Happy Camp Season!!

Happy Fall Y'all! I am so excited to be taking my first camp weekend of the season this coming weekend!! September 27th-29th at Sportsman's Lake! I plan to enjoy the weather, rack a good bit of mileage and do some trimming! I will be arriving about 11-12ish Friday and after I get camp set up, I plan to get a quick ride in and get started on the trimming session. I will focus more on riding saturday since my friend Cade will be joining us but trimming the face slappers along the way. Sunday I will do more trimming on our ride that day before we wrap the weekend up. I have no set trails that will or will not be trimmed as they all need it in several spots. I will try to post pictures of before and after at the heavy areas and make waypoints on the map so that the TA's know where I have trimmed up at so they can hit other areas.

I did talk with Katheryn on one of the trails though for what the future held for it if any. The trail in question is where 1 and 2 split at Quicksand when you have crossed it leaving from camp- That bay floods pretty well and it stays super grown up and not many ride it so from the sounds of it, it is going to be abandoned for our safety as I agree it should.

I will however focus most of my trimming on the 1&2 side of the trail system since it has been bad for a while and in my opinion needs the most attention right now.

The last time I rode out there which was September, 14th 2024, I did a little bit of trimming until my loppers ended up breaking mid ride... but I clipped some of those biting briars, moved some trees that had fell on the trail, clipped some knee and face slappers that were hanging into the trail.

Speaking of loppers though, I posted a review video after the brand was recommended to me by a fellow rider, Brenda, she had recommended the Fiskars 2x- my lowes did not carry them so I went with the Corona brand of pruners because they didn't have actual loppers that were shorter on the handle for easy carry for saddle bags. I have a folding saw by Corona and that little thing is awesome and I absolutely love it!! But the pruners I bought did not last at all and were only 2 days old!! I was not a happy camper! Especially because they were $20 pruners too! After that experience, I chose to order off of Amazon and ordered the Fiskar 15" power gear super pruner/garden lopper that cuts up to 1.25" limbs and the Fiskar bypass pruning shears that can cut up to 5/8" diameter. These both have a Life time warranty on them as well!

The 15" loppers were $23.99 originally $38.99 on amazon (i guess they are on sale right now) https://a.co/d/hvFaCzg

The bypass pruning shears are $13.98 originally $20.99 (again on sale right now) https://a.co/d/6ch620X

My favorite are the 15" loppers out of the 2- they are so easy to use, even my 5 year old was using them, and he is a small 5 year old lol He only weighs 40lbs... I had originally gave him the pruning shears to cut green tall flower stalks and he was having issues doing so with those even with them being within the cutting rating so I gave him the loppers and with very minimal effort he was able to cut them.

I have a bad shoulder and cutting the thicker branches with normal loppers tires me out pretty quick and puts a lot of strain on my shoulder, with these, not only are they light weight to even carry, the bottom jaw is a wide base, and holds the branch level in the jaws to cut which makes it easier to get that straight cut and not have it slip at an angle where it makes it hard to cut like so with normal loppers. The overall design with these, even with dead/semi dead branches, it cuts super easy. Again, lightweight and the perfect size to throw in the horn or saddle bag or even tie to your saddle.

I have not used the hand pruners yet for cutting larger stuff, but they too were still pretty easy to use, but I for sure favor using the 15" loppers.

I posted the links for amazon purchase of these loppers, but i do not get any commission off of this- I only note this because I have had people wonder. I do all of these reviews/ volunteer work on my own time/money. I do not get or look for commission. Its just my passion!

My next Trip is out at Robber's Cave out in Wilburton OK October 9-13. I will be camping there with a large group of friends and we will be on side A/north west side of the campground. I will be mapping out what we ride along the way on GAIA but there is a lot so it will take a lot of time to map all of this out- But I'm going to try and plan my rides out so I can get some ideal mileage loops- I have a pdf of the map on here that kind of gives some ideas on mileage but its only a couple of loops. I will have the waypoints on here as the letters and numbers as they fall on the map.

As i get this made, I will post it but it will not be all of the trails So please still carry a paper map with you!! I have a great paper map/pdf map available here on my blog that has all the trails and what is hiking and has all of the labels on it as well. It is combined from the old map i created and the new map that the park created.

My Next weekend trip is going to be back out at Sportsmans November 8-11th. There is no plan for this ride yet just enjoying the ride!

I will be out during day trips several times between now and all of these trips to just ride. I hope to haul at least one day out of the weekend. I am also hoping to start getting new places on the roster that I have yet to review.

Keep in mind I also have a list of places that close up for Hunting Season!! Not all close and some that don't allow hunting! https://buckskintrailblogg.wixsite.com/buckskintrailblogs/hunting-season-info

Happy Trails!!!