Pink Flamingo

After our wilderness tour of the Sawtooth's it was off to the Pink Flamingo Classic near Cascade, ID. A very nice 2 day event held in a beautiful area of soft wooded trails. Nothing like the rugged Sawtooth's. We just rode the first day since we'd only been back from the Sawtooth's for 3 days.
The first loop found my horse rather full of himself, there's a news flash. Thunder is ALWAYS full of himself! The trail took us by a lovely mirrored pond and offered us some nice views of Cascade Lake and West Mt. The second loop I told my bratty redhead that he could move out a bit, for which he was quite grateful. We passed a few horses on this loop, some destined for both days of riding.
The last loop of 12 miles had some steep up and down with little inbetween. The last couple miles of relative flat dirt road was out of the trees and it was hot! It was a fun ride. We finished the 50 in a bit over 7 hrs and I was happy with that. My horse was sound and healthy and vetted through just fine.
Now it's off to the coast to visit and play!

Riding the Sawtooth Wilderness

Wow! What a week. What I thought was going to be several days of "trail riding", turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime! A friendly hiker took this picture of the 3 of us near the Snowyside Peak Divide on our 4th day of riding.

We first camped at Grand Jean and rode 3 days out of there, taking the Elk Lake trail, Baron Creek Trail, as well as portions of the South Fork Payette and the Trail Creek Lakes Trail. Some of the streams were quite high and swift plus they have logs and holes amid the rocks. Crossing them was quite treacherous. When we had to cross North Fork the second time, we said a couple hail Mary's and yeehawed across the raging water with Thunder in the lead, jumping the log and onto the bank! We left a very confused backpacker sitting on the bank wondering "What the ????"

The deadfall from old burns made for some slow travel if we couldn't simply jump the logs, but the views were gorgeous! Rock slides on talus slopes stopped us from actually reaching Baron Lake unfortunately. Too have continued on the talus slope with little or no trail would have been disastrous with a horse. Very little work has been done on these trails, they work the backpackers but the horses couldn't fit under those logs. :-)
We went on to Stanley for supplies and camped at Tin Cup. We headed out mid afternoon for a ride from Pettit Lake up around Toxaway, over Snowyside Divide, down through the middle of the sawtooths past Twin Lakes, Alice Lake, El Capitan and back to Pettit Lake and made it back to camp by dusk! This was an outrageous ride, not for the faint hearted. We had some wild riding and high adrenaline moments, beautiful views, great days of weather and no I am not really glad to be back home but here I am. :-) Here is a link to pics. http://picasaweb.google.com/zap6000

BOGUS BASIN

Last Saturday, July 5, we went up to Bogus Basin, NE of Boise to ride. The road gets pretty windy and steep for about 13 miles. We dodged bicyclists all the way up to the parking area near Schafer Butte. We rode for several hours, enjoying the pine trees and shaded areas and beautiful vistas from the hill tops. It was a very clear day and you could see forever! It was different riding alongside the ski lifts. We had to backtrack several times because our logging tracks ended and the brush was too thick to try to figure out where to go. One track ended about 100 yards from the cat tracks that we needed to take us back. It was getting late and no way was I turning around. It was 50 very steep yards then it was just uphill, but I led Hollie up. Josette sent Roseanna up behind me. They're tough and I sure didn't feel like trying to figure out how else to get back to Schafer from there if we had to back track again! Luckily we found a couple springs with water for the horses. I couldn't resist a picture with this sign "Last Chance", it just seemed so appropriate. What a great ride, hope we get to do it again!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Today I went solo on Thunder. This is the first time I have gone out totally by myself on him since our wreck in November. We have come so far - its amazing! The last few rides on him I have gone way out ahead of the others with him and he did just fine. Joe had him out by himself and he did well then too. I just needed to get back all the confidence so I could do it. And today when my riding buddy called and canceled, I decided what the heck, and we went anyhow. We had a fine ride, trotted a lot of trails, galloped the hills, walked and even took time to let him scratch and eat a bit of grass. It's great to be back to my old self and really enjoying my horse and God's country. :-) Gives new meaning to "independence" day!

Ride to Three Fingers

Yesterday was a beautiful day and my friend, Josette, and I decided to ride out to Board Corral. The route takes us on Kettle Camp Rd, past the Devils Gate, over some hills and rocks down into the gulch and canyon known as Board Corral. I discovered there are no baordsa at Board Corral, it is almost a box canyon. The high cliff walls have caves that we didn't explore, figured we'd find a rattle snake or two. There is a spring with a trough full of water and some green grass on the other side of the fence. Elevation is roughly 3900 feet. We had a snack and some water and decided that we weren't done yet. "Doesn't seem like much of a ride." said my die hard friend. "You want to go ride out towards Three Fingers?" I quickly answered "Sure! I'm game!"
So we traveled on towards Three Fingers Butte, once known as the Prince of The Owyhees - so I'm told. This rough rugged rocky topped Butte stands around 4900 feet. The grass was thick and tall. Thunder thought it was a great pasture. It was a rugged rocky trek to the edge of the rocks that top out the Butte but what a magnificent view! We could see for miles. It was absolutely beautiful as the tall grasses waved in the breeze.
On the way back we watered the horses once again in Board Corral. Here we met up with one of those pesky rattlers on the way in. He was in the grass near the creek where it was cool. Then we found another one when we were almost back to the trailer near Succor Creek Rd. Summer must be getting here if the snakes are out.
What a great ride! We went about 30 miles and sure saw lots of desert and rocks! Years ago when I first saw Three Fingers I never thought I'd get to ride to it. What an awesome experience!

Owyhee Caves

The Owyhees and the vast area known as Succor Creek house many caves, rock formations, old mud cones, lava rock tossed from I-am-not-sure-where, quicksand and several other fascinating things. We can always find somewhere to explore and discover. The possibilites are endless. Sunday, June 8, we decided to revisit Devils Gate, a HUGE rocky canyon, high cliff walls and cave, the description fails to do it justice. Technically it is referred to as a "Gap", probably due to the split or crevice in the cliff walls. The horses do not like it. We joke it's because they don't like the ghosts of fallen rock climbers. Could be? But they are very nervous in there and can't wait to leave.

There is a much smaller cliff wall that angles back in, forming a cave, not far from Devil's Gate. The horses were willing to enter this one. I'm sure the cave has a name but we don't know it. Some call it Little Devils Gate. The picture is a bit far away but it shows how big and tall the walls are. Over a hundred feet of solid rock. Remember, this one is smaller than Devil's Gate. Cattle and wildlife find shelter from storms in this cave, and sometimes it holds water. Since this original post I have discovered a very old pic of this same cave with a horse and rider in the Owyhee Trails book! It's just one of the many cool places we find when we ride. And yes- I know how lucky I am to have such a place to ride and explore!

Adventures with Josette

There are days where life is just an adventure, that was yesterday when Josette and I went riding. Now first you must remember that the two of us have a way of making an adventure from the simplest things. It is the easiest thing for us to do.

It was just another day as we trailered out to the Owyhees to ride. We wanted to ride past Devils Gate out to Board Corral. I thought the sky looked a bit ominous but Josette pointed out that the wind was blowing the storm away from us. OK I said as I heard "rumble rumble" off in the distance. Meanwhile her gelding, Elvis, was protesting going that direction. He was doing purt near everything in his power to say "I am not going that direction". Thunder started trotting up the hill and Elvis came along too. We had to move off the road for a pickup filled with barking dogs, thank goodness theyw ere tied in there. No sooner did we trot half a mile and here comes motorcycles. So we got off the road again and waved and smiled as the boy came by on a bike, the dad came by on a bigger bike, and here came mom on a 4 wheeler. She was frozen stiff on that thing and wasn't going fast enough to keep up. We snickered and made smart remarks as we got back on the dirt road and trotted along.

Then I saw a big flash of lightening. It went horizontal over the hill, nothing downward at all, and it was a couple miles away. Josette said she didn't see it, but she saw the nest one. "OK lets take this trail here and go the other way." The wind had quit blowing and somehow the upper winds were swirling the storm our direction. I think this was when we decided that perhaps Elvis did know best afterall and we should have listened.

So we trotted off and headed down a big gulley that would circle us around back to the trailer. "WOW! Look at that." I said. There on a hillside was an old mud cone, all swirled about with different colors. It was cool. So we had to go check it out for a closer look. There was a huge washout behind it from previous storms and a tunnel through the hill where the water had flowed. The rain, thunder and occasional flashes of lightening ended our fascination with the hill and sent us back to the gulley for protection. There we stood crouched under our horse's necks, attempting to stay dry, while the storm passed over.

In between counting the seconds between lightening flashes and the thunder booms, we spotted some neat rocks in the gulley around us as we waited out the storm. After the danger of lightening was gone we mounted up. Now my saddle has a fleece tushy cush on it that was completely saturated, and so was I once I sat on it. :-)

We rode back to the trailer. The rain was hitting the horses in the face so naturally they wanted to go the other way. Water ran every where, the clay mud was slick and gooey. By the time we got to the trailer the sun was out and it was really beautiful. The curlew was yapping at us, must have had a nearby nest. We had to wait about an hour to drive out so we wouldn't get stuck. That's why you always keep refreshments and food in the horse trailer. There were still a few tricky spots but since I am writing this you know we made it out. :-)

OWYHEE FANDANGO MULTI-DAY

Hi all. Just got back from the Owyhee Fandango ride down at Oreana. Rode 2 days. I rode day 1 on Hollie with Josette and Elvis. Our time was 7:51 for 3 loop trails out of camp. Joe rode Thunder and Linda rode her mare Aire. Joe & Thunder finished 11th and 2nd HW in 5:45. Linda was 13th and a minute behind. It was a great day, it got a bit warm. But never fear - it's Idaho. A thunderstorm moved in to cool things off, soak everything, then the sun came back out again. There were 42 finishers.

The second day I rode Thunder. Linda was on her mare again and Joe was riding Dudley, a Russian Orlov/Arab. This was an awesome trail. We went down through a canyon and into a ranch with beautiful green pastures and a lake. Then we swung out to the Snake River where we waded out and let the horses drink and splash. Then we went back into the ranch on the Oregon Trail for another vet check. We had 17.5 miles back to camp from the ranch for a 55 mile total. We were 12, 13, 14 with a time of 7:03. Not too shabby for two days. Thunder had completed two days, 105 miles, in 12:49, and he looked good! We had considered riding three days but the third days trail was much like the first and I thought we'd done enough. I had a great weekend and awesome ride and was content. :-)

Video of the horses

The horses were racing around out here this evening. Zap may be the old man but he can still keep up!! Here is a link to the video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6826448960859670702&hl=en Just click on it and hopefully it will work!!

Eagle Extreme

I rode Thunder Sat May 10 on the Eagle Extreme 50. Not sure where we finished, somewhere in the middle. But it was a tough little ride and he did well on the hills. He was a pickle at the start and really wanted to go! This picture was taken about 20+ miles into the ride! Thunder was still strong on the last loop and he is a lot of fun - just shut up & ride for the first few miles!

He sure has grown up into a nice horse. Hard to believe it has been almost 7 yrs since he was just a tiny foal!