What a ride! It must be said that the most memorable rides aren’t necessary the most fun rides, and today was certainly a case in point. Today was a day of many firsts, several losses, lots of close calls and countless spectacular views. We began by entering the National Park and driving down to the parking area across from the entrance to the campground, where there was a trailhead to the Buckhorn Trail, our trail for the day. After quickly saddling up, we headed across grassland, doing our best to follow the trail, but there seemed to be countless variations, and no sure direction. We made our way until a marker, essentially a post in the ground with an unreadable plate on it, so we figured we must be going the right way. I had brought my GPS and created a map of the trail, but in several places, the hard copy map which I had overlaid on Google Earth didn’t completely match the red trail markers already placed on Google Earth, so I split the difference on my GPS map. As time went on, though, it seemed some sections of the trail were a moving target. Anyway, we made our first small climb, a ravine about 20 feet high, the first of many we were to make today. As we crossed the grasslands, we were faced with many small ravines, steeper and deeper than a simple creek crossing, and probably narrow enough for a hunter to jump over, but we aren’t riding hunters so we had to persuade our horses to essentially drop into a pit and climb back out again. Just as they were starting to get used to that, we came to another deep ravine, this one probably 15-18 feet deep, down and up. Just as we got to the top, and I was just getting Apollo ready to head down, suddenly his head went up, his nose flared and he snorted in defense mode, because about 20 yards beyond the top of the opposite side of the ravine was a great big buffalo. Even though he had mostly gotten over his anxiety about cows, apparently a buffalo is a completely different matter. Needless to say, Apollo wheeled around, wanting no part of it, and Clio followed suit. We spent the next 15-20 minutes trying to settle them down, though they were truly in flight mode. We tried to find another way around, but there wasn’t one. After staring at the buffalo for some time, they eventually weren’t quite so frantic (the buffalo was ignoring them completely), they got a tad bit quieter. Fortunately, the buffalo started moving away a bit, down into another hollow, and laid down, so it could no longer be seen by the horses (though obviously the smell was still strong). I managed to persuade Apollo to go back to the top of the ravine, but I still couldn’t get him down it, so, as a last resort, I got off and walked him down the ravine. He seemed a bit more calm because I was ignoring the buffalo, which helped, but of course, he was too anxious for me to get back on him, so I had to lead him up the ravine. Naturally, he ran past me and practically dragged me to the top, it was fortunate my Mccarty lead was just long enough not to throw him off balance, as it was a considerable drop had he done so. Anyway, I climbed to the top and started walking past where the buffalo had been (and still was, just off the trail a bit more than previously), and Hubby and Clio crossed the ravine with no problem, as usual when we lead the way. I continued to walk for another 100 feet or so, enough to get Apollo settled down, and finally remounted and continued along the trail. More grasslands, more steep little arroyos, more uncertainty about which way the trail went, since the markers were few and far between, and there were uncounted trails made by the buffalo here. We finally came across a marker and headed for it, only to discover that just beyond that, and along the trail where we were headed, was a whole herd of buffalo! Granted, it was a small herd, but a herd is a lot more imposing that a single buffalo, and there were young one’s around for the bulls to protect, so we had to be extra careful. Fortunately, they seemed to be heading away from the intersection (and away from a hiker that evidently was trying to get closer to them), and that emboldened Apollo a bit (bravest coward I know, besides my little dog Billy), he was tossing his head at them as if to say, “So there! I’m not afraid of you anymore!” Of course, that lasted until the herd saw us, and, like the cows last week, turned around and headed for us, apparently just out of curiosity. We headed away from them as best we could, but we were going in the opposite direction that we wanted so we just went far enough so that the herd lost interest for the time being. We tried to get around them, but they just come toward us, but eventually they just started heading down the trail where we wanted to go, so we hung back and slowly followed them, stopping every time the bull in the rear turned to look at us, then starting up again when they resumed their progress. Eventually, the plain widened out enough, and the horses had settled down enough, so that we could give them a wide berth and walk around them. It’s a good thing the buffalo walk so slow, it made it possible to get around them at a walk. Whew! What an experience! By the time we passed the herd, the horses had apparently gotten over most of their fear, so this was a big step for them today! Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the Prairie Dog Town, a wide area full of low growth and scores of little heads and wagging tails and lots of holes to avoid. We observed them for a while, very cute and cuddly looking, and the horses only gave them a cursory look, thank goodness. We stayed on grassy plains for a while, and just as we were leaving the Prairie Dog Town, we saw a good size fox loping away from us, apparently disturbing his hunt, though I can’t imagine it would be that difficult to get a meal of prairie dog, considering how many of them there were. We continued along reaching another steep arroyo, and just as we were approaching, the head of another big buffalo appeared at the top of the ravine. If this keeps up, we’ll never get home, we thought! The buffalo started growling (yes, growling!) for a bit, then swung around and headed away from the ravine, though we could still hear his growl, albeit further away. We waited a few more minutes to make sure he was gone, though we couldn’t be sure until we got to the top of the ravine, since we couldn’t see past the edge. I finally headed up, and Apollo was fearless despite having seen that buffalo there only moments ago, and fortunately, the buffalo had already moved off a ways, almost out of sight. Well, at this point we lost the trail again. We didn’t know we had, in fact the trail looked clearer here that in many spots along the way, but afterward, when I compared it on Google Earth, we definitely got off track. Anyway, we followed what we THOUGHT was the trail, and that led us to a cliff wall that seemed to got practically straight up. There were lots of tracks there, though, so we knew it was possible, but it was definitely a bit heart-stopping to think of what would happen if someone’s hoof slipped. Well, undaunted, we headed up. Fortunately, it was in a couple of stages, so we had time to rest in between each stage. At one point, I saw two elk on an almost invisible narrow trail along the edge of the cliff. I pointed them out to Hubby, but he only saw one because the other one had already leaped away. Just before we reached the top, Clio (who was in front of me at this point) lost one of her boots. There was no way I could stop on that incline and pick it up, so I waited to the next stopping point before dismounting, walking back down to get it, and climbing back up again. I mounted again, and we made it the rest of the way to the top, when Hubby discovered, that I, too, had lost a boot! We had no idea where, though, and I wasn’t about to climb down this entire incline looking for it, so we let it go. Too, bad, too, we really didn’t even need boots out here, there’s almost no stones or gravel, it’s all dirt and grass. Anyway, we made it to the top safely, that was the important thing. I should mention that the views in every direction were spectacular, every time we stopped to take a look. That just wasn’t as often as we liked, since we were so busy handling everything else. At the top, it turned back into grassland, and we were able to relax for a short while. Before long, though, we were climbing down ravines and crossing creeks, at which point we got lost again, crossing one creek and going left, when we should have crossed the ravine and gone right, so that was another mistake that took us a half hour to resolve. At one point, Clio took a misstep and her leg when into a washed out area of the trail (and by washed out, I mean the ground had separated, fallen off, and left a drop-off as tall as the ravine), which made her drop completely to ground level. Hubby got dumped, but it would have been so easy for Clio to break a leg or otherwise hurt herself, but she pulled herself out of it and upon close examination, didn’t seem any worse for the wear, though we kept an eye on here for the rest of the trip. Thank goodness for my GPS!! If it hadn’t been for that, we would never had figured out how to get out of there, as our “wrong” route took us to a near dead end, with only extraordinarily dangerous possibilities from there, and frankly, we weren’t ready for that. After retracing our steps for a half mile or so, we managed to get back to the trail, seeing out mistakes (no trail markers ANYWHERE to be seen!) and got back on track, climbing yet another ravine to more grasslands, almost getting lost again before getting back on track. Finally we found trail markers again, passed yet another stray buffalo, stopped for lunch and rest, before descending off the other side of the plateau, often going through trees so thick and hanging down so low we could barely hang on. Again, more washed out ravines that were barely passable, but we finally made it down. My GPS died about halfway down, and I couldn’t find the spare batteries (turned out they were in the saddle bags on my bareback pad back in the trailer!), Hubby had lost his stainless steel water bottle that we’d had for a long time (by now we had drank everything else we brought with us, and were parched, couldn’t wait to get to water), plus he lost a hearing aid somewhere along the trail, probably at one of the three times he came off Clio during the ride. At last we reached the road, and followed that for a ways, before venturing off south of the road to sort of stay on the trail, which would bypass a couple of climbs on the road. The plains here had several swampy areas, but nothing deep enough for the horses to drink from. Clio had managed to get a drink from a puddle earlier, but Apollo hadn’t had anything since we left the parking lot. Finally we reached a bank of the Little Missouri river, and they had a pretty good drink there. According to where I thought we were on the map, if we turned due north we should just about run into the parking lot where we started, but without my GPS, I couldn’t be sure. We turned north anyway, figuring if we got on the road we’d know where we were, so we did, and discovered we still have about a mile left, up a hill and down another. By now the sun was getting low, and we were literally riding off into the sunset. We reached the trailer at last, gave everyone a good drink, including us, spoke to a passing ranger about the items we’d lost (he said he’d report it to the lost and found), loaded up and drove the 10 minutes back to camp. I gave the horses a good liniment rubdown, extra rations, and lots of hay, settling them in their rope and pipe corral before we finally settled down for what little was left of the evening. Pain-killers for all tonight!

A fabulously quiet night, Hubby and I both slept great, though I was up fairly early, getting a start on getting the horses out and some bookkeeping work I needed to do. After breakfast he drove off to Watford City for gas and a couple of other things we could use, while I continued getting work done (I get so much more done when he’s not around : -). He came back proclaiming that Watford City was booming ten times as much as Dickinson, and described the chaos now overtaking this once small burg. Apparently traffic moves at a snail’s pace, and in an event unique from most other towns we’ve been in, while the grocery store parking lot was packed full, every handicapped parking space was open! Now THAT’S a working community, and a considerate one at that! Anyway, I got most of my work done, including getting caught up on my blog, while Hubby read and napped, before we settled down for the evening.

Woke up early to the alarm, knowing that while the trip was relatively short, the errands and stops we had to make would make it a long day, and sure enough, it did. First stop, breakfast at Burger King, next stop, Runnings Farm and Fleet, third stop, Walmart, where I filled up the RV, the horse trailer and BOTH portable barrels, as the only water at the CCC camp at the Little MO Grasslands National Forest was a single hand pump and we planned on staying a week, so we would likely need it all, but I accidentally hooked up the water to the black water flush intake for a while, and by the time I noticed it, the black tank was practically full. Fortunately, at breakfast I noticed that the Cenex gas station next door had an RV dump, so on our way out of town, we stopped there, both to dump and to top off my fuel tank. Unfortunately, Hubby forgot to get gas for the generators, an oversight he didn’t notice until we arrived at the CCC camp, 15 miles from the nearest gas station. We still had enough for the night, though, and once we got settled in, we ran the generator long enough to charge the batteries just fine. The CCC camp is only about a mile off the main highway, 85, but far enough away you can’t hear a thing, but from where we parked (site 4), we can see the road as it crosses the Little Missouri River. Across the river is the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where we plan to ride once or possibly twice while we’re here. The views all round us are quite spectacular. Two of the three loops allow horses. The containment strategy is pipe hitching posts parallel to one another, making it possible to create decent-sized corrals when you put a couple of strands of rope on each end. Loop A has hitching posts at most of the sites, while Loop C seemed to have them all in tandem at one end of the loop. None of the trees were really suitable for a highline, so we opted to put rope between a couple of the rails and create a corral, one for each horse. Meanwhile, they grazed contentedly on their anchors. Clio had been suffering from weight loss for a while (she still isn’t thrilled about the hay she’s being forced to eat when not on grass, though this last batch seems to be a bit more appealing to her), but now she’s started to fill out nicely, no doubt because of all the natural grazing she’s been doing. In the early evening, it started to rain, and we had a deluge that lasted for more than 4 hours. At one point, when we realized it wasn’t going away any time soon, we decided to put the rain sheets on the horses for the night, so we donned our ponchos (and me my Carlsbad Caverns miner’s hat with flashlight) and headed out, getting them all wrapped up in no time. We also put buckets along the awning and gutters to catch as much rain as possible, to supplement our already pretty abundant supply of water, just in case. Once we got back in and dried off, it wasn’t long before bed was calling!

One of the reasons we decided to stay an extra day is because we had been promising ourselves that when we had the chance and circumstances to make it happen, we were going to wash the vehicles. Since we had a spigot within reach, and the place was pretty empty today (though not as much as we figured it would be, several tent campers still here), today was going to be the day. Fortunately, the morning broke with overcast skies, which was perfect for what we wanted to do, and we got busy. I started on the roof, which is much different that the roof on our old RV. That one had a flat rubber roof, and didn’t get very slippery as a result. This one has the same material as the sides, and gets slippery as the dickens when it’s wet. Combined with the sloping roof (both to the front and to the back), the challenges were considerable. I scrubbed away for quite some time, as it really needed some serious cleaning, doing as much of the slider awnings as I could, although most of the main awning was beyond my reach. Eventually I came down, and Hubby and I quickly washed the rest, until we reached the awning. Because it is an electric awning, it doesn’t drop down easily like a manual one, and it’s so high I could barely reach it from the ground. I had to scrub it on “stripe” at a time, on a ladder, with a hand brush, while Hubby brought it in at the end of every stripe. Talk about tedious! What an exhausting job! Eventually, I got it in far enough so that I could reach the rest from the roof, so up I went again, being extra careful not to slip (though the roof was mostly dry by now, thank goodness), and managed to finish it off. We also quickly washed as much of my pickup as we could reach (which, unfortunately, didn’t include the front end), but by then it was late in the day and we were both exhausted, so we decided we’d wait until the next “spigot” opportunity to do the horse trailer, which REALLY needed it. The good news is the RV looks like new, especially after having done all the windows inside and out, and we’re both so tired we’ll no doubt get a fabulous night sleep!

At last, an opportunity to ride! It promised to be an interesting day, too, beginning with a herd of cattle passing by, again in waves, right along the fenceline, just 10 yards or so from where the horses were grazing on their anchors. Our brilliant horses, having been there, done that with passing cows, simply ignored them! A week ago they were having fits! Smart horses, they can get used to anything! What I found most intriguing is the curiosity of the cows, many of them just came down to the fence and stopped, staring at us for a long time, until they looked like an audience waiting for the show to begin! How funny! Eventually, they mostly moved on, though, and after breakfast, Hubby and I got started saddling, and before long we were out on the trail, if you can call it that. Pretty much it’s open grassland, though there are a couple of tracks that start out as roads but quickly dwindle, and many paths of where cows had trampled their way around, but nothing definitive. Apollo wasn’t quite sure what was happening, he’s so used to following a trail he was a little confuses about where to go, and I wasn’t much help either, though we finally decided to follow the fence line south to see where it would take us. Eventually we came to a gate we had to pass through, and that led us out into more grasslands. We headed to a high point, and were rewarded with a fantastic view that just went on for miles! We were trying to get to a place called Young Man’s Mound, which had a variety of stories explaining how it was named, but discovered that the recreation area didn’t extend that far. Eventually we made our way to the western section of the park, where we met up with the herd of cattle wandering around. Except, when they saw us, they stopped wandering and started heading in our direction! We slowly circled around them, taking care not to get them going, but at one point it meant taking the horses straight through them, and so we did. They were brilliant again, not minding at all, and in fact, Apollo had an epiphany, realizing that these critters would actually move out of his way on his command! He flung his head around at this sudden realization, and his whole attitude changed, from crouching from potential danger to, “HA! Take that!” Later, when we were running up one side of a creek bed, part of the herd saw us coming and starting running next to us, which only got Apollo so excited he galloped along with them, feeling very proud of himself. Silly horse! Anyway, it was a wonderful ride, very different from most that we’ve taken. The sense of space here is enormous, and openness of not having a trail to follow was an awakening for all of us, and the freedom to just set off in almost any direction at any speed was refreshing. The only negative would be that it all looks pretty much the same from one section to the other, so it would definitely be a case of just spending time with your horse, rather than really “exploring” the countryside. After all, you can see practically the whole darn thing from any high spot! After a couple of hours, we were back at camp, delighted with our ride and our horses’ new appreciation for “running with the cows.” Settled in for another perfect evening, with day temps in the 70’s and night temps in the 50’s. Perfect!

Had a bunch of errands to run in Dickinson, but the first thing I decided to do was to backtrack the last 10-15 miles on the highway looking for our rubber Welcome mat, which had fallen off my truck, but Hubby neglected to mention it to me until we were at the campsite yesterday. I had found that mat in an old country hardware store, and it had taken me years to find it, and I was pretty upset when I realized it had gone missing. So rather than give up on it, I headed east 3 exits, which turned out to be about 22 miles, before exiting and turning around. Just as I was coming up the entrance ramp on the other side, I saw one of those DOT trucks running slowly along the shoulder, so I flagged them down to ask if they had seen the mat along the way, and much to my amazement, they said Yes, it was in the back of the truck! Stunned, I looked in back and sure enough, there it was, but it was in really bad shape. Obviously it had been run over numerous times by something much to big to not damage it, so as a result, it was pretty much unusable. Well, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about where it was or whether I had missed it on the way back! Once that was settled, I headed back west to Dickinson to start my REAL errands, beginning with picking up our new Dish receiver, which I had sent directly to the Customer Care Center, erroneously believing that would be the most convenient place to pick it up. Boy, was I wrong! Turns out Customer Care only happen only happens from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm! Having arrived at 11:30 a.m., and not wanting to waste even MORE gas driving around I had very little choice but to hang out for the afternoon and wait until they opened. What the heck, I can kill an afternoon as well as anyone, starting with trying to find a new rubber mat! I went to Ace Hardware, they didn’t have one and couldn’t tell me where to find one. I went to practically every store in the Prairie Mall, no luck, asking each time if they knew anyplace to check, and they all said the same thing, Ace Hardware or Wal-mart. I’ve looked for these in Wal-marts before, and they never had anything even remotely like it, so I wasn’t holding out much hope (though that was my last planned stop before going back to UPS. At the last store in the mall, a boot store, a customer told me to try a place called Runnings, which turned out to be a big farm and fleet store, which I couldn’t believe no one else had suggested previously. So I went there, but they too, had no mats, and no suggestions. At last I headed to Wal-mart, but just as I was heading up their driveway, I saw a big sign just behind them saying “Mac’s-Not just another hardware store.” Not one to give up easily (just in case you hadn’t noticed), I headed back out the parking lot and up to Mac’s. Walked in using the same line I’d been using all along, “I’m looking for a heavy-duty rubber welcome mat, the kind where dirt can fall through,” and the cashier pointed and said, “Right down there on the end cap.” Just like that! And the stack was so high I had to struggle to get one out. They even had two different sizes! Amazing! Never say die!! Well, after telling the saga of my search and purchasing the mat, I headed back down to Walmart, did the rest of my shopping, headed down to a Chinese restaurant called Kings Buffet for dinner (which was a challenge unto itself, and my server didn’t understand hardly a work of English, and even her backup didn’t know what I meant by “dark beer”, though my surrendipitous order of a Fat Tire rewarded me with a nice amber lager, just what I wanted.) After packing up the leftovers for Hubby and killing enough time, I finally headed back down to UPS, which, although it was only 5:20, had already opened. I asked for the package, but they had considerable (and disconcerting) difficulty in locating it. After nearly 15 minutes, it finally showed up in the hands of one of the workers, and I was finally able to skedaddle out of there. One interesting note, Dickinson is definitely benefiting from the oil boom, new buildings going up everywhere, particularly of the hotel (long-stay in particular) and apartment variety, Help Wanted signs in almost every window in every store I went to. Finally got back to camp to a pretty worried Hubby, who had expected me quite a while ago, but I shared my story and my leftovers Chinese with him, and he was suitably soothed. Settled in for the evening, albeit later than usual, but after a reasonably productive, busy day.

Up early with the alarm, leaving this charming place for our next unknown, just east of Dickinson, ND, reputed to be a veritable boom town with all the new oil reserves recently discovered near there. Stops in all the usual places, before arriving at a reasonable hour. This place isn’t far off the freeway, but there’s still about 5 miles of dirt road to get here. Nevertheless, it was easy to find, and, surprisingly, we didn’t have our choice of spots. With only six campsite, widely spread out, we thought from our research on Google Earth that one of the end spots would be best, but the three farthest sites were all occupied with tents, so we had to settle for a site that was far from our first choice, but would do just fine. There are water spigots on just about every other site, so that was no problem, and though it wasn’t exactly level, the large loop made it possible to use the levelers with only minor adjustments. We found a place down below the site that was fine for a highline, though a bit of a challenge stretching across a gully. Anyway, we got settled in easily enough, another quiet place from the looks of it, even though we’re not far off the freeway, and we’re looking forward to a quiet stay here.

Spent the day working on the computer, as I have a decent cell phone signal here, and because I’ve gotten so far behind on so many things! The horses are having a blast here, because there’s no one else in the campground, and it’s completely fenced in, except for the cattle guard at the gate, so we’ve let them have the run of the place. Cows passed by on the road off and on for most of the day, giving the horses another close encounter, which I trust will pay off later, as I’m sure we’ll be coming across more cows (and maybe even bison) throughout the plains. Dogs, too, are having fun exploring everywhere. I spent the day working, and Hubby likewise did some chores. We ended the day packing up as much as we could before settling in for the evening.