Archives for July 2014

Saturday, 19, 2014 – Ride and Disaster Day

July 19, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

Decided to take a short exploratory ride today, just a small loop, barely 3 miles long, just to get a feel for the terrain. We're both still a bit tired from the non-stop pace this week, so we didn't want to do anything strenuous, and the next smallest trail loop is over 7 miles. We headed out around 11:00, taking a trail that took us to an old homestead ruin. The trail was really good, better than we expected, mostly dirt with only a few spots of rock. It curved around a hill, followed a small creek, then opened up into the valley where you start to understand the name Castle Rock. There were a pile of rocks in a bunch of strange configurations, worn down by the weather into all kinds of name-able shapes. The trail brought us to an old stone house that was still partially standing, with a marker that said it was built in 1909 and the initials of JHH. Oddly, the terrain actually reminds me of Texas Hill Country, with cacti and short evergreens everywhere (though here they are pinyon trees). Well, everything was going fine up to that point. My plan was to go up along the road for about a quarter mile, then take a connector trail back to the campground. The road looked so inviting, that we decided to get a nice canter in, and headed out, with Clio uncharacteristically in front. Immediately on the right was a large boulder, which was just the kind of thing Apollo would decide is a horse-eating monster, so I was holding on tight, when suddenly, Clio side-stepped. Evidently she was drifting toward the right, and Hubby started to steer her to the left, and she suddenly caught sight of a large drainage pipe shining on the left and stopped or veered or something. Apollo veered a little in response, but not violently, so I was fine. Hubby, on the other hand, was not. He went flying, and not just to the road, but a few extra feet down into the deep ditch next to the road. He was is excruciating pain, and it took us a good 20 minutes to get him up and back on his horse for the 1.5 mile ride back to camp. We walked the whole way, because any jogging just pained Hubby too much. Got him slowly settled into his recliner before unsaddling the horses and putting everything away. It's funny, he's been having premonitions about something happening just before our Alaska vacation ever since we left Austin. We've been pretty careful because of it, but we got a little overconfident with a clear road ahead, I guess. Anyway, we'll see how he feels tomorrow before we decide what to do. Chances are we'll be staying past Tuesday, though!

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Friday, July 18, 2014 – Drive to Castle Rocks State Park near Almo Idaho

July 18, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

Managed to get out before 9:00, not our earliest start, but respectable. It helps that we knew we had a prepaid reservation, so it didn’t really matter what time we arrived, there would be a site for us. First 2 hours was through suburbs and city, then we opened up into vast wilderness. Stopped once for fuel, had no trouble finding the park or our site, and got set up. Hubby had some problems getting the satellite dish up and running, I think because we’re on a mountain that rises to the west, but he ended up finally getting a signal by putting the satellite dish on top of the hay in the back of the pickup, which is going to become problematic when I need to get down to the last of my hay. Still, we’re scheduled to leave on Tuesday, so it should be all right until then. This site has only one small corral, so both horses are going to have to get cozy. Fortunately, there seems to be shade for most of the day, which is good as the temps are in the low 90’s here. Finally got settled in for the evening.

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Thursday, July 17, 2014 -Flight back to Salt Lake City

July 17, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

Set the alarm for 5:15 am, out by 5:40, stopped by Glenn’s office because an unexpected package had come for me. Thought it might be paperwork on the horses, turned out to be two 75 foot collapsible hoses to replace one that had failed a few weeks ago. They weren’t supposed to send them until I call them with an address, but the apparently got screwed up. Thankfully, my suitcase was pretty empty, and I managed to fit them both into it! Managed to get an upgrade for the short hope from Phoenix to SLC (the Austin to Phoenix plane was so small it didn’t even have a 1st class compartment!), met a nice lady and we chatted the whole way, which made the short trip even shorter. Stopped by to pick up an adapter for my new Verizon Jetpack, picked up some horse feed as well, since I was right next to a ranch store, got gas, and was back in camp just after 3:00. Hubby happy to see me, of course. Spent some time getting a few odds and ends packed up, though Hubby had already done most of the work. Settled in for the evening, another busy day driving tomorrow!

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Wednesday, July 16, 2014 – Meeting with Client

July 16, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

Had a good meeting with my client, made some unexpectedly good progress within the ranks, had an extra meeting with staff later in the day, then headed back to the house where I took a nice swim and relaxed for the evening, a very early start tomorrow morning!

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Tuesday, July 15, 2014 – Fly to Austin

July 15, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

Via Phoenix, uneventful flight. Got a Jeep Wrangler as my Thrifty Wild Card choice, as it was raining and I like to be in a taller vehicle, particularly on a dark and stormy night, as this was. Brother Glenn had his motorhome cooled down and ready for me, went to bed shortly after arriving. Hot and steamy here in Austin!

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Monday, July 14, 2014 – Odds and Ends

July 14, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

As I have to fly out for a job tomorrow, leaving Hubby behind to fend for himself, we spent the day getting things prepared for him. We got out the sump pump again, filled up both horse buckets and one of the rain barrels, plus topped off the RV, then I had to run into town to get him more gas and groceries and to email my completed project out. Another busy day, and the rest of the week will be equally so!

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Sunday, July 13, 2014 – Second LONG Ride Day at Blackhawk

July 13, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

Today, I had mapped out the next smallest loop, about 7 miles, and headed south out of camp on the trail we SHOULD have come back on the other, but missed at the gate. Today, the trails were nice and dry, though a bit rockier in some places. We followed the loop to the trailhead by the campground turn-off, but then couldn't find where we were supposed to pick up the trail on the other side. Since I had seen a bevy of horse campers dry camping just up the road, I headed that way, then discovered the trail intersected behind the camp, so we picked it up there. That led us to some beautiful meadows which actually gave us the opportunity to get some cantering in, before turning back up to climb the mountain again. Fortunately there was a watering trough about halfway up the hill, this dry mountain air is very desiccating! We finally reached the road again, and again there was no indication where to pick up the trail on the other side, but we went around a cattle guard up to another dry camping area, where there was a gate that evidently went down to the trails. We went through the next gate, and there was a clear trail straight ahead and what seemed to be a lesser trail off to the left, so we went straight ahead. That turned out to be a mistake. Though it stayed nice for quite a ways, through meadows and woods and was very pleasant, eventually the trail started to get narrower and narrower, until it all but disappeared. We climbed through brush to the top of the mountain to see where we were, and realized we were way off, so we had to try to back track, which was a challenge as the "trail" we came up on, towards the end, wasn't a trail, and we couldn't find it, so we had to head downhill hoping we would cross it, and eventually we did. Paying more attention to my GPS, we ended all the way back at the gate by the road again, still not sure which way to go. I decided to try the trail that bore off to the left, which seemed like the right direction, but after a few hundred yards, I became less sure, and didn't want to go off on another tangent. Meanwhile, Apollo got pretty rankled when I tried to turn around yet again, he was obviously sure that was the right way. We went back to the intersection yet again, when I finally saw a brown trail sign with 084 on it laying on the grown, which was the right number, but it was almost impossible to see buried in the brush, plus it seem to be pointing up the original trail we had taken. I followed it again, thinking maybe we had just missed a turnoff, but couldn't find anything else, so out of frustration and lack of any more choices, I took the trail Apollo was so keen on and headed out. It rimmed the edge of the mountain, and the views were beautiful, but by now we were starting to get tired, as we had already passed the 2 ½ hours we had planned for the day. After about half a mile, though, my GPS finally confirmed we were on the right trail, and we breathed a sigh of relief and trooped onward. At last we rejoined the loop from which we began, and managed to struggle back into camp, four hours after we left. Now, I know, four hours isn't much for some people, but this trail was much steeper coming and going, so it got a bit uncomfortable, and we were using a lot of muscles we don't normally use, so it was very tiring. To make matters worse, our big dog Marina had a bout of diarrhea while we were gone, so we had a mess to clean up in the house before we could finally settle down. We just managed to get everyone settled in before we collapsed for the evening.

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Saturday, July 12, 2014 – Rest and Work Day

July 12, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

Woke up at the crack of dawn thinking about the writing job I had ahead of me, so rather than lay there and think about it, I got up and started working on it. Four hours later, Hubby finally got out of bed, and I was almost finished. Spent the rest of the day mostly discussing, improving and finalizing the project. Went out once to check my email, but otherwise stayed close to home for a change.

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Friday, July 11, 2014 – Ride Day at Blackhawk Camp

July 11, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

Having mapped out the smallest loop I could find, just over 6 miles, we got the horses saddled up and out of camp by about 10:30, heading north around the Blackhawk loop. The trail was mostly dirt with some rocks, and with all the rain over the last two days, some parts were pretty slippery, but was quickly drying as the day went on. It was a very nice trail, not too rough or steep, but enough to make it interesting. The views are just spectacular! It's fabulous to turn a corner and just be surrounded by gorgeous mountains, with some still sporting a bit of snow on top! Just gorgeous. Though the trails were fairly plain to see, the intersections weren't very well marked, and we had to depend on the GPS a lot. At one point, near the end of the loop, we came to a gate with no real marking, and we weren't sure whether we should go through it or not. We decided not, but to follow the fence, which almost immediately started taking us downhill. By the time we figured out we were going off track, we didn't want to climb back up, so we kept going, knowing eventually we'd find our way back. We soon realized we were following a pipeline that we had crossed earlier, so when we reached the original trail, we just headed back that way. It added a little bit to the trip, but at least we knew where we were, and besides, it left us that other trail for another day, meaning we wouldn't have to repeat any trails. Arrived back in camp after about 2.5 hours, having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. And the horses seemed to have a good time, too! Ran down to a place up the road to get my email, finding one that presented me with considerable work to do tomorrow, so relaxed for the evening, as usual.

Filed Under: Ride Day

Thursday, July 10, 2014 – A Little More Running Around

July 10, 2014 By Admin Leave a Comment

Hubby decided the sump pump I got was too small, so I headed back into town to replace it, and to pick up a couple of 50 foot hoses. While we have plenty of length, we mostly have those collapsible hoses, which, unfortunately, need more pressure than a sump pump can provide to expand them, so we had to get more hoses to reach the RV. Found a little coffee shop and had a nice frozen hazelnut flavored drink while doing some more work on my computer, then back up the mountain again, where we once more worked on the water problem. After a few false starts, we managed to get it going, and filled up the water tank with no problem. I managed to do a couple of loads of laundry (long overdue), but then, since more and more people were coming into camp, Paul asked if we would ditch the sump pump, because he was afraid it would give too many people the wrong idea. Apparently the water supply is a spring, so they don’t want to pull too much out at once, and they used to have a problem with dry-campers coming and filling up with water, which is why they changed the spigots to ones without threads. Fine, we had enough for a while anyway. We had considered riding today, but with all the chores to be done, plus it has been raining off and on most of the day, we postponed it until tomorrow.

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