Leslie Helm/Real Estate For Trail Riders

Deer hunting has started in earnest with the opening of the annual "rifle season" but horse trails in Big South Fork National Park here in Jamestown, Tennessee are so heavily used that hunters generally avoid this area. Trail riders wear orange and continue riding throughout the fall hunting season, something they dare not do in other states!

Well, rode hard, that's for sure! The weather in Jamestown, Tennessee has been so spectacular for the past few days that anyone who could be out riding in the Big South Fork has been out riding! It has been 70 degrees with no humidity, no gnats, no horseflies, just clear fall weather. The leaves are off the trees and riders can really appreciate the spectacular topography in this part of Tennessee.

What could be better than setting out early in the morning for a day of exploring with good friends and good food packed in your saddlebags? And a good horse; a calm, obedient, experienced trail horse that is your partner in the day's adventure?

This is rugged country but the trails in Big South Fork National Park are varied so there is something for everyone. Jack's Ridge Loop and the White Oak are relatively level and wide, with good footing and no surprises. On Saturday, we chose something much more adventurous, fording the North White Oak Creek and heading for Eye of the Needle, a cave with an old wooden ladder down into the crypt. Not wanting to backtrack, we queried someone who had just come up from the O&W railbed far below where we might cross back over. He asked, "You got Drill-Tek?" That is something farriers put on horseshoes to provide traction on rock....which should have been my first clue that the going was not going to be easy! We've had eight months of uncommonly rainy weather and many trails are severely eroded so this difficult trail was in worse shape than it might have been otherwise. We were forced to dismount and proceed with caution, step by step, leading the horses on a long rein. That's the part where you really appreciate having a horse so attuned to you that he will wait for you to say, "Step up," taking only one step and waiting for your next command.

The horse I was riding is Luc, my "real estate horse," the horse I can put customers on when they say, "I'd love to see the trails in Big South Fork!" I bought him in eastern Tennessee last December as a 3-year-old. He had been ridden around "in the dooryard" by little kids but had NEVER been ridden on the trail...any trail! I've put a lot of "mileage" on him in the past year and he is as dependable as they come. I was awed and grateful to have him as my companion that day! We came dragging in just at dark, tired, dirty, disheveled and hungry with muddy horses and filthy tack...so we must have had a really good time!

On Sunday, we left from Bandy Creek and did about a 5-hour loop, stopping to eat lunch on an old wooden footbridge over a beautiful stream before tackling the switchbacks on the steep Fort Ridge Trail. My riding buddies and I each have two horses so, on Sunday, we rode a fresh horse and Saturday's horses got to stay home and eat hay in the sunshine.

On Monday, we gaited down the O&W, along the North White Oak Creek, until we came to one of our favorite lunch spots, a big flat rock jutting out into the water. After making our way up the steep and rocky Little Cliff Trail, we ran into Wally Linder, Supervisor of Trail Maintenance for the Big South Fork National Park. He warned us that we'd encounter a bulldozer just ahead and we discovered, to our surprise and delight, that Darrow Ridge Road had been graded as far as we could see and looked like The Yellow Brick Road. We gaited for miles through the pines; what a pleasure!

Big South Fork National Park is called "The Trail Riding Capital of the Southeast"...with good reason!

For information about Big South Fork real estate or horse properties, go to www.trailridersrealestate.com

A couple of months ago, I put my beloved little Verizon Razr in the pocket of a shirt and then washed the shirt....with predictable results! Off I went to the Verizon store and I came out, a bit lighter in the wallet, with a Blackberry Storm. It's a so-called "smart phone" and I have to tell ya', even if you're smarter than it is, there's a steeeeep learning curve!

Over a period of time, Blackberry and and I came to terms...had a meeting of the minds, if you will. I grew to quite like it, using the camera several times a day, receiving and sending email and texting, getting info from Google.

This past weekend, Blackberry suffered an unfortunate accident.

I was riding with several friends in Big South Fork National Park. We had gone exploring, crossing the river into Allardt and hoping to end up, eventually, at Eye Of The Needle. At one point, we stopped at Panther Branch to water the horses and I decided to consult the map. My horse availed himself of the opportunity to shake, as horses do, and my friend exclaimed,"Something just fell into the stream! It's right by his foot." I looked down but did not see anything of any consequence in the muddy water.

Well, when the mud settled and the water cleared, there was Blackberry, laying face up in about a foot of water, looking up at me. It must have just flown out of my opened saddle bag when the horse shook himself. I was so shocked that I could only sit and stare, in disbelief and total dismay. My riding buddy, Janice, leaped off her horse and snatched it up but it had been submerged for several minutes and seemed to be...well....DOA.

Now I'm off to the Verizon store again...where they're getting to know me pretty well.

For information about Big South Fork real estate or horse properties, go to www.trailridersrealestate.com

Someone must have put a sign in the woods that reads "Free Cat Food At 515 Trailhead Lane" because I am overrun with raccoons! I have had a raccoon every night for eight nights and not the same raccoon, either! Some nights there's more than one!

My outdoor cats have to come in for "bed check" and they sleep in safety on the screened porch where they have dry food and clean water. In the winter, they have heated beds and a heated water bowl.

They aren't afraid of the raccoons and the raccoons aren't interested in them, only in their food. The cats seriously object, though, to the raccoons washing their hands in the water bowl and leaving it full of sand!

So, it's clear....the raccoons have gotta go. For eight nights straight, a raccoon has been caught in a Havahart trap and...um...escorted to the border and deported. Passport revoked so he can't return.

They have been taken, one by one, through the gorge and across the Big South Fork River where they were zapped with yellow spray paint and released. That way we can tell if they have made their way back, as I'm told they will.

If I end up with a raccoon coat, it will already have paint on it so the anti-fur folks won't even have to harass me!

There's a new real estate agency in Jamestown, Tennessee but they're not "the new kid on the block." TRP has long been a fixture here in the Big South Fork area but they're expanding their real estate services beyond marketing and selling properties in The Highlands, Hitchin' Post at Hunter's Ridge, Vista Pointe at Island in the Sky, Nichol Creek Farms and River Park, to becoming a full-service real estate agency, listing, marketing and selling properties all over the Big South Fork area.

With their considerable resources, they will be the premier source for equestrian and country living properties on the Cumberland Plateau and these elegant glossy black signs will point the way.

Principal Broker, Sue Neff, is a Landscape Architect by training and was, in fact, Project Engineer for Big South Fork National Park during her career with the US Army Corps of Engineers. She and her husband, Brad, have four horses themselves and are experienced trail riders, having ridden and mapped trails all over the Cumberland Plateau.

She recruited me from another agency to come and work with her because we share the same committment and have the same high standards. There is so much energy and so many good ideas at Tennessee Recreational Properties that the decision made itself.

I work as a realtor full time and I also ride ALOT. I live in Spruce Creek, an equestrian community that abuts Big South Fork, so I certainly understand horses, horse properties, horse people, trails and trailheads!

The Big South Fork is considered the best trail riding east of the Mississippi and is called "The Trail Riding Capital of the Southeast. When you're ready to look at Big South Fork real estate and live where you love to ride, you'll want to work with us at Tennessee Recreational Properties! We're headquarted in elegant, upscale offices at The Highlands, an equestrian community with 35 miles of trails throughout, halfway between Jamestown and the Big South Fork National Park itself.

For information about Big South Fork real estate or horse properties, go to www.trailridersrealestate.com