Had the alarm set for 6:30, had breakfast, saddled and booted up and on the trail by 8:30. Beautiful cool morning, but no breeze yet, we’re hoped we would get one before the heat of the day. Set out counterclockwise on the White Rock Loop, had a lovely canter across a long open field, stopping for a few minutes at the other side under a lone tree with a hitching post next to it. We took a side trip out to Elephant Head Trail, which took us out to a high point on the west side of the island, with grandiose views of the entire Salt Lake from north to south. Trails were sandy and rocky combined, so we were glad we had the boots on. After admiring the beautiful west side view, we headed back down, stopped again under the tree, had lunch, fed and watered the horses, then continued on the rest of the loop. Only saw a few antelopes, though we had our eyes peeled for buffalo, no luck yet. This trail crossed to the east side of the island, with another view of the smaller part of the lake, and the towns and cities on the other side. Got back about 1:00, a boring ride with spectacular views, boring because you could see the trail for miles ahead. Of course, the point was to experience every type of terrain with our horses, and we missed the grasslands on our way west, so this arid little island will do nicely. We relaxed in the afternoon, even took a little siesta, because we had decided to take a second, short ride this evening to watch the sun set over the Great Salt Lake. We saddled up around 8:00, arrived at the perfect spot for sunset viewing at about 8:50, awaiting the scheduled 9:00 sunset. It was beautiful. Blue sky with just enough clouds in the west to make it absolutely gorgeous. There’s just something about a sunset over water that just floats my boat. Growing up with a cottage near Lake Ontario, I used to walk several miles every night after dinner just to watch the sun set over the lake. It was the first time ever that we rode the horses two times in one day, and I think they were a bit confused, but seemed to take it in stride. They’ll likely have a few days off to recover anyway, as our trip tomorrow to Idaho is short, and we need to find more hay and a laundromat in the next few days. We should be able to ride again Friday if all goes well. A great day! Particularly as it washed away the memory of that last awful place!

Slow drive out of China Meadow, stopped in Evanston to get gas, shop at Wal-Mart, and stop at Murdock’s Farm Store for oats and other horse sundries. Made a few directional errors, stopped again at Wal-mart in Syracuse, Utah to pick up water because I couldn’t remember the specifics about if there was potable water for us near the campsite. Good thing, too, because it turned out there wasn’t. We arrived about 4:30, later than we had anticipated, but we paid and got in easily enough. I asked about water for the horses at the gate, and the attendant said she would check with maintenance. We arrived at the equestrian site, which is an open area next to White Rock Bay. Actually, the entire island is an open area, with hills and trails allowing for spectacular views from every angle. We unloaded the horses and got them into the pipe corrals, fed them, then waited for the water truck to arrive, as there is no running water anywhere. He arrived in short order (thankfully, as it was over 90 degrees, plus direct sunlight), and we filled up all of our tubs plus two huge metal troughs, plenty to get us through Wednesday morning. One of the big tubs had a small leak, so I opted to use that for other purposes, beginning with dunking the dogs, as they couldn’t seem to stop panting. They really appreciated it. Fixed a quick meal, watched a beautiful sunset, and went to be early, planning on taking an early morning ride, before it gets too hot, as they’re calling for another 93 degree day.

Slept great, woke up at 8:45, got up to feed horses, did one water run in the afternoon, spent the rest of the day watching a Larry McMurtry mini-series I had recorded last week, totally vegged out, both of us surprised at how fit we feel despite yesterday’s toils. Guess we’re both getting in better shape!

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.