Archives for 2012

As we were leaving Brookfield, we discovered another campground area next to the one we were in, and realized that the area we were in was apparently the group area, as opposed to the actual individual camping area, and were surprised that no one we had spoken to had mentioned that previously. Oh, well! It was much more set in the woods, so we probably wouldn’t have been able to get a satellite dish anyway, so we were probably better off. Pretty sure the water situation was the same anyway, so it wouldn’t have mattered. Found a nice place along the route for breakfast (though it was miles away from where my GPS has said it was, surprise, surprise), before heading out to the new stables. Found it without any trouble, and was warmly greeted by our hostess Sharon Tanner. It didn’t take long to get the horses settled, and got ourselves parked and situated as well. Quite a nice barn, with an indoor arena and numerous paddocks, though it was on a pretty busy road, so the dogs will have to be confined on a leash unfortunately. Very dry here, apparently they haven’t had any rain in the past 6 weeks. Weather pretty good today, but it’s supposed to warm up considerably this week, so we’ll be leaving the fans on when we leave! Glad to have electricity for that!

Nice and quiet here, yeah!! Even though we’re very close to a road, it’s a quiet road with almost no traffic, which was great. Took our first ride today, with a plan in mind, but ended up doing a different route in the end. The horses seemed quite tired (understandable, considering they did over 35 miles last week, almost all of it straight up and down), and, naturally, we started climbing first thing. Lots of rocks here, too, though there were a few sections that were really nice. We had been told that the farther from camp you go, the less used the trails were, and that was exactly the case. Trails were well marked, including a watering hole, and we only missed one turn because the marker was set back into the woods a ways, and a bit overgrown. The map was very comprehensive, a nice change, can’t remember the last time we had a good map! Nevertheless, after several miles in, the horses were really displaying signs of being tired, so we shortened our planned trip and headed back to camp. The full ride was just under 7 miles in the end, quite enough for our first day out. Put the horses out on the anchor for awhile so they could graze before we put them away. Settled in for the evening, both of us feeling tired as well, looking forward to a day off tomorrow.

Headed out by 9:00, with a stop at the dump near the ranger station, which took some maneuvering because of the tight circle, but we managed, as always. Grabbed breakfast at McDonalds (I had forgotten they do a decent egg and cheese bagel), stopped at a Tractor Supply for oats, another quick stop for brandy, then found our way to the Moscow Hill horse camp, one of the Brookfield trailheads. A bit dismayed to discover that the only water here is a hand pump, but some folks across the street were kind enough to let us fill up the RV so we didn’t have to struggle with that. Still a pain to water the horses. Hard to believe how often this place has been recommended, with no one mentioning the water limitations. Anyway, no one was here, so we spread out, found a good spot near the lower corral where Hubby could find a satellite signal and settled in.

Still had music late last night, but not as loud because it was further away. Still wore earplugs just to be sure of getting a good night sleep. Planned a trip today to get in one more trail on the books, even though it’s named the “box of rocks” trail, and everyone warned us it was really rocky. Turned out, not so much. There were a few short sections where it was pretty rocky, and it was more rocky than many of the other trails, but on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the rockiest, this would only be about a 7. It was a more interesting trail than all the others we’ve taken here, because it was more of a trail than a road, which the other trails were, albeit lots of grass, they were still wide like a carriage road. We liked it though, one of the better ones here, even with the rocks. When we got back, we put everything away before settling down for the night, early morning tomorrow as we set off for our next horse camp, Brookfield.

     Set the alarm for 8:00 to make sure we got out earlier, we have a good 14.5 mile ride planned today, and the forecast is calling for about 91 degrees, though since we’re riding up the mountain today, it should be a bit cooler up there anyway. According to Hubby, the music and noise went on until at least 4:00 this morning, though I don’t know how they have the energy after all their drinking and partying every night! Anyway, despite best laid plans, it was after 11:00 by the time we hit the trail, heading clockwise on the longest perimeter trail the park has to offer. It began wooded, and though it did climb, it was a fairly gentle climb with a couple of long switchbacks. We passed a couple of guys logging, and they immediately put everything in idle to let us pass, the kind of courtesy we’ve come to expect from loggers, who, despite the scars they leave behind, do exhibit respect for others in the forest. The first part of the climb was almost entirely through beautiful forest, the trail footing was mostly dirt and stones, a lot of shale rock that is prevalent throughout the area. As we reached the top, it opened up into an area that has obviously been clearcut previously, so it was wide open, and the sun grew hot as we passed through it. It wasn’t too long before we were back in the woods, on a trail that was mostly grass, wide enough to be a carriage road, and fairly level all along the top of the mountain. As we neared the north end of the west side, there were some intersections that created a little confusion, as they had trail maps posted, but then they had a “You Are Here” mark that indicated you weren’t on a trail (even though we were, it just wasn’t on the map!) When my GPS made it clear we were headed “off the reservation” we turned around and went back, picking up the trail at the previous intersection. This eventually took us to the maintenance buildings which were across from where I had been parking to check my email, and two young men were just getting ready to leave when we asked them if we could get some water for the horses (there hadn’t been any active streams, not surprising on the top of the mountain), and they gladly pulled a hose out of the building for us. We were glad we caught them, as they were just leaving, and there was not outside faucet, which we had expected. The horses both took a long draw, and we thanked the men and headed on our way. We almost stopped for lunch at a big rock along the way, but decided to press on until we crossed the road, signaling the true halfway mark. There was a fork in the trail just after we crossed East Trout Brook Road (which wasn’t marked on the map), so we started up the left trail (it was indicating it was shorter), but after a bit we didn’t see any markers, and decided to jump ship for the parallel trail which WAS marked. After about a mile, Hubby’s horse stumbled, and when he looked down he noticed she’d lost one of her Boa boots. He got down and started to look for it, thinking she’d just lost it and that’s was caused her to stumble, but no luck. So I headed back down the trail, thinking I would come across it fairly quickly, but again, no luck. I got all the way down to the road and still, no sign. Just as I was heading back, I heard Clio whinny nearby, and Apollo answered. Hubby had given up and headed back towards me (and Clio was anxious about not seeing her “baby”), so we joined up and kept backtracking. I remembered we had cantered across a field between the maintenance buildings and the road, so we kept going, as Hubby was almost certain she still had both boots on when we stopped for water. Sure enough, right at the beginning of the field where we started to canter, there lay the Boa. Well, since we had put off lunch to find the boot, and it was now about 3:00, we decided to stop there and eat lunch before we pressed on. After trail mix and granola bars for us and oats and feed for the horses, we headed back up the trail again, though we decided to shorten the route a bit by taking the shortcut we had done the other day, and skipping the “Box of Rocks” trail that everyone had warned us was, as the name implies, very rocky. We need to tackle that when we’re all not so tired. The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, and by the time we reached home at 7:00 we had actually gone 17.5 miles. We struggled through putting everything and everyone away before we sat down to cool off enough to muster the energy for a shower and dinner. Watched a PBS movie before crashing into bed around 11:00, again with pounding music and loud voices yelling in the background. I finally convinced Hubby that no one was going to mess with the horses, and he put earplugs in for the night. It truly is the only way one could get a decent night sleep!