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Ride a Mule Across the Second Oldest River in the World

Published July 13, 2024

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

Howdy Sunday. I hope you’ve having a good weekend. I’ve been posting the last few weeks about my mule ramble up the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail, which runs from Elk Garden to Ivanhoe on the New River. Most of those posts and videos showed my mules Brick, Cracker and me traveling through the forest, from old growth white pine groves to controlled burns.

A controlled burn along the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail near Mount Rogers, seen while riding mules Brick and Cracker — A controlled burn in the Mount Rogers area. The uphill side of the road has been burned to clear away underbrush, which allows regeneration to happen. The downhill side hasn’t been burned yet.

Mule Cracker picketed for the night under an old tree along the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail — Cracker picketed out for the night under a tree that’s way older than both of our years and yours put together.

I’m going to mix it up in this post and take you for a ride across the New River. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the New River, it’s the second oldest river in the world (the great grand-daddy in terms of age is the Nile, which I’d love to ride a mule across but probably never will).

I crossed the New River outside Ivanhoe on the last day of my mule ramble. Click on the player below to cross the New River like you’ve never crossed it before.

Read more posts from this ramble: Virginia Highlands Horse Trail.

Before I rode Brick and Cracker the length of the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail, I rode them 2,300 miles from North Carolina to Idaho. That journey became my book Two Mules to Triumph, available on Amazon.

A few years earlier, my wife Julia and I rode a good stretch of the Virginia Highlands Horse Trail together. That became its own adventure. Julia documented that ramble on her blog Saddle Under the Stars and you can read those posts here:

More about mule rambling the Virginia Highlands.

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