Trail Log: 11-20-2025

Jack and Big Drifter. Big D makes Jack look like a regular sized horse

• Trail: Aguila State Land - Neighborhood to Celia's
• Miles: 12.89
• Riders: Self - Robyn - Celia
• Horses: Jack and Drifter - Big Drifter - Dirt
• Dogs: Groot - Boo

Notes: Took advantage of a break in the rain and got both horses rode. Dan and Robyn are here for the winter. They bought Robyn a horse. His name is Drifter also - we call him BIG Drifter because he is huge. He belonged to mounted shooter friends, is super gentle and a great shooting horse. He will make Robyn a nice horse to learn on. Celia and I planned to ride later in the afternoon so I took Robyn on her first ride out in the desert on Big Drifter. I rode Jack. 

Robyn and Big D

As soon as we got back, Celia text she was ready to ride. I made like a pony express rider, swapped horses and headed down the road on Little Drifter. We met in the middle and rode to Celia's place. Celia's neighbor, Anita, has a litter of pups. I picked one out a couple weeks ago and the lady is ready to advertise them so wanted me to come over and verify which pup I picked. The female I picked was originally the runt. She is definitely NOT the runt now! Little porker plumped right up. It was hard to tell one pup from the other.  As luck would have it,  the one that jumped in my lap and was pulling on the fringe of my cell phone carrier is the pup I picked out when she was just 2 weeks old. 

I had been trying to talk myself out of getting a pup since it crossed my mind a while back.  I am not prone to puppy fever. I prefer them big enough to go do stuff other than pee all over my house and bark all night. I have only rarely gotten a pup. Most of my dogs have been strays or someone else's discards and have found me over the years. I failed at talking myself out of it. I will pick up my pup as soon as we get back from Thanksgiving in Tombstone. Her dad is Idaho Shag and her Mom is border collie. Welcome to 6 months of puppy hell. 

Oh brother...

Trail log: 11.13.2025

Celia and Dirt

• Trail: Aguila - State Land - Back Gate to Burro Canyon
• Miles: 10
• Riders: Self - Celia
• Horses: Jack - Dirt
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: Met Celia riding to my place and rode out behind my property. We rode to Burro canyon. It gets pretty rocky just below the power line. Jack handled the sharp rock really well. I feel like his feet have turned the corner for barefoot trimming. 

Cool little fire pit somebody fashioned. I need to mimic this! 

Trail Log: 11-11-2025

• Trail:  N. Eagle Eye 
• Riders: Self - Phil
• Horses: Jack - Twister
• Dogs: Groot - Pearl

Notes: Road up on a pack of "wild" dogs watering in the tank. Pearl ran them off. Later that evening I saw a post on FB of a gal missing her two dogs. 2 out of the 3 dogs I caught a glimpse of fit the description so I let her know. Hopefully they were hers and have a home. 

Automatic loading is the only way to haul... ;)

Trail Log: 11-10-2025

Hendersen Tank (I think)

• Trail: State Land off Hwy 71 E. of 93
• Miles: 8.25
• Riders: Self - Celia
• Horses: Drifter - Dirt
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: Several years ago, my friends Lynn and Pete and I discovered a cool little oasis out in the desert called "The Cove." It was set up for ATV'ers to stop and hang out. Celia and I have been trying to find it on horseback since last year. We got close today! It is hidden back in the rocks and you could ride right by it if you didn't know it was there. I'll have to do more research to see if I can narrow down the location. On the way, we saw our first rattler of the season. It was in the middle of the wash next to a dead kangaroo Rat we assumed it was about to have for lunch. It backed off and slithered under the brush while we rode on. We came across it again on the way back...still close to the kangaroo rat. We didn't hang out long enough to watch it eat it! 

Back on my computer - I sifted through and found the photos I took of the day Pete, Lynn and I discovered The Cove. Geo-tagging is WAY outdated but gave a general location of where the pictures were taken. I could scrounge up some of my digital forensics software and get more precise coordinates but geesh...I haven't done that since I retired! I'm sure we can find it with the info I have now. Stay tuned!

Trail Log: 11-4-2025

• Trail: Tiger Wash
• Miles: 3
• Riders: Self - Celia - Phil
• Horses: Jack - Dolly - Twister
• Dogs: Groot - Pearl

Notes: Celia wanted to try out the new horse they got for her grandkids. We rode up Tiger Wash for a short ride. The new horse, Dolly - did great. 

 

Trail Log: 11-3-2025

• Trail: Aguila State Land
• Miles: 5
• Riders: Self
• Horses: Jack
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: Took Jack out behind our property for a hike/ride. We rode up to the powerline. 

Trail Log: 10-30-2025

• Trail: N. Eagle Eye - Rudy Pass (or not)
• Miles: 5.75
• Riders: Self - Celia
• Horses: Drifter - Dirt
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: Well, that was a full day. We started out to set a geocache. I wanted to head toward Rudy's Pass but missed it by one canyon over. It was a really cool area but not ATV friendly so we took off from the bottom of the canyon wash straight up a ridge and rode back down a hogback. It was thick with cholla. We got off to walk and lead through the worst of it. Celia's mare, Dirt, side stepped into a cholla. She got a patch of it covering her hock and was not a happy horse. We couldn't get near it to pull them out. We got her back to my place and drug her up on Domo-Gel. Her head was drooping on the ground but she still managed to kick the leatherman out of my hand. That didn't feel great. There was no vet or neighbors around with stronger sedative. We would have tied up a leg but I don't have a cotton rope here. Celia finally got hold of a friend who had some stronger sedative  - pieced enough lead rope together to tie up a leg and got them pulled out. 

The good news...we did manage to get a cache set. Still...it was a nice ride up to the point of the cholla incident. 

Secret cache location "Snags-N-Nags"