How The West Was Spun

Eagle Extreme Ride

This weekend, D and I drove up to Eagle, Idaho (just north and slightly east of Boise) for the Eagle Extreme ride.  This was D and Sam's first ride together, and Bhen and I told them we'd ride with them to make sure they got thru everything okay.  We needn't have worried.  The guys did great!

MJ drove up with us to Idaho.  She's just gotten clearance (as of Monday, today) to start riding again, but since her horses have been on vacation while her shoulder healed from surgery, she didn't have them in good enough condition to ride.  (So we had one of the top 3 riders in our geographic division acting as crew for us; a little overkill, I suppose........  She's a good sport, though, and took very good care of the ponies during our vet-check break.)

We took the big, living quarter trailer her husband has as a demo from his trailer-sales business and lots of panels for the horses.  Bhen had his own space at one end of the trailer.

Sam had slightly taller panels, since he's such a big boy, at the other end of the trailer.

Ride camp was in this lovely flat, sagebrushy area between two small ranges of hills.  There were 4 loops for the ride (the 50-milers rode all 4, the 25-milers rode just 2 of the 4).  They all came back into camp for the vet checks, which was nice, since the boys could come back to the trailer to have a snack and a bit of a rest before going back out again, and we didn't have to pack everything to take out to a midway point.  The first loop was not very technical - most of it was flat 2-track sandy trails through a ranch.  Our only dicey moment was at the start, where Sam got kind of revved up with all the horses and excitement, and we had to try to stay clear of an unhappy, kick-prone mare whose rider was trying very hard to get under control.  Once we got on the trail, the boys trotted along nicely next to each other and kept each other company. 

We had our break after the first loop and went back out onto the second part of the ride.  I had actually ridden part of this trail before, when I went to try out Bhen, since the ranch where he lived was just over the next range of hills, so I recognized some of the terrain, knew when we'd need to slow down or where we could make time.  With his huge walking stride, Sam was able to make up a lot of time on the hills.  We could keep him at a walk and not tire him, but he was leaving folks trying to trot those hills in the dust.  Our main goal for this ride was to finish and to have Sam come to the end of the ride still in good shape.  This trail was more technical - creek crossings, more rocky areas, some cross-country (meaning no trail  at all) areas, and had some somewhat sparse and/or confusing trail markings. We blasted out of a rocky creek crossing at one point, coming out of the trees up a steep hill and almost ran into a somewhat uncooperative cow and her bull suitor.  Oops.  A quiet and verrryyyy careful tiptoe away from the romantic pair was in order. 

Nearing the end of the loop, we unfortunately missed a turnoff for the last few miles of the loop, and headed back into camp incorrectly.  The ride manager stopped us, explained where we needed to catch the other part of the loop and sent us back out.  I was worried Sam would be overly tired, but apparently he just got his second wind, because he powered back up to the top of the ridge line, we found the trail and headed out to finish up the loop.

Even though we wound up adding 3, or maybe 4 extra miles, D and Sam still came in 10th.  Not bad at all for their first ride.

We all got commemorative water bottles for completing the ride, and D and I got a set of polo wraps, since we were had driven the farthest to attend the ride.  We got to hang out a little with Bhen's previous mom, Sally, and see her new horses, and then crashed for the night.  No problems sleeping at all!

We packed up the boys on Sunday a.m. and were home by midafternoon on Sunday for a little R&R.  Digger was happy to see everyone and the boys have all been having back-to-back snoozes in the sun here today.

Bhen's looking forward to his next ride in June, up in the mountains of Utah tho!

All for now....

Moab Canyons Endurance Ride

Friday, MJ and I trailered down to Moab, Utah, in her big 4-horse, living quarters trailer with her arab gelding, Beau, and new horse, Bhen, for the 2-day endurance ride.  Although 75 people had preregistered, and the ride manager (Sheri Griffith, who did a fantastic job handling all the logistics) had a BLM permit for 100 people, 150 riders showed up (which also meant she had to call BLM offices at the last minute and try to get her permit capacity bumped up - a huge headache for her, I'm sure).  When we arrived around 12:30, the parking area of the camp was already filling up quickly.

We got the boys out and built a temporary corral for them, and got them fed and watered so they could relax a bit.  Here's Bhen:

And Beau (hoping for a cookie):

We took the boys for a walk after we got everyone settled in so they could tour camp, and then got our rider numbers for the next day, and took the boys over to see the vet to be checked in and make sure they were sound to ride for the race. After a quick dinner (and the addition of a lot of warm clothes plus some blankets, because the temperature drops quickly in the desert when the sun goes down!), we attended the riders' meeting and got the trail maps for the next day, plus some information about places to watch footing on the trail, where the water stops were, and so on. 

There were a LOT of riders signed up to do the 25-mile race.  Like 73.  That's more than sometimes attend an entire race.  I'm not sure how many folks signed up for the 50-miler, but it was a similar number.  MJ, who graciously agreed to ride with me (even though she is normally kicking arse and taking names in the 50s), and I plotted a little strategy.  Since it was so dusty and there was such a large field, her suggestion was to get out of the pack early and stay out front so we weren't going to be eating dust all day.  Good plan.

The next morning, after a chilly start (we blanketed the boys overnight and it was good we did as there was ice on the water buckets), we got checked in with the officials, and trotted around a bit to warm the boys up and by 8:00 a.m., we were off just as the sun was peeking up over the mountains. There were about 6 riders that went out in front of us.  We let the boys trot quietly for just a few hundred feet, and then MJ yelled out "GO!", so I clucked to Bhen and asked him to pick up the pace.  We called out ahead to let the other riders know we wanted to pass so they were aware of us coming up. 

One cowboy-type (wearing jeans and no helmet) on a BIG black and white paint looked down at us as we zipped by and said "Is that thing even a horse?  It's too short to be a real horse."  Uh huh. (Bhen is the same size as Digger, a manly 14.2 hands high.)  I told MJ later I didn't care if we were 71st and 72nd out of the 73, but I was not gonna let that guy finish in front of us.

At any rate, we zipped past this group and I let Bhen go out in front for a while, sitting a brisk pace.  We took a quick break at the first water stop, but the boys were ready to keep going, so we settled them back into their trot and rode on.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful.  Red rock canyons, sandy washes, and miles and miles of sagebrush.  We trotted on, following our blue ribbons that marked the 25-mile trail, and came into the vet check (at about the half-way mark) second.  However, the guy riding in first place had been pushing his horse hard to stay ahead of us, and he couldn't get the horse's pulse down.  When we came in, the boys had a drink, and they were checked in under the 60 beats per minute pulse parameter to continue, so we went ahead and had the vet check them out, to be fit to continue - which they were.

After a 40-minute mandatory hold, with a break for more water, some nice mush and a bit of hay, we remounted and sent the boys out on the trail again.  By about mile 20, I was so very thankful I had MJ with me.  I fell last Monday (not horse-related, just on some wet stall boards), so I had been riding with a cracked tailbone, and by then, I gotta tell ya - it was a HUGE pain in the arse.  MJ put Beau out in front and set the pace for us, and we chit-chatted our way to about mile 24.  As we were coming towards camp, we could see a group of riders, who had passed us and one of the guys in that larger group had been thrown from his horse (inexperienced rider on a horse that wasn't his).  We all stopped and waited, and one of the other riders (who was riding with all her western tack and gear) went out and caught the loose horse, and brought it back to the rider.  We all agreed she got to go to the head of the line for "good samaritan" points, which she deserved.

Since we were only about a mile in from camp, we basically all stayed in line and came into camp in a group of about 10.  A couple of the folks up at the front who had been pushing their horses hard took longer to pulse down to the 60 beats per minute criteria, so we wound up coming in ahead of them by AERC rules.  (Your completion of a 25-mile race is when your horse has met pulse/respiratory rate parameters, not necessarily in the order you come in, so sometimes it's better to be slower than faster at the end of the race, to give the horse time to catch its breath.)

Bhen and I came in 7th, and MJ was kind enough to let us go ahead of her in the standings.  (Honestly, she has like 19,000 competitive miles and a gajillion Best Condition awards, and she coulda totally waxed everyone's fanny, but she is a kind, dear soul that way - very very generous). Our "prize" for completion was a great photo taken out on the trail just before the vet check.

How fun is that?

The boys both did great and were bonded pretty tightly by the end of the weekend together.  We trailered back on Sunday (with me and my arse sitting on a heating pad most of the trip) and got the boys home.  The ride was a total blast and I'm looking forward to next season already!

PS - The cowboy on the big black and white paint?  Didn't even finish the race.  He got pulled for Lameness at the vet check.  In this case, it sure isn't size that matters, dude.

All for now...

Bison or Bust

I know I've mentioned Antelope Island before in previous trail-riding posts.  It is a large island with rugged terrain that juts up out of the Great Salt Lake, and has herds of antelope and a large bison herd who live on it.  Every year in the fall, the bison herd is rounded up from the island and driven into pens at the south end/ranch end of the island so the babies can be checked on, and various vet-based things like shots and general checkups can be had.  My endurance-riding buddy, MJ, and her husband put on an endurance ride on the island every April, and she had mentioned the roundup was a fun way to spend the day on your horse.  The island is closed for this week except for those folks who have registered for the round-up.  It sounded like great fun, so I signed Diggs up as my riding partner and we went out on Friday.

We left the house at early o'clock under the light of a gorgeous hunter's moon.

I drove up with MJ, since each of us was only taking 1 horse, and we met her husband, Dean, and the Farrells (Pam, John, Dan - and PS - Dan took a lot of these photos including the one above).  This was a really good test for Digger.  He has done trail rides with smaller groups, but he's never had to get out of the trailer in a strange place filled with trailers and horse panels, and so many horses.

There's MJ on the left with her boy, Beau, and Dean with his gray mare on the right.  You can see how stressed out Diggs is - he was totally content at this point to just stand and eat his breakfast.  After we got tacked up, we had a meeting with the ranch manager.  And the bad news was.....they already had all the bison moved by the end of the previous day of the roundup.  Due to some controlled burns on the island to help regenerate the grasslands, most of the bison were already en route to the southern end of the island, where the pens are, before the roundup started, so it didn't take a lot of work to move them the rest of the way.  Bummer.

BUT! That meant we got to take a leisurely ride on the island.  I can't think of a nicer way to spend a warm, sunny fall day.  There was a large group headed out with MJ and Dean, but there were a few....*ahem*.... badly trained and somewhat wild horses in that group, so our little group of 4 (Me, Pam, John and Dan) opted to ride out the trail to the southern beach and see the water.

The fall colors were absolutely gorgeous and the sky was a bright, bright blue.

We rode along the base of the mountains that run along the spine of the island. The footing here is great.  Nice, packed sandy soil with only a few rocks, here and there, and the trail is wide enough you can ride next to someone and have time to chat.  To our right-hand side, as we rode south, are the hills pictured above, and to our left, facing east, we had a beautiful view of the beach and the Great Salt Lake.

We rode until we reached the southern-most tip of the island and then we turned west and headed uphill until we peaked at the top of the mountains, and could look down over the other side, towards the western half of the Lake.

The ground up here is much more rocky and there aren't true trails on it, but we turned north again and rode along just beneath the peaks of the mountains as we headed back to ridecamp.  You can see, however, where the bisons' feet have turned up the grass, so they've obviously had no trouble finding their way through this area (click for bigger).

On the way back, we spotted a lone old bull across a ravine from us.  He didn't even bother picking his head up and just wandered along, grazing slowly.  Some of the older bulls (which are massive and cranky) are too dangerous to try to bring in on horseback, so rather than even try , they will send out a helicopter on Saturday evening to look for any of the old rogues, and convince them from the air to move a bit further south so the rangers can keep an eye on them and provide food for them over the winter.  I got a couple of pictures of the old man, but frankly, from the distance with my little point-n-shoot camera, he looks like a large rock, so I won't post those for you.

When we arrived back in Ridecamp, MJ was getting dinner ready for the group.  Diggs had done SO well, until it was time to relax, and then the Dorkboy in him leapt into action.  Just after this picture was taken, he decided to try to demolish MJ's expensive living-quarters trailer.

We had a "discussion" about proper camp-out, non-Dorkboy behavior, then, he and I.

Dan's bestest girl, Abbey, obviously had a great time, and was happy to take a snooze in the sun at the trailer wearing her commemorative round-up bandana.  Yeehaw!

Next year, we'd like to go again, but I think we'll go earlier in the week (like maybe the first day, Wednesday) and actually get to see the bison.  Despite that, it was an absolutely gorgeous day to spend outside with good friends, a (relatively) good horse, and a great trail.

All for now......

Blackhawk Trail Ride

Way back when, in the pre-BFS (that's Bee Fields shawl) days, we used to actually trail ride.  And now that we are finally seeing light at the end of that tunnel, I thought I'd throw in some pictures and a brief recap of a ride we took just before the BFS hysteria ensued. 

We had been wanting to ride the Blackhawk Trail, which is a portion of the Nebo Loop in the Uinta mountain range, for a while.  There are tons of trails in this area, but this one seemed a nice 13-mile loop and would afford us gorgeous views.  So, back in July, we trailered up the very steep and windy access road to the trail head, which is nicely situated with a big parking lot for horse rigs, several bathrooms (I really cannot tell you how nice this feature is!) and good water for the horses.

The trail starts out at a fairly high 8500-foot or so elevation, so you've done the bulk of your climbing in the truck.  It's a nice, rolling single-track trail through small groves of trees:

and then back out into the open meadows with spectacular views of the surrounding mountain peaks. (Gratuitous horse ears in shot, just for you, Cathy.)

The only thing Diggs doesn't like about the meadows is... uh oh... cows.  We ran into several large groups during the ride, and part of the reason his ears are so "alert" in the photo above is he is 99% sure there is a cow hidden behind this sign.

The trail is wonderful to ride for our Fox Trotters.  Fairly smooth, packed dirt with little rocks and it lets them really step out in their gaits and motor along.  We did quite a bit of running walking, even on the steeper uphills.  The crew took a break at a local stream while we had a snack and looked at the map.

There's Hap's rather round bum on the far left, with D; Pam and Shahara in the middle; Dan's riding his paint horse, Abbey; and John's digging for more food from his packs on Jazz.

It was a great trip.  Sadly, the day after we rode the loop, the area was hit with another devastating fire (as so many areas have been this summer in Utah) which you can read about here.  We haven't been back since, but would like to ride it again to see the damage and what the area looks like post-fire.  A reminder that when you are in the high mountains out west, and the sky looks like this:

It's getting time to gather the troops and head for home, with an eye to the sky.

All for now.....

Co-Op Creek Trail Ride

Just not being able to stand the heat, we opted to go up into the mountains on Sunday with the horses.  Be assured we kept a wary eye on the sky for the pop-up afternoon thunderstorms and accompanying lightning which have sparked several devastating wildfires here in Utah.

D and I, the horses, plus Pam and John and their crew drove east into the Strawberry River reservoir area and made for a trailhead that would take us along Co-Op Creek in the National Forest.  D and John had plotted out our course on a couple of topos maps and we were not disappointed.  The first 3 or 4 miles of the trail wound along the creek, through huge aspen groves.  Because of the water source, everything up here is lovely and green and (relatively) cool.

D and Hap stopped frequently to double-check the GPS coordinates he had plotted.

After winding through the forest, the trail opened up into a 2-track, accessible to ATVs, although we only saw 2 guys on 4-wheelers.  It wound in and out of small meadows and then back under the trees.

There are tons of flowers out right now - indian paintbrush, wild roses, lupines, wild geraniums - and we enjoyed looking at the brilliant colors as we worked our way up to about 9000 feet. We saw an elk, several deer, lots of birds, and as we finished up the loop, to return back to the trailer, we stopped to admire the handiwork of the beavers in creating log-jams across the creek.

This was a great summer ride (although it would also be beautiful in the fall with the aspens).  It was about 10 degrees cooler up here than in the valley and it is not particularly a technically challenging trail.  There are a couple of spots near the edges of drop-offs, but space is wide enough you can move the horses away from the edge, off the trail, if you need to.

About 2 miles from the trailer, D spotted a folded print-out map on the ground.  I hopped off Diggs to pick it up, thinking one of us had dropped it, but it turned out to be a copy of a map from a recent endurance ride (Strawberry Fields Forever, Day 2) in the area that gave us two MORE local trails to explore.  We might even go back this weekend for another tour.

All for now.... 

American Fork Trail Ride

Saturday was stinkin' hot here.  Okay, who am I kidding?  It's like that all the time around here.  It is bad bad bad when the weatherman says we will be "cooling down" to 95.  We decided to go up into the mountains to try to get away from some of the heat.

We headed out to American Fork canyon, which houses the Timpanogos Cave and is a huge area of national forest/national park lands.  We actually didn't visit the cave, but wound our way up the mountain to the Salamander Flats campground.  The campground was very busy - it being 4th of July week and lots of folks on vacation - but we still found an area to park our trailers.  Here's Diggs modeling the new trailer we just picked up with a view of Mt. Timpanogos in the background.

This is a great little trail that winds through the woods, and then out into open alpine meadows, and back into the woods again.  Here are Pam and Jazz blazing trail through an aspen forest.

And one of the grassy meadows, where we stopped to let the horses drink from a clear-water creek.

Even though the trail was quite busy with hikers and bikers, and motorcycle-type vehicles, I was really amazed (and extremely happy) at how polite everyone was.  The motorcyclists either turned off their bikes completely to let us pass, or, if they were going the same direction we were, let us have time to get off the trail, turn the horses, and then drove past V-E-R-Y slowly.  Diggs was happy with the extra people time, and got a nice head scratch from a young lady who was hiking when we stopped at a crossroads to read the signage.

Lots of scenic vistas along the trail and it was well worth the drive.  There are lots of other trails that criss-cross this area, and D and I want to go back and explore the area some more.  It's only about 50 to 60 minutes of drive-time from our house, including the slow-going on the steep and windy uphill to Salamander Flats.  We are hoping to be able to go back spot a few bighorn sheep, or perhaps some mountain goats, which frequent the watering holes in these mountains.

All for now.......

Yellow Fork Canyon

  Judy and Cathy:  This is for you.

Today (Friday) was beautiful here in SLC.  Mid-70s, sunny, bright blue sky, light breeze.  Just absolutely picture-perfect weather.  D left work a bit early and we packed the horses up to go to one of our favorite local rides, Yellow Fork Canyon.  Yellow Fork is named for the year-round creek that runs through the canyon.  It is located almost due west of our house (which is west of the I-15 corridor), and is the next canyon to the south of the large Kennecott copper mine.  This is our go-to ride during the summer when we don't want to devote an entire day to riding because we can get there in about 20 minutes, ride for 3 or 4 hours, and it is usually cooler there because of the elevation.

The basic trail ride is only about 7-1/2 miles, but includes some water crossings and good conditioning up and down the hills, but we often throw in a loop with a very steep grade with loose rocks to ride up on top of the canyon and look out over the valleys to the east.  It's a great way to keep the horses in shape during the summer.  When we first got Hap, she needed a couple of breaks to catch her breath up that steep grade (since she hadn't been ridden much in the previous 3-1/2 years), but now - stand back - she is up that hill without a pause and raring to go.

Most of the ride winds along portions of the creek, through the trees on a narrow dirt 1-track.

The trail winds upward until you pop out on an outcropping where the wind is usually blowing hard, and the views of the valley are breathtaking.

At this elevation, there isn't a lot of plant life, although the cacti are visible all summer (they turn purplish in the fall), and right now, some desert flowers are blooming.  (Click to make bigger - I was taking all of these from horseback, so you'll excuse the less than stellar details in the photography.)

Here's D and Hap, with the Kennecott copper trailing piles in the background - those are the flat-topped "mountains" just behind D's helmet. Hard to believe those are man-made, but they are!

And, just because he's my boy, a picture of me and Diggs.  (Diggs looks like I usually do in my pictures - unsure exactly what the hell that person with the camera is doing.)

All for now.....

Antelope Island Ride

Since the weather was so lovely here this weekend, D and I decided to take the horses up to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake for a ride on Sunday morning.  It was a gorgeous, 65-degree day with lots of sun and a light wind.  The island itself rises from the flats of the Great Salt Lake to just over 1000 feet in elevation at the peaks and all the humidity from the water makes the vistas seem to shimmer in the distance.  Here's a view looking out towards Salt Lake City itself (towards the east).

We decided on an 8-mile or so loop that would let the horses stretch their legs a bit, although they were hot when we first started out, as we were on the side of the island protected from the wind and they already have their winter coats on.  They picked up the pace once we reached the top of the rise and were able to feel the nice breeze coming in out of the northwest.  The rock formations on the island are really interesting, since the island was part of the bottom of the large Lake Bonneville.  There are some of the oldest and youngest types of rock found in the state on the island.

Another fun feature of the island is that they have a bison herd who live year-round out there.  Bison aren't creatures you should treat lightly.  They sorta look like cows, but they certainly don't act like them.  When we reached the upper portion of the trail, we turned toward the northeast, and were able to see the trail winding out through a large portion of the herd.  I was a bit nervous about going through the group because A) bison are big and can get testy and B) Digg is NOT cowy, so I wasn't sure how he would do with things that sorta look like cows.  The herd was spread out on both sides of the trail, so the horses had to move in between the two halves of the large group. 

I was VERY proud of Digg, however.  He was a little bit nervous when he caught their scent on the wind and realized they were moving around (albeit slowly while they grazed).  As we came up within about 25 feet, several of the larger, older cows moved out of the trail and out into the grass, which seemed to reassure Digg a bit that he could move them away from him (like we practiced with the cow next door), but some of the younger bison stood in the trail and faced us while they figured out what we were.  Being on horses usually makes other grazing animals more comfortable than if you are on foot as a human - they may not understand why the horse looks so odd (with the rider on them), but they can tell this is another herbivore, and it often means they won't bolt away from you.  We rode slowly into the midst of the group and as the older cows moved away, the young ones eventually decided they should do that too, and cleared the trail for us.

Digg danced a little when some of the youngsters kicked up their heels as they moved away from us, but he walked nicely for me through the herd and only after we were 100 yards or so away, did I let him trot out to burn off some of his anxiety stress.  We rode up to the top of a slightly higher rise, and Digg wanted to turn around and check to be sure we weren't being followed.  Once he was sure all was clear, he gave the herd a little snort....just to put them in their place, and then he followed Hap out as we turned turned northwest towards the trailhead.

On the rest of the ride back, we saw a few more large bison bulls out on their own - usually standing in the shade or napping while they digested their breakfast - and several antelopes who sprang away through the tall grass in front of us.

The horses did great and we have plans to go back next month and ride the longer 11-mile trail that runs along the eastern coast of the island down to the ranch at the southern tip.

All for now....

Yellow Pine Trail

Back to business as usual here in the States.  We did take a short ride to work out the kinks from the horse crew on Saturday and I happily went off to the Great Basin Fiber Festival (more on that in a later post) in the afternoon.  Sunday, however, found us back in the Uinta's which are rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to ride. 

The day was perfect - sunny, 80s, light breeze and a bright blue sky.  The trail we picked this time was the Yellow Pine Trail, which we understood was theoretically "easier" than the Shingle Creek Trail which is just a few miles to the east of Yellow Pine.  Both of these trails, however, are technically difficult and not something I would put a totally green horse or a very inexperienced rider on.  The trails run through what must be the rock graveyard of the world.  Trails here in Utah tend to be rocky, but Yellow Pine has a LOT of rocks.  There are also several steep grades (22% or so) and quite a few of these tend to be on narrow trails, some with drop-offs into the canyon.

The trail winds up through ponderosa pine forest and aspen groves along the creek.  We started about 7600 feet of elevation where just a few trees have the edges of their leaves turning, but by the time we reached the summit at approximately 9650 feet, fall is definitely gaining a firm grip on the trees.  Our goal here was an alpine lake and after a hard pull uphill, the crew (we rode again with Pam, John and Daniel and respective horses) reached the summit and then, after a short downhill, found ourselves on the shore of a lake with absolutely pristine, crystal clear waters.

The edge of the lake is a bit mucky, but it was fun to see the hoofprints of some very large elk around the water's edge.  There is an area where you could camp, I suppose, if you brought in supplies for yourself and the horses, as there is no grazing in this area.  There are, however, large boulders perfectly situated for a resting spot to have lunch.

The horses, after their hard climb uphill, were glad for a rest.  Digger hung out with me (that's Shahara supervising Daniel's lunch) and he got a nibble of my oatmeal raisin cookie after lunch.  Happy put her head down, cocked her back leg and took a nap.  Only when she realized we were getting ready to head back down the hill did she look around at all.

The ride down had some difficult negotiations around the loose rocks and the steep incline, but all the horses did very well.  Digger and I led on the way out and I have to say, I was really proud of him.  He negotiated creeks and bridges, and did a long flight of stone stairs all by himself.  He was a little worried about some of things we ran across on the trail (what looked like the tread of an old snowmobile - neither of us were sure what that was at first), but he took a closer look and kept going past the scary boogie monsters when I asked him too, so all in all, we had a great ride.  There are some other trails in that area we are going to try to explore before the snows come (which is not too far off at these higher elevations).

All for now...

Shingle Creek Trail Ride

One of the things D and I wanted to do when we got the horses was use them to explore back country areas in Utah.  To that end, our friend Jane found us a great book called The Back Country Horseman's Guide and we have been using that to help plan our little jaunts to new trails throughout Utah.  We've ridden several of the trails already in the book but we hadn't been to any of the ones up in the high Uinta Mountains. 

This weekend, we were on tap to go with Pam, John and Daniel (and respective horses) up to the Mirror Lake area, where we were going to explore the Shingle Creek trail.  We drove up through Park City and through Kamas.  The temperature was perfect (upper 60s) when we got out of the truck and got the horses tacked up for the trail ride.  The trail itself follows Shingle Creek up through the woods from a starting elevation of 7660 to just under 9700 feet, so after we went through the metal stock gate, the trail immediately began a gradual climb up through groves of aspen and pines.

The stream is still running fairly swiftly through the area, and there are signs of beaver activity and dams all along the waterway. 

The guidebook we've got lists some of the hazards of the trail: There is a wooden bridge crossing on the first part of the trail and there is "one section of the trail that is steep and has a steep drop-off".  Yes - check - both of those things.  However, the author downplayed the fact that long stretches of this trail are rock - both loose rock and large sections where the horses have to walk on rock which is cut in steps.  Following Hap up the trail, Digger and I could watch the sparks flying off her shoes where she was nicking the edges of the rocks.  The middle section of the trail (after you cross the creek the second time) sloped sharply upwards along the face of one of the canyons, and the narrow trail (with drop off) is nothing but scree rock where the pieces slide down under your feet.

After we successfully navigated that, we alternated between hard-packed dirt trail sections through the woods, and areas which were littered with rocks which the horses had to carefully pick their way through and pay extra attention to their footing. This is a shot looking across the creek gorge after we had made the climb up about two-thirds of the way towards the top.

We were about a mile away from the lake (our final destination) at the head of the creek when Pam happened to glance up at the sky through the trees and remarked "Gee, I don't like the looks of that cloud", and pointed out a large dark gray cloud mass that was gathering above us.  We stopped to take a look at the map and the GPS, and just about then, we heard the first thunder.

Getting stuck on the mountain in a summer thunderstorm in the Uinta's is NOT a safe place to be, so we made the decision to wolf down some lunch and turn the group around and head for home, knowing we would have to navigate all that rock again on the downhill, and now it would be wet from the rain.  As soon as we had finished lunch and started to get going back to the trailhead, it began to rain - we all got rain gear on - and surprisingly, although it continued to thunder above us and rain steadily, it wasn't raining too hard and the horses were staying calm enough we decided to just keep on going.  We put Hap (our pace car) in the lead and sent her ahead with the rest of us just keeping up and letting her set a nice steady (but not foolhardy) brisk pace.

She and D led the crew down off that mountain, picking her way carefully back through all the scree and the several creek crossings.  Pam and Jazz followed her, and we did luck out and get a break from the rain when we paused to let the horses catch their breath after the worst of the rocky downhill sections.

Daniel and John brought up the rear, keeping an eye on the two youngsters (Jazz and Digger).  Daniel had been kind enough to let me wear his extra rain jacket - I made the decision that I wanted to take my long lead line (and was glad I did because I had to work Digg over some of the scarier obstacles with it) but not rain gear - but he didn't seem to be too bothered by the storm either.

When we got back to the parking lot, the rain was just barely drizzling, although the temperature had dropped to about 55 degrees and there was a wind up.  We got the crew untacked and decided we'd go back down the road to look at a few other trailheads.  Once on the road, we ran into the center of the storm, complete with pounding rain and hail, and we all decided we were really happy we had managed to get down off the mountain in just a little light rain.  There are several other trails which we understood from one of the other riders we ran into in the area, most of which are less technically challenging.  So, we have plans to go back to the area after our Ireland adventure and do a bit more exploring.

Digg says he's up for that.

All for now....