Archives for July 2010

We started the ride today thinking we’d take two short rides over the weekend, today and tomorrow, but open to the possibility, if Hubby felt okay, to make it a long ride today and rest tomorrow. It turned into an interminable trail we wished would just END! Here it is in a nutshell: sunny, rocks, rocks, stopped to put boots on, more rocks, rocks, then bog, then bog with rocks, hikers, more rocks, more hikers, more hikers (turned out to be a three-mile long stream of three large groups of boy scouts who had camped ten miles away and were hiking back), more bog, short boardwalks over bog, long boardwalk over bog, rocks, cold wind, hail, rain, stopped for lunch, horses grazing on grass, got spooked and ran off, had to walk back half a mile to retrieve them, met up with Hubby (who should have stayed put but didn’t), had lunch, continued on more rocks and bogs, came to a sign, we proceed on, went about two miles before realizing we had misread the map and missed a turn, retraced our steps, past our initial lunch spot, passed our actual lunch spot, past where I caught up with the horses, finally found the turn marked with a itsy-bitsy carved wood sign the same color as the tree it was nailed to, pointing up what looked like a creek bed, which is why we obviously missed it in the first place. Headed up the creek bed, climbing, climbing, climbing (the last thing we needed was higher altitude!), climbing some more, dead trees everywhere, both standing and lying down, looked like a clear cut years ago with no cleanup afterward, truly ugly forest, then we crossed to a ridge, then more climbing, then an intersection with a sign that wasn’t very helpful, (all the signs had trail names, whereas our Forest Service map only had numbers) finally opened into a meadow (with rocks and bogs), weren’t sure which way the trail went, finally realized that piles of rock were the markers, followed those, back in the woods, more rocks, another climb, more meadows, more piles of rock, more dead trees, some across the trail with difficult bypasses, felt like we were going in the wrong direction and for too long, finally found what looked like a turn to the left and took it, more dead trees, more rocks, suddenly opened up into a forest of baby pines with branches that overlapped the trail, sunny again, by now it seems to us as though we have missed at least two left turns and traveled miles farther than we had anticipated, than another look at the map suggested maybe we were actually still on track, just that our travel speed was so slow (probably down to about 1.5 mph from our usual 3 mph) that my calculations were just wrong. I recalculated and estimated we’d find the turn in the next 25-30 minutes, and sure enough, there it was, a stake in the ground saying “China Meadows”, pointing to what looked like a sheer dropoff the mountain. I couldn’t believe that was a trail, but alas, it was. With the horses exhausted, it was a dangerous move, but we had no choice. We headed down the rocky trail (what else), dropping almost straight down for the first 100 feet, then gradually eased, then opened up into a giant field of grass and rocks. Managed to find a few more piles of rocks to follow, finally one had a sign stuck in the middle of it indicated it was an intersection (though the trails weren’t visible at all, and didn’t mention the horse camp or China Meadow, only other trails going off in other directions), managed to keep following rocks until a trail appeared in a small aspen section of forest, stopped to water the horses at a lake, then came to what looked like a fork (with no signs), one that crossed a small creek and the other, more used trail, that followed the creek). We followed the creek, soon realizing it was the creek that we had been getting water from, and we were on the wrong side of it. Found a place to ford that had a trail on the other side, mostly washed out. By now we had seen the campground at the start of the road that leads to the horse camp, so we at least had our bearings. Probably should have taken the creek crossing earlier, but who knew? Trail finally led to an ATV trail (more rocks), and I turned left, Hubby argued we should turn right but I convinced him I knew where we were, and ended up exactly where I thought, at the trailhead. Unfortunately there was a cattle guard, so we had to follow the fence to a break, and ended up right where we started, arriving home at 6:50. It’s the only time we can remember arriving home grateful it was over, and not able to find hardly any redeeming factors on the trail. Granted, our view might have been a little tainted because of the problems with the altitude, but it was by far the worst, rockiest, most uncomfortable, poorly marked and maintained trail ever. Yuck! Hubby could barely walk when he got of his mare, I sent him in to feed the dogs and took care of the horses myself. We struggled through dinner, both took some painkillers, and crashed into bed.

Well, the hat did the trick, I had the best night’s sleep in a week. It seems that it helped equalize my body temp, so instead of going from hot flash to freezing in a matter of moments, I actually kept pretty comfortable all night long, though it was quite cold in the RV this morning. I fed and watered the horses (it was actually warmer outside) while Hubby got breakfast going, though he was still having some problems getting a little short of breath. Because we had to set up in the cold rain yesterday, he took a little chill in his chest, so that exacerbates the problem a bit, so I made some hot oatmeal, then sent him back to bed. I also spent a little time working on his mare’s front hooves, they were due for a trim. Meanwhile, a number of large horse trailers have arrived, and a group or two have gone off for a trail ride. I don’t know if they’re staying for the weekend or if they are just here for the day, we’ll soon find out. During the afternoon, I decided to do a good deed and spend some time doing some “yard work.” So many trees had been cut down, and no cleanup had been done, so there was thousands of sticks and branches all over the ground, so many that it actually made it hard to walk from the RV to the horse corrals, even though they’re only 50 feet away. So I started a fire in the fire pit and threw in as much loose stuff as I could, at least getting all the medium-sized and a lot of the smaller stuff burned. Still a bit of a mess, but at least it’s better than before. It tired me out though, with the thin air, so I was ready to come in for dinner. Hubby felt better after having spent more time in bed, so we did a water run, then settled down for the night.

Woke up at 7:00, got packed up and out by 8:30. Crossed country through a bit more interesting terrain on our way to Mountain View, where we stopped at the Forest HQ and got a trail map and a tank of water. Got gas, stopped at a local pharmacy and grocery store for a few things, made a few essential phone calls, then headed south to China Meadows. Though we had to travel from 6800′ to 9400′, it was so gradual that it was no problem at all. The last 20 miles or so was on a dirt and gravel road with a few rough spots, but not bad compared to many that we have been on before. Along the way, the sky went from sunny to stormy, and we ran into some rain. Further along, I noticed patches of white on the ground, and upon closer inspection, realized that it was hail that must have fallen just before we got there. It was definitely cooler by about 20 degrees. Can’t help but think of what a change it will be when we move to Salt Lake City on Monday, where temps are in the low 90’s! Apparently this had once been a really pretty campground, but many of trees had been cut down, and very little cleanup had been done, so it’s pretty ugly at the moment. The corrals are an original design, a large circle cut into triangular sections, like a pie, with each section being big enough for two or three horses (so of course the first thing the big guys did was roll in the soft dirt!). The big problem here is that, despite reassurances from the Forest Service people that water for the horses was “nearby”, that turned out to be a huge exaggeration. The nearest water is a creek that’s a good 100+ yards from the campground, down a steep incline with no vehicle access. In other words, we had no nearby water except if we were trail riding. We finally solved the problem by driving to an easier access point along the creek, about a half mile away, and using our little drill pump (with a new high powered electric drill we had picked, plus the generator) to fill the tubs up, much like we had to do in Wyoming. I still used the portable bucket to speed things up, so it didn’t take long. The only trouble is that at this altitude, it’s really hard on Hubby, who has some breathing problems anyway, so he really has to take his time doing anything, and gets short of breath almost instantly. We’re hoping we’ll both acclimate after a day or two, and will be happy if we get at least one ride in. No trouble getting a satellite signal here, so we settled down for the evening, taking everything nice and slow. Looks like a cold night, so I’m wearing my wool cap to bed!

Woke up in dawn’s early light, sensing something was not quite right. When I peaked out my bedroom window, I saw that our highline had stretch so much overnight that Hubby’s mare had gotten her foot over her lead rope, so we threw some clothes on and went out to get her out of trouble. We tightened the highline by pulling the truck forward a bit, then we both went back to bed. For some reason, we were both feeling very tired. I woke up with a jolt at 8:00, suddenly remembering a bill that should have been paid yesterday, so again I leaped out of bed, got on the computer, which amazingly I had enough of a cell phone signal to get on the internet, and took care of that bill, plus a few others that were coming close. I’ll just have to throw myself on the mercy of the credit card company if they charge me a late fee. (It was a holiday weekend, after all :-). Anyway, I kept busy until about 10:00, but then felt so tired I joined Hubby, who still hadn’t felt rested enough to get out of bed. He got up about an hour later, and I finally got up around noon, having gotten another good hour plus of sleep. Don’t know why we’re so tired, I guess the thin air and the rough trail took more out of us than we thought. Anyway, I got caught up with work, so we decided to just take it easy for the rest of the day. Shortly afterward, clouds rolled in and it started to rain, lightly at first, but then it looked even more threatening with thunder and lightning, so I ran out and put the horses in trailer, luckily just before the rain started getting really heavy. A few minutes after I got back inside, the precipitation turned to into HAIL for several minutes, pounding away so loudly we could hardly hear each other. It didn’t last too long, so I was able to get the horses back out after about an hour. Later in the afternoon we were joined by another RV’er by the name of Wayne, who had three dogs that immediately started sniffing the whole place. Fortunately, nobody minded the horses wandering around, and our dogs got along fine with their dogs, so it was a (thankfully) pleasant encounter. Going to bed early, as tomorrow is a travel day.

Not having a trail map for the immediate area where we were camped, we decided to trailer the horses to the trail I thought would be most interesting, the Canyon Rim Trail, which starts right at the Visitor Center and goes to a roadside overlook. We went inside to get a better trail map than what we had, but theirs was worse than the one I got off the internet. The two people running the place claimed they had never seen horses on that trail, and when asked, they told us it wasn’t very rocky, just “a few big rocks here and there.” Well, I don’t know what they consider rocky, but the only trail that I’ve ever seen that was more rocky was a creek bed! Fortunately, we had our Easy Boots with us, so we stopped and put those on before going very far. Fantastic, incomparable views of Flaming Gorge from this trail. This is an incredible geological anomaly, a huge rift in the earth, exposing a bright red soil that, rumor has it, the pioneers crossing the continent could see more than 50 miles away. Then, of course, we decided to dam off a river and fill it with water. Well not, fill it, but fill the bottom of it, as the canyon walls are very high. Though they had told us in the Visitor Center that is was 9 miles to the overlook at the end of the trail, it was actually only 4.5, so we decided to do the whole thing. Once we got past the views of the gorge, we were on a pretty ordinary trail, other than the rocks, which slowed us down. It started to rain lightly at one point, so out came the ponchos. We reached the overlook just before a thunderstorm brought in some heavier rain, so we put the horses under the covered picnic area (they barely fit), and enjoyed our respective lunches dodging stray raindrops that were being blown in by the strong cold wind. Fortunately, the whole thing only lasted for about 15 minutes, and the wind changed directions and went from cold to warm to just a breeze. We headed back, took an optional loop toward Red Canyon Lodge (where they rent horses, so I REALLY don’t know how those folks at the Visitor Center couldn’t have ever seen horses on that trail), arrived back at the parking area at 5:00, then headed back to the RV for a relaxing evening.

Set the alarm for 7:00 knowing it would be a long drive day today. Of all the places along the route, Southern Wyoming has the longest stretch without a place to horse camp, so we had to push ourselves to get to Flaming Gorge, Utah. The drive along I-80 was one of the most boring we’ve been on, and of course, there had to be a strong headwind today. Our first stop was at the Flying J in Rawlins, where we dumped, got fuel, and had a big breakfast to get us through the rest of the day. We also went to Walmart and Home Depot in Rock Springs to pick up a bunch of things. Finally headed south and gradually climbed out way to Manila, UT, where we picked up water at the ranger station just before heading out to Flaming Gorge. I wasn’t able to reach anyone on the phone there today (forgot it was technically still a holiday weekend), so we were on our own, though I had done enough research previously to know about where we were going. Eventually we came to the place I had seen on Google Earth, just past two small campgrounds on Route 44 at Sheep’s Creek. It’s a pull-out area that leads below the road toward the creek, there are several campsites there. The first one had an entrance that we judged to be just too rough for the RV (if it had been wet, this drive would have required 4 wheel drive), so Hubby went a little further until he found a perfect spot right next to the creek. After some crafty maneuvering to get us level (the first time in months!), we had a gorgeous site. As you can see from the pic, there was an abundant patch of grass, so we decided to let the horses enjoy themselves for a while.
No convenient trees, so we set up a high line stretched between the RV and the horse trailer that will work just fine. We didn’t get finished settling in until nearly 7:30, exhausted, so we went to bed early with plans to ride tomorrow.

We’ve been joined my two more groups, one from Cheyenne that showed up on Friday (and who thought it was perfectly oky to start shooting a high powered rifle in the middle of the camp, scaring our poor little dog Billy half to death!), and another group from Kansas on Saturday (who thought it was perfectly okay to run a generator all night long…), plus the guy and his wife from the Backcountry Riding Club that did the cleanup last week, so it’s not as delightfully quiet as it’s been all week. Took a short ride today, out for about an hour up the Platte Ridge Trail and back again, then just to say we’ve done it, we took the trail that went out of the back of the campground for ¾ of a mile to the creek and back. Spent the afternoon preparing for tomorrow’s departure.

Put this one at or near the top of the list! An absolutely fantastic, almost indescribably wonderful ride today! We started out on the Platte Ridge Trail, the one we started on Wednesday. We again enjoyed the open valley as we gradually inclined toward the top. At the end of the field, we came into the woods. While the woods aren’t terrible attractive because of the damage done by the pine beetles, the trail we delightful nevertheless. We ran into some boggy areas, but nothing too terrible. Some areas we almost lost the trail, but the local saddle club had been up the previous weekend clearing the trails (part of the Adopt-a-Trail program), so there were enough horse signs to follow to keep us on track. Then we came to an intersection with a skull on a post and a sign that said Platte Ridge Trail, continuing in the direction we were going, and another unmarked trail that went off to the right, which we figured was the connector trail we wanted, so we went right. Theoretically, if we were where we thought we were, we should have reached the Douglas Creek Trail in about a mile. The trail gradually got more and more wild, looking less and less traveled, and though it started out with horse signs, that eventually diminished. We had more and more obstacles in the way, so the club certainly didn’t get that far (though on the day they went out they had serious thunderstorms in afternoon, so we reasoned that maybe they came back the way they came when it started raining). Soon we were starting to think we had made a wrong turn, and began debating whether we should turn back (something we hate to do unless absolutely necessary.) I looked at the map and reasoned that if we kept going the way we were going, eventually we had to run into either the Platte River or Douglas Creek, and once there we should be able to find the Douglas Creek Trail, which would take us back home. After some spirited persuasion, Hubby agreed. Then we came up on this fabulous sage-covered hill on a side trail, and we went up and saw an incredible view. We could see snow covered mountains in Colorado to the southwest, the Platte River down below to the northwest, and fantastic terrain in between. Absolutely gorgeous! After taking a few pix, we headed back in the same direction, keeping our fingers crossed we were on a trail that led somewhere, especially since it had started to go downhill in a hurry. I reasoned that we needed to go down to get to the river anyway, so we kept going. There was a lot of trees down on that particular section, but eventually the trail started to open. Suddenly, out of nowhere, and intersection with a sign! It seems we were on the right trail all the time, that if we had gone straight at the first intersection it would have just looped around to the trail we were on anyway! The signs indicated Douglas Creek Trail to our right, Platte River Trail to our left, and a broken sign that indicated Platte Ridge Trail back up the way we had come. Phew! That was a relief! Knowing now exactly where we were (after four hours of riding), we stopped for lunch. The horses got a nice portion of feed and we munched on nuts, carrots and cold hot dogs. After a rest, we proceeded right down Douglas Creek Trail. Now THIS was a fantastic trail. While the first trail had been a nice forest trail, DCT had an incredible variety of terrain. THIS IS NOT A TRAIL FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED RIDER OR THE SKITTISH HORSE! This trail had grassy fields, sage brush clearings, narrow rocky trails that barely clung to the side of the hills, with very long drops right on the edge of the trail, fast water crossings, boggy areas, moments when you felt like you were in a rain forest, the next like you’re in a desert, this trail had it all! Quite challenging, but don’t try this with an animal you don’t trust or it could be a disaster in the making. Beautiful rock outcroppings above in many places, making us feel like we should be looking for Indians above us, several lovely spots for a picnic, and so on. It was almost an indescribably fantastic experience, and one that will definitely place in the top five or better of all the trails we’ve been on. SO glad we decided to stay here the extra week! Got home in good shape at around 5:00, just as I thought we would, fourteen plus fabulous miles under our belts, and the horses hadn’t even broken out in a sweat (The weather was perfect, too! Though there was a brief threat of a thunderstorm in the distance at one point, we only felt a drop or two of rain before it headed off into the distance). Bedded everyone down, got everyone fed, and relaxed for the evening. Motto of the day, “This is more fun than two people should be allowed to have!”

I drove up the road today to find a cell phone signal, took about 14 miles, still took me hours to get my half hour of work to get done. Hubby stayed home and read. Nothing much else happened today. Not enough rain to wash the vehicles :-).