hot chocolate with sweet rolls breakfast and them packed our trailer to go home. I needed fuel and we stopped at the Cahaba Valley Road exit in Birmingham. We were overjoyed to find diesel for $2.68 a gallon.

As we looked at the lovely photos on the website of BJH we had discussed that it just might be a great place to have our ATR group ride for the 4th of July. Harold is also looking for a place to host weekend seminars and a week long trail camp. Sadly it didn’t meet our expectations so we are still looking. If you know of a trail camp, reasonably close to central Alabama, let us know and we’ll check it out!

Until next time ..... Don’t just ride ..... G L I D E

Lane

To see the photos from this ride click on the link below, or copy and paste to your browser:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=k4qtmvb.544pw9jz&x=1&y=s2lw72

Please join us at AlabamaTrailRider Group, Click on: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlabamaTrailRider/

Check our calendar of Trail Rides of AlabamaTrailRider at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlabamaTrailRider/cal For info on an event click on the event.

Harold & Elaine Wilson
SOUTHERN PRIDE HORSE & MULE FARM
VISIT OUR PHOTO SITE OF PERUVIAN HORSES & MULE FOR SALE: http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?m=63311036103&n=483863709. Info below photos.

Please join us at AlabamaTrailRider Group, Click on: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlabamaTrailRider/

Check our calendar of Trail Rides of AlabamaTrailRider at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlabamaTrailRider/cal For info on an event click on the event.

Harold & Elaine Wilson
SOUTHERN PRIDE HORSE & MULE FARM
VISIT OUR PHOTO SITE OF PERUVIAN HORSES & MULE FOR SALE: http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?m=63311036103&n=483863709. Info below photos.