Trail Log: 10-29-2020

Modern day "wagon ruts" 

 

• Trail: Hwy 201 Freeway Exit
• Miles: 8.38
• Riders: Self
• Horses: Jack - J'Lo
• Dogs: Hank

Notes:  It's late afternoon and I know I'm headed east towards Boise...yet the sun is shining smack on my face. There is something about this area that's kitty-wampus in the directional sense - especially for the directionally challenged such as myself. This has happened before. Several years ago, my friend, Sharon T, and I - got turned around in the same area. Thirty miles later we find ourselves huddled around a fire under the freeway waiting for my neighbor and Ralph to rescue us. That little ordeal saw us pulling into home after midnight. I wrote a little piece on the adventure: Click on  Horses and Hobos. 

I couldn't afford to get turned around this trip. My neighbor wasn't around to rescue me and it would be dark in a few hours. I would ride out for no more than 1.5 hours and if I didn't know exactly where I was, I'd turn back the way I came. The map on my GPS indicated the trail I was on would run into  "Love's Reservoir Rd" - which loops around and hooks back up with the trail leading back to where I park. I went through one wire gate and checked my GPS - still on the correct path. Once on Loves Res. Road - I rode another half a mile to see if anything looked familiar. It didn't. Everything in me knows it was the right way back to the trailers but I didn't know how far or how many gates/obstacles might be between. I was 10 minutes past my allotted time to make a definitive decisions.  I turned back. Even if I hadn't forgotten my pistol - it felt like the right thing to do. A couple of the contacts on my In-Reach satellite location device monitor it faithfully. If I didn't hit the Check in O.K button before dark, Janine would be out looking for me! 

I rode back to the wire gate and swapped horses. Those two horses could not be more different. Both would have gotten me home, but in an entirely different manner! They both know the way home. Jack follows the "Man from Snowy River" approach. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line." Even if that line means diving straight off a ridge littered with badger holes and bottomless tumbleweed covered pits. I appreciate that he is willing to go just about anywhere I point him but sometimes a little finesse is prudent. That's where J'Lo comes in. She can be more warry and pick her way through however she feels is safest. It takes her longer to get there and the ride is seldom as adventurous. 

We made it back to the trailer the same time as a crew working on the gas pipeline was calling it a day. The first service truck through opened the gate for us and the others waved us on and shut it behind us. They seemed to be has happy to be out on the old Oregon Trail working as I was riding. I always enjoy riding this part of the country. I can picture the caravans of covered wagons rumbling through the sage covered rolling hills..it must have seemed like an endless sea of sand and sage as they searched for sparse springs hidden here and there.  In many ways, I think folks were a lot tougher back then. 

I often find cool stuff when I'm out and about. Anybody lose an 11mm?