Trail Log: 9-18-2020

Blue Sky! Marianne, Cindy and Bev

 

• Trail: Succor Creek Area
• Miles: 12 
• Riders: Self - Bev - Cindy - Marianne
• Horses: Jack and J'Lo - Ruger - Cowboy - Jake Cisco
• Dogs: Hank - Cinch - Axel 

Notes: Great weekend. Bev organized an overnight getaway for a few of her girl friends. I originally had plans to head to Jarbidge/Pole Creek and visit friends Lee and Susan for a few days before heading over to Montana and then home. My pickup had other plans. Fortunately, it ended up being a separated tire, as opposed to a bent axel or f'd up front end. Unfortunately...that's 1300 bucks in new tires. I'll be staying close to home for awhile. So, when Bev messaged she wanted to do something this weekend - I jumped on it. 

We agreed on the Succor Creek area. I went out early Thursday to scope out what was available and save a spot. I was able to get close to my favorite camping spot and set up camp. Cell service is spotty out there. I usually hike to a high point to get reception. It wasn't going quite fast enough for me so I broke out the Inreach Mini and sent a Sat. message to Bev telling her I was 11.8 miles from the start of the gravel road. 

The place is pretty much a mess. Toilet paper and poop scattered from one end to the next. I suppose a trash pickup is in order but it would have to wait for another time. I wasn't in the mood to pick up other peoples shit this time. 

Trying to get high enough for cell service. All the smoke does not help. 

I didn't feel the spot I was camped was ideal for more rigs. I woke up Friday morning and moved camp upstream 100 yards so the girls could see my rig from the road. The ground was less rocky as well. 

Cindy was the first to arrive, followed shortly by Bev and Marianne. After the girls set up their camps, we saddled up. I never know quite where to take people. One person's ideal trail can be another's path to Hell. Bev rode a young horse that was known to buck on occasion....but Bev can ride pretty much anything, so I wasn't too concerned about that. Cindy and Marianne are both good riders on good horses. Confident everyone would be able handle a certain amount of technical terrain, we headed out across Succor Creek, bushwhacking the first 200 yards through willows and thick underbrush. I'd been in this general location with Lee a couple times, however, this route was just a little different. 

We weren't long into the ride when we heard a coyote yapping and carrying on. A bunch of cows bedded down and grazed all round the coyotes. We could see two of them running around in the distance. I've never heard a coyote sound exactly like this or make so much noise in the middle of the day. It sounded as if it were in distress. Had we not seen them running around - we could have assumed it was caught in a trap. The cows didn't seem to notice. We yelled a couple times before they dashed behind trees and disappeared. We have no idea what was up...weird. 

We looped around by the old Davis ranch - now "Lonesome Willow" and veered back toward Succor Creek Rd. toward camp. 

A potluck style dinner complete with Bev's homemade apple pie ended the evening. The wind began to pick up and with it hopes of alleviating the thick smoke that's hung around the last couple of weeks. 

Morning came with the arrival of the first blue sky we've seen in two weeks! Oh yeah! We tore down camp, loaded the horses and drove upstream to Succor Creek State Park proper. The girls had never been there. A lot has changed in the short time since I've been there. The place just outside the park where you could pull big rigs is now fenced off. We managed to squeeze in, unload and get the heck out of dodge before anybody told us we couldn't. 

I took us across the bridge and on top where I'd placed a Geocache 4 years ago. Marianne logged the cache, took a packet of kleenex and left a COVID proper bottle of hand sanitizer. Pretty much the only time we thought about COVID and the chaotic mess of a world we find ourselves living in. The desert has a way of soothing your soul and pushing aside that which threatens to weigh it down with toxicity. 

Bev the ride organizer, Ruger and Cinch

9-14-2020

No blue sky to be seen through the smoke. :(

 

• Trail: Grouse Creek
• Miles: 4.35
• Riders: Self - Jones - Dusty
• Horses: J'Lo - Honor - Zeke

Notes: The fires in the PNW and above Cambridge have socked us in heavily with smoke. It's so bad you can taste it. It's not good for humans or animals so we took it pretty easy and went for a short ride. Especially since half the time is spent bush-whacking back and forth across Grouse Creek because I can never find the damn easy crossing going in. Easy to find coming out...going in, not so much. Stopped at Judy's for lunch...which is now Mexican food and underwent a name change of Mi Amigo's. 

Trail Log: 9-5-2020

•  Trail: Weiser River Trail - Fruitvale TH
• Miles: 9.25
• Riders: Self - Jones - Dusty
• Horses: Jack - Raycine - Rooster
• Dogs: Hank

Notes: Jones and Dusty are going to keep Shade for me while I go Jeeping with my sister. She's just too uncomfortable in it and getting her in and out is a bit of a chore. I dropped her off at their place and threw in with them. Something is amiss with my truck. It's pulling to the right and acts like the right front wheel is about to fall off. Time to take it in to Quality soon as I get back....not taking that thing any farther until it's fixed. 

We hauled to Fruitvale. We avoided the detour by hauling up to the bridge TH. Quite a few bicyclist coming and going. A lot of wildlife in the area. Four mule deer and a handful of grouse. There was bear poop everywhere. Some really big piles. It wasn't long before the culprit jogged across the trail in front of us. The horses paid less attention to it than they did the cows and goat we encountered earlier. I didn't get my camera out fast enough so the sighting goes the way of the elusive Sasquatch and Lock Ness. 

The Cabin for lunch and home to get ready for a week of jeep'in (and praying my truck isn't going to cost a fortune to fix)

Trail Log: 9-3-2020

I like sunflowers

 

• Trail: WRT - Presley to Second Green Gate
• Miles: 8.65
• Riders: Self
• Horses: Jack and J'Lo
• Dogs: Hank (Shade shorter hike)

Notes: I intended to leave earlier enough to beat the heat and ride to the big trestle. My trailer had different plans and I ended up changing a flat tire in the parking lot. Made short work of that minor set back and hit the trail. It got hot fast so we turned around at the second green gate after swapping horses. The river is low but teeming with water foul. We also saw a fox pooping in the middle of the trail about a half mile a head of us. 

The wild sunflowers are in full bloom. I don't know by whom or why some flowers are designated "flowers" and others are marked as weeds. I think wild sunflowers are as pretty as any flower you can buy. 

Dillon lent me is Nikon camera with a nice zoom...felt good to have something besides a cell phone to snap pictures with! I especially missed having a nice zoom. I will try to not drop this one in a body of water of any kind.  

Dropped the flat tire off at Les Schwab on the way home and called it good. 

Here...hold my horse. 

Trail log: 8-29-2020

•  Trail: WRT - Shoepeg 
• Miles: 7
• Riders: Self - Jones - Dusty
• Horses: Jack - Honor - Diesel
• Dogs: Savannah and Dealer

Notes: We put in at Shoepeg with the intention of crossing the river and riding back on the other side. The crossing was so overgrown you couldn't see the numerous T posts sticking up well enough to do it safely with a green trail horse. We ended up riding back the way we came. Dusty rode Diesel...at least I think it was Dusty - he was so far ahead of us it could have been Clint Eastwood for all we know. Diesel can really travel. I bet he has a 4.5 MPH walk without trying. Jack averages 3.2 MPH. Huge difference - but I let him stretch his legs at a  nice brisk 23 MPH run. 

Normally we stop at one of our favorite cafe's for lunch. Today's lunch was the best ever. Jone's had picked up a pizza and made fresh blackberry crisp for desert. I about foundered.