With beautiful weather abounding, we saddled up the horses after breakfast and headed out on the nearest forest road. We were completely unable to find trail maps, as the State Park didn't really have any trails, and bordered the National Forest, which didn't service the horse camp, and I didn't find a ranger station nearby to try to pick up a map of the trails. Of course, they had forest road maps you can buy, but you still have to find a ranger station to do that. In any event, I had traced a trail from Google Earth on the visible forest roads, downloaded it to my GPS and hoped for the best. Our destination was the head of Spring Creek, which, down by the logging museum was a wide and fast-running river, but apparently it's origin springs straight out of the ground a couple of miles up the road. We headed out, and unfortunately, the roads were as dusty as the trails we left at the last campground, so we had to wear our bandanas pretty much the whole way. The road went right where I had anticipated, then I thought I saw a shortcut, so we took that, but it led us astray after a while, so we retraced our steps back to the road until we came to a day use area along a sort of small lake, where apparently the creek came out of the spring. It was crowded, not surprisingly, I guess, since it was a beautiful Saturday, and we asked a few people if the trail along the creek went back down to Collier Park, and each one we asked said either they thought so, or definitely yes, so we started south along the creek. That didn't last long, because the trail most definitely did NOT go anywhere, and after stumbling over one too many downed logs, we turned around and went back. We round another shortcut that put us back on another road that followed a utility line, which we figured would lead us back to the park, but after quite a ways, it dead ended at private property. We cut across some more property, which turned out to be private as well, but couldn't get back to the forest road because the terrain was just too tough, so we ended up retracing our steps again, until I finally found a way back to the main road and heading back to camp. We had only a couple of chances to canter, and unfortunately Hubby's cinch got loose a bit, not enough to take a fall, thank goodness, but we had to stop and re-cinch Clio's saddle. She got a lot of dust in her face today, because of the condition of the mostly sandy roads, and we were all glad to get back to camp, our short planned 6 mile ride turning into an 11 mile adventure. Fortunately, Hubby took it all in stride, and though he was tired (as was I), he didn't hurt too much, except for his foot a bit. We put the horses away and relaxed the rest of the day.

Decided to take another ride, this time to the north, hoping to get to a nice view of Diamond Peak, but not holding my breath as it's a bit farther than I think Hubby is ready for, as his foot is healing but still causing him a lot of pain. After the first quarter mile, the trail started climbing, through one of the ugliest forests we've ever seen. Literally, it seemed that there were more dead trees down than live trees standing, which gave it a really depressing look. The trail most mostly dirt, so we probably didn't need boots, and it started climbing fairly soon. Not a hard grade, but a steady climb through this ugly forest, until we reached pretty much the top, where it leveled off, about 3 miles in, with more dust, dust, and dust. We had hoped once we reached the ridge the woods would get prettier, but they didn't, so rather than continue on this depressing and excruciatingly dusty trail, we decided to turn around so as to not overdo it. Got back to camp, put the horses away, visited with some of our neighbors for a while before finishing of the day in our usual way.

Had a lazy morning before finally saddling and booting up the horses. I had spoken to a neighbor, Pat (and her husband Mike) about the state of the trails, and she said she was glad she put her boots on, although it was 90 % dirt and 10% rock, so we decided to do the same. That, of course, meant that I had to do some trimming on the horses' front feet, which took up some time. Eventually, we got on the trail, just before 1:00, and headed down the south trail, called Oldenburg, in the direction Bingham lake, which was reportedly about 4 miles out. Most of the loops here are fairly long, between 12-18 miles, and with Hubby still recovering, we're a long way from doing anything longer than 6-8 miles, so we figured out and back to the lake would be fine. The first half mile or so was quite pleasant, through some old growth pines, across a bridge, with a bit of a grade up hill for awhile, but eventually we came to an area that had many dead and downed trees, with no underbrush, so it looked pretty bare between the trees for the most part. The trail constantly climbed, though not with a very noticeable grade, and it was very dusty. Every step became a cloud, and there was no breeze, so whoever was in back got smothered. Naturally we forgot our kerchiefs, so we took turns riding "point" and "drag." The trail seemed to go on forever, and it turned out to be nearly 5 miles before we finally arrived at Bingham lake. The trail down to the lake was very narrow, so much so that we had to dismount to get the horses through the path between two trees, then we hung out on the beach a while, letting the horses drink and eat some nice grass, while Hubby put his foot up on a log for awhile, as it was aching him from the long ride. After about 20 minutes or so, we were joined by another couple who also came from the horse camp, and who were ponying a pack horse they said they were training for "elk season." We left shortly thereafter, with them a bit behind us, so we did some trotting and even cantering to get ahead. The dust wasn't quite so bad as a breeze had come up, plus when you're moving faster, it can't catch up : -)

Well, evidently the morning ranger didn't get the memo from the evening ranger, at least as far as the knowledge that it was our desire to sleep late this morning, because he came knocking at the door just after 8:00, so I had to get up and take care of business with him. Too late to go back to bed, so we got up, had a leisurely breakfast, then saddled the horses for their one and only ride here. Rachel was already out riding by the time we got up, and back by the time we headed out, so we said our good-byes before hitting the trail. Good news, the trails are mostly dirt with only a few rocky spots, so boots weren't necessary, and the trail was very easy. Too easy, actually, for our taste, as it was entirely flat, and a good percentage of the trail, maybe half, was in or around open fields, with one even circling around a hazelnut orchard. The rest did get a bit more interesting, weaving in and out of trees of various ages in the wooded areas. Stopped at a couple of places where the blackberries were just bursting too ripe to ignore, and we even managed to get a few canters in, though Hubby is feeling a little low on confidence, after his fall and broken bones in July, and the pain of his new injury in his foot, but he managed it okay. He felt compelled to hang onto the horn (not surprisingly), but off course that threw off his balance, so he wasn't as happy about it as he would have liked, but we all enjoyed the ride nevertheless, about 6.66 miles in just over two hours. Spent some time in the afternoon working on logistics for the next couple of weeks, made a reservation for the weekend at Whitefish Horse Camp about 150 miles southeast of here, then settled in for the evening.

Slept late again this morning, obviously we are still recovering from all the non-stop activity we've undergone in the past month! After breakfast, we saddled up and headed out into this lovely old-growth forest, with huge pines towering over us. On both the website and on the notice board, there was warnings about several trails closed by deadfall, but I took the advice of the woman I met on the way in the other day, and went up the road to a spur that took us down to the river, down being the operative word here. Some serious switchbacks dropped us more than 300 feet in less than a half mile, but the footing was good and the horses had no problems, other than being a little out of shape after being in a pasture for a month. The trail took us near the river, and we paralleled it for a while, until we both decided it was time to head back, don't want to overdo it on our first day out! Especially since we had to climb back UP that 300 foot drop! Apollo, ever the comedian, galloped up the first hill we came to, then settled down for the rest of the trip, with a few trots here and there. Gorgeous old growth forest, always a pleasure to be in one of these, and we weren't alone today. Met quite a few hikers along the way, as well as a few members of the Washington Trail Association, who were evidently out clearing some of the blockages off the trails, with promises it should be done by tomorrow, though too late for us. It was a very nice ride, and a good time was had by all! Once we got back, we pumped some of the water out of one of the barrels into the RV, as it seemed to be losing water though we couldn't figure out where, and we wanted to save what we can. Not to mention we both desperately needed a shower, and tonight was to be the night. Once that job was done, we crashed for the evening, watching some things we had recorded while we had been in Alaska, for a relaxing finish to the day.

Another overnight passage, we woke up the next day in Skagway, another small, quaint little town. Today we grabbed some breakfast before heading out in a shuttle van out to a stable near Dyea Flats Recreation Area about 30 minutes away. A string of horses were saddled and ready for us, and we had the best orientation we've had yet (though it was wasted on us, it was good for many novices in the group), but unfortunately, they made us don helmets, something we never use. Because of my experience, they assigned me a horse that didn't like the mounting block, so I mounted away from the rest of the crowd, then we headed out a typical dirt forest road through the woods. I had a nice chat during the ride with the front wrangler, a girl from the lower 48, as the ride was pretty simple. My horse's name was Homer, which is such a scream, as Homer was the name of the town where I took my first ride on a horse named JJ (a nickname of mine for years), and in Palmer my horse's name was Trooper, which was the name the horse the wrangler was riding today. Crazy coincidence, if you believe in those! Eventually the trail came out of the forest and opened up into a field with a bit of a view, though nothing spectacular compared to many we've seen around the country. We stopped for a photo op before remounting and heading back to the stable. Not exactly an exciting ride, but a ride nevertheless, and we enjoyed it, particularly Hubby, who had recovered from his four hour ride last Saturday, and he reveled in a shorter, 90 minute ride. We had a brief snack under a picnic table gazebo before shuttling back to the ship, where we had planned to grab some lunch before our afternoon excursion, a ride on the old White Pass train, but I discovered we weren't allowed to take food off the ship, and we didn't have time to walk into town to get something to eat, so I was frantic for a while. Eventually I decided we had to board the ship and run down to the cafe and grab something, even if we had to put it in our pocket to smuggle it out, and that's pretty much what we did, though we ate something on the walk to the disembarkation area as well. Relieved that we wouldn't be starving the whole afternoon, we boarded the train, looking forward to a nice quiet ride. Unfortunately, that was quickly spoiled by a very rude foreign guy (German, I think) with a son about 3 years old. I knew we were in trouble when, rather than take the boy to the bathroom that was on every car, he led the boy over to the railing between cars and had him pee right over the side! Most of the rest of a trip was a nightmare, with the boy running around, the father either loudly fawning all over him or ignoring him while he spent most of the time on the platform between cars taking pictures and leaving the boy on his own to wander around, or cry for his daddy. It was pathetic, distracting and disturbing example of poor parenting, and frankly, it spoiled the entire trip for us. We enjoyed the views and tried to get some pictures, but every time I tried to get a shot from between the cars, I had to practically push my way past the German guy, who was hogging the entire platform. Eventually, the boy fell asleep on the seat, which just gave the father more freedom to ignore him. At the end of the line, we were supposed to change seats with the people across from us so that everyone got the view from both sides, but because the boy was sleeping in the seat, and no one wanted to wake him, we and the folks in the seat behind us refrained from moving. I think that made the father a little upset because he had wanted to see the view from the other side, despite the fact that he had been seeing it practically the entire time from hogging the public area. I finally got so disgusted I walked to the other end of the car and hung out with a couple of older guys who at least knew how to share photo ops. Again, a beautiful trip, spoiled by the actions of one selfish man. Part of the trip followed the original Yukon Trail, and the trail was still easily visible in many areas. Apparently, during the Gold Rush, the trail was so packed with folks that if you pulled off the trail to tighten a girth or anything else, it was almost impossible to get back on the trail, because people were just so anxious to not let anyone get in front of them and their rush to their fortunes. Be a great trail to try and ride again, though! Eventually we made it back to the Ketchikan station, and were soon boarding the ship. We enjoyed another delightful meal at the Italian restaurant before heading out to the main stage show, billed as the Ladder Guy, whose whole shtick was pretending (poorly) that he couldn't stay up on an extension ladder, as well as a few basic magician's tricks. A really pathetic show, which was as boring to the audience as it was to the performer. Fortunately, it was only about 40 minutes long, to the torture passed quickly. Had a nightcap, then headed back to our stateroom after a long, busy, and trying day!

With another event planned, we left Talkeetna with heavy hearts and headed for Palmer, where I had found another horse outfitter that seemed to have a more interesting ride than the one I took in Homer. I had hoped to schedule a 1 or 2 hour ride to get Hubby back in the saddle gently, but unfortunately, the only thing going this afternoon was to be a 4 hour ride, but he insisted he could handle it (even though a 4 hour ride is too much for him even WITHOUT any broken bones), and off we went. We met him and the rest of the group at an open beach area next to a bridge on the edge of a national forest and the Knik river. We were introduced to our horses, which, oddly, were mostly Tennessee Walkers. I've never ridden one, and have always wanted to try, because I had heard how smooth their gait was. We soon learned that their walk is really choppy, much worse than our app/quarter horses, and unfortunately, we almost never were able to get up into the smooth gate that's one gear up from a walk. We both managed to do it a couple of times, just to see what it felt like, but obviously the rest of the group, or at least the wrangler, wasn't up for that. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good ride. We left the beach and headed almost immediately into the forest for quite a while, with the only disturbance being the many ATV's that were barreling along on many of the same trails we were using. Being a Saturday, it was quite busy, and this area is apparently a public area with few or no restrictions, though our wrangler, Joshua, said it was actually less busy than usual, probably because the Alaska State Fair was in full swing up the road in Palmer, and the weather was absolutely perfect (for a change), so that meant the park was a little quieter, relatively speaking. Anyway, after going for a ways in the woods, we emptied out onto a beach, with a beautiful lake and a glacier on the other side, and a number of fishermen along the bank. We skirted around them, and went through a bunch of mud flats, getting a bit damp in spots, though I did my best to lift my legs up on my saddle to avoid it as much as possible. After two hours we stopped and rested, and Hubby and I ate the lunch I had packed (though no one else seemed to have done that, and no snack was provided), before heading back home again. In the end, the ride was actually longer than four hours, and Hubby was hurting for the last 90 minutes, but stoically kept it to himself (though I could tell he was in pain, no one else could), and was quite happy and exceedingly proud of himself that he made it in one piece, as was I. I helped Joshua pack in the horses, trailering them in a way I don't recall ever seeing before, nose to tail from front to back, which made sense when he explained it to me. Then off he went, and Hubby and I decided to just spend the night where we were parked, as it was off the road, in the woods, next to a river... What more could you want? ATV activity didn't slow down much until much after dark, so it turned out to be a pretty good choice. Didn't want to get to Anchorage early anyway, with their rules against parking overnight there, and we were close enough that it didn't matter. RV portion of the trip almost finished!

Up early, as we had to be back to the barn by 8:00, according to what the wrangler had told me. Arrived 10 minutes early, found a spot to park the RV, said my good-byes to Hubby (he couldn't come because his broken bones aren't quite healed enough, and four hours is just too long for him at this point) and went out to meet the group. It took longer than I expected to get going, after 9:00 by the time we pulled out from the barn, then got stuck several times by construction before making another stop to pick up three more horses. A helper then ponied those three down to a parking area at the (almost) end of the road, where we were then matched up with our horses. I got a pinto gelding named JJ (funny, since that's a nickname for me as well), and after EXTREMELY brief instructions (not enough for the novices, in my mind, but not my job), we headed down the now private section of the road. I had read somewhere that the trail would be through forests and would end up on a beach before heading to the barn, leading me to believe it would be a linear path. Not true on any count. We switch-backed dramatically down the gravel road, dropping 700 feet in about a quarter mile, ending up on the beach immediately. We then headed east (away from the direction of the barn), and went across the mud flats at low tide. We walked, and walked, and walked for about 3 miles or so, before coming to a river crossing, but because of all the rain they'd been having during the last week or so, the river was too high to cross, so we stopped for lunch (we had to bring our own). A half hour later, we mounted up, crossed over to above the high tide line, where, on the edge of some foliage, we headed back the same three plus miles. For the entire time, our wrangler, Mark, never stopped talking. Some people have done reviews where they praise him for being such a character, but I found his constant chatter pretty annoying after the first 90 minutes or so (sooner, actually : -). When I tried to move to the other end of the line to get away from it, I ended up next to another customer, also named Mark, who had the same affliction. I tried to drop behind the line to get away from it, but the helper insisted on being last, (though that wasn't the case coming out, just going back), so I never once got to enjoy a moment of Alaskan peace on the ride. I realize some people treat a ride as a social event, but I'm not one of them. I like to commune with nature, to get a sense of the history of the place, not to mention the beauty of the glaciers across the inlet, but all of that was overshadowed by the constant yammering of the two Marks (sigh). Oh, well, at least I still got to ride in Alaska! The first of at least two, and hopefully more rides over the next three weeks. I managed to force a couple of trots in, just to "catch up" and move around the others, but despite several inquiries about cantering, it was never in the cards. From the descriptions of all the rides I've read about in Alaska, this one seemed the most likely to have some canters, and the mud flats certainly lent themselves to it (wide open and flat), but no dice. Better luck next time. Finally, we got back to the road, climbed up the side of the hill, and said our goodbyes. I hitched a ride with customer Mark back to the barn, since we were already more than an hour behind schedule, knowing Hubby had been expecting me at 2:00 and it was now past 3:00, nearly 3:30 by the time we got through the construction and back to the barn. We got started almost immediately, as we had a four hour drive to Seward. In my original plan, we were going to drive to Seward tomorrow, and just to the 1.5 hour Dog Sled tour, but Hubby decided he wanted to do the All Alaska Tour, which starts at 11:00 and includes lunch, a trip to the Exit glacier, and several other activities, which meant we needed to get most, if not all, of the trip done tonight. We headed out immediately, made a stop at Sodoltna for gas and a couple of groceries, and kept going. As always, the trip back seemed shorter than the trip out, particularly along the section of road where we had already been, then turned south to Seward at the crossroad. The closer we got to Seward, the darker the clouds and the more the rain. We had escaped it during the ride (though I was fully prepared, wearing my long riding slicker), but now it was starting to come down in spades. When we were about 15 miles out of town, we started looking for someplace to spend the night, again trying to find someplace not directly on the road. We found the perfect spot, a trailhead for river fishing access that had an entrance that was all but blocked from the road by a row of trees. We settled in, again not bothering to put the slides out, had some dinner and snacks, watched a movie (I finally found the culprit that was making my DVD player not work, a bad cord! Fortunately, I had an extra.) and settled in for the night.

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.

Woke up to another beautiful day, though there is a forecast for possible showers this afternoon, so we saddled up and headed out around 11:00. Headed west out of the back of the campground from Site 3, going down a beautiful trail that led us to Chicken Creek Trail. Though we put boots on the horses, most of the trails were dirt with only a few, occasional spots with rocks. At the bottom of the hill we made a left to continue following Chicken Creek Trail south where we followed the creek and even crossed it a couple of times, weaving our way through a gorgeous aspen and spruce forest. When we reached the first intersection, we turned north again on the Rim trail, because we just wanted a short exploratory ride today. As we climbed gradually up the hill, we passed some beautiful bushes of wild roses, with the kind of wonderful aroma that you just don't get in store-bought roses anymore. When we reached the top, the trail opened up into some beautiful open meadows, and we got in some FABULOUS canters for quite a ways. Finally we crossed a creek and ended up on the road, where the trail crosses. Unfortunately, in a freak accident, Apollo got his foot caught in a cattle guard, and we spent the next ten heart-stopping minutes trying to keep him calm and get his boot off and his foot out, which we finally accomplished, though not without some minor injuries. His foot was scraped and was starting to swell at the hairline at the top of his hoof, Hubby got a cut over his eye which I sealed with a butterfly tape, his chest was bruised where Apollo put his foot on it, and his calf was banged up. I was flung onto the grate and started to get a bruise on my hip that was 8 inches long by the end of the day, and my hand was sprained so that it could hardly move. After walking a bit to see if we could walk it out, it became obvious that Apollo's foot couldn't take too much weight, so I ended up leading him the half mile back to the camp. Though he wasn't limping badly, he wasn't picking his foot up as well as he needed to, dragging the toe slightly, so I don't think it's too bad, thank goodness. Once there I treated his foot with Vetericyn and wrapped it up in an ice pack for a while, and doing the same for my hip. We were concerned, but there wasn't much we could do except let it rest. When I took off the ice pack, I rubbed in down with Absorbine as well, figuring better circulation is always a good thing. Hubby and I both felt like we'd been in a car wreck, with bruises and aches and pains we couldn't even identify, they were just there. We rested the rest of the day, checking on Apollo throughout the evening to make sure he didn't worsen. A great ride until the incident, which could have been a disaster, which we narrowly averted. Whew! Meanwhile, the local dude ranch had indeed brought some horses up for a ride tomorrow, and had filled the water tank, so that was one less worry for us. We had a few rain showers just after we arrived, but nothing of any consequence. Shortly afterward, an RV came along with a family and four more horses, and eventually the dude ranch had to move some of their horses together to make room for them. Hubby spoke with the young cowboy tasked with keeping an eye on things overnight for a few minutes before we retired for the night.