Trail Log: 9-13-2024

I can see my moms place. You can barely see my place in the far left

 

• Trail: Cornucopia HWY - Dixie Creek
• Miles: 6.12
• Riders: Self 
• Horses: Drifter
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: Friday the 13th. Didn't realize the date until writing this trail log. Good thing I'm not superstitious. 

I'm over ponying. Neither one need the practice anymore and it's a pain in the butt. Both pony well enough but it's still a pain in the butt. It limits what you can do and frankly, makes what should be an enjoyable ride a lot of work. So - I'm taking them one at a time. Today was Drifter's turn. 

This was Drifters real first solo ride beyond adventuring out a mile or two outside the back gate. I unloaded at the end of the highway. In keeping with my "I need the exercise philosophy, I walked and led Drifter the mile to the cattle guard and rode from there. 

I picked a road I don't think I've ridden. It follows Dixie creek and eventually meets up with Holbrook Creek (according to Avenza)

This being Drifters solo debut - I planned to keep the miles short. I was about to turn around when something caught Groot and Drifter's attention. I heard something coming off the hill just above the hairpin curve about 100 yards above us. I didn't see its head but it was unmistakably canine: smoky blue/grey and black and 200 lbs. If it had been a coyote, Groot would have chased it. He wasn't having anything to do with it. 98% sure it was a wolf. It loped (huge strides) down the V of the canyon parallel to us. I waited for Drifter to calm down a little before riding on another 30 feet. Another one came off the same trail and disappeared after the first. Wolves don't worry me too much but I know they will attack your dog so thought it best to turn around while it was still daylight. Groot and Drifter both kept a concerned eye on the canyon below as we rode back. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of them but just like Bigfoot - it ain't happening. This is the second time I've ran into wolves in this general area. It's funny, people look at you like you are full of shit- they assume you saw a coyote...a fox or the farmers dog. Like I've never seen a coyote, a fox or the farmers dog. 

I dismounted to pick up a couple pieces of tube-iron I'd found laying on the side of the road. I can use that in a welding project. I walked for another mile or so before climbing back aboard at the cattle guard and riding to the trailer. Drifter did great. It helps that he's not buddy sour and has a lot of confidence. 

I made it home safe to discover the underside of my bumper pull is jacked up and could have fallen off the axel at any moment. I can't decide if I'm the luckiest person on the planet or God just looks after fools and little children. I do know which of those I am. 

Drifter is more tolerant of Groot when solo

Trail Log: 9-9-2024

 

• Trail: Snow Park - Meadow Creek Ridge
• Miles: 5.5
• Riders: Self
• Horses: Jack - Drifter
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: I call these outings "Hike and Ride's." I'm not getting much exercise these days. The horrible smoke - excessive heat - lack of wood to chop and fences to build have found me binge watching WAY too much Games of Thrones and ALONE. I don't recommend anyone watch GOT. My sister and I call it Games of Porn. With that said...we watched every episode of every season. Mostly with our eyes closed. ALONE, however, is awesome. It's a survival reality show. The contestants are set in an area of wilderness with a few items and camera equipment. They document their own story...no camera crew. The last one to tap out wins 500K. It's the one survival reality show I know I could do. I wouldn't last 3 days on shows like SURVIVOR which are predominantly popularity contests. ALONE....I could do that. Isolation is not a problem for me and I'd eat a couple of slugs for 500K any day of the week. Anyhow -  if I'm going to lose the GOT-15, as I call it...I need to get out and do some hiking. To kill several birds with one stone (yet another useful skill for my stint on ALONE) - I ride one horse for a while - walk for a while and lead both - switch horses - ride the other and repeat. 

I like to explore areas I've not been. I parked across from the snow park and rode up an unmarked road. The road started out pretty well developed. Firewood cutting evident. As you climb - the road turns into more of a four-wheeler road and soon becomes quite over-grown. Near the top of the faded road turned game trail, you are confronted with a sheer rock out-cropping. The trail "sort of" fades off around this rock face and seemingly disappears into the oblivion. I hobbled the horses here and crawled around to see what I could see. Meadow Creek to the west flowed at the bottom of the huge canyon and Schneider Meadows to the NW.

I had hoped the "road" would have looped around and taken me back to the trailers via Schneider Meadows. The Avenza map showed the path I took in - a big gap of nothingness around that rock face and the road lower down the canyon  I hoped to get to that connected back to the Snow Park. 

I sent the map of my tracks to an armature cartographer who has spent his life exploring this area. Near as he could determine - it must be an old logging concern as mineral exploration as far as he knew was not in this particular area. Why it just ends and then picks up again is anybody's guess.  I'd like to walk in sometime and walk around the rock face and see if I can pick up the road shown on the map. It would be sketchy to do it on horseback even with Jack the mountain goat. It's one of those things you do only if your life depends on it. Not today...

Map does not show topology. InReach map shows the elevation of the rock face to be at 4750 feet

Trail Log: 9-6-2024

•  Trail: Lake Fork to Elk Creek - 1886
• Miles: 5
• Riders: Self
• Horses: Jack
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: It's been a bit like a poorly written country song around these parts. My truck broke down and my horse pulled a shoe on the day I was headed out for a pack trip in Washington State. I was stranded. I spent the week raising the ranch panels 18 inches off the ground so Jack can't snag his shoes and pull them off...hoof and all. That was a lot of work. A hot shower would have been nice but had to settle for a cold one since the hot water heater took a dump, too. 

It's amazing how much you can get done when you are imprisoned on five acres. With not truck to haul

the one non-lame horse around, I grabbed the chain saw and fencing supplies and worked on the fence in the deepest, darkest section of jungle on my property. Not the worst chore - I rather enjoy clearing brush. I cut so many little trees out, I used them for staves all along the fence. It's now the sturdiest, coolest looking fence on the property. 

I was fortunate my truck broke down here instead of on the road or back in Arizona where everything is quadruple the price. Jeremy, the mechanic here - is one of the best around in my opinion. He got the truck running for a fourth of what the shop in Baker was going to charge. 

I caught Jack's pulled shoe fast enough and slapped a boot on him before he tore it up too bad. In a weeks time, Stewart was able to get a shoe on him. He's still a little tender in the toes. His feet never recovered 100% after the butcher job a couple of years ago. It's heartbreaking - but we manage. I lay him off for 3-5 days after a reset and he's usually good to go. 

On the same day Jeremy got my truck running, Stewart reset Jack. I waited a couple of days and hauled him up to explore the Lake Fork area. He was still a little gimpy going down-hill but seemed to ease up after a couple of miles. I walked and led him part of the time. A timber rattler buzzed us at a creek crossing. This was the same area we killed a rattler several years ago. Still surprise me there are rattlers in this area. 

Once home, I put Jack up - temporarily fixed the hot water heater and took a hot-ish shower. 

Clearing brush in the Jungle

Trail Logs: 8-19-2024 and 8-20-2024

Above Blue Hole

• Trails: Duck Lake to Blue Hole via Indian Crossing Imnaha - Clear Creek Snow Park
• Miles: 16
• Riders: Self - Lou Ann
• Horses: Jack - Drifter - Hunter
• Dogs: Groot

 

8-19-2024: My friend, Lou Ann, came up for a few days to catch up and ride. I haven't seen her for at least 5 years. I planned on hauling to Fish Lake and riding those now familiar trails but changed my mind when we got near the Duck Lake TH. I've been wanting to explore the trails around Duck Lake and find the road my sister took her jeep years ago to the back side of the lake. The other end of the road goes toward Indian Crossing...according to the map. 

We rode to Duck Lake - found the road on the back of the lake and reverse tracked to the main road. Mission accomplished. This would be the road my sister took. There is a tree across it in one spot which will have to be cut out if she wants to Jeep through it. 

We then road back to the intersection and took the trail towards Indian Crossing on the Imnaha. With help from my neighbor - I had downloaded the North section of the Wallowa-Whitman NFS map onto Avenza. According to the map...and IF I was reading it correctly - we were within 6 miles of Indian Crossing. Crazy...it's a good 40 miles by vehicle via the road. 

The trail doesn't get much use - a few hikers I presume...as the trail is definitely not for horseback. A mile section of rocky, straight down to the river with no switchbacks. Horse trails (and most good hiking trails) utilize switchbacks cut into the sides of steep terrain to level them out. There was no leveling this out. I'm glad ..the harder the trail - the less traffic. 

There is a trail sign at the bottom of the steep section that points back towards the lake. It reads: Duck Lake - JESUS. I imagine any hiker that managed to climb out of that thing on foot felt as if meeting Jesus via heart attack was a valid possibility. 

We found ourselves at Indian Crossing TH within 6 miles from leaving Duck Lake. I was shocked and amazed that this was the same TH my sister and I drove a good 40 miles on our way to Imnaha earlier in the month. 

From Indian Crossing, we road the 2 miles to Blue Hole. Seriously one of coolest places in the country. I'd been there years before and have wanted to got back since. The water is crystal clear and you can see 18-20 inch trout begging to flop into a frying pan set over an open campfire. That will have to wait until another year - no campfires this year as the entire state has been a blaze with wild-fires.  

We ate our lunch at Blue Hole, rested and watered the horses before starting the climb back to Duck Lake. Groot didn't handle the climb well. I've never seem him get tired until that steep mile stretch to the lake. Granted - my critters and I are all fat and sassy as we haven't done much since coming North for the summer. With the excessive heat, wild-fires and smoke - the most activity I've gotten is covering my eyes during episodes of Game of Thrones and VIKINGS. Good Hell

8-20-2024: Lou had a few hours before she needed to go home. We opted for a short ride. I've been preparing Drifter to carry a pack for a pack trip in Washington the end of the month. We put in at the Snow Park and loaded Drifter with more bulk and a top pack. I towed him through brush and let the pack scrape on trees to help him become pack-aware. He did really good. I'll be packing with a group of folks I don't know very well. I don't want to be "that" person that brings a green pack horse and gets everyone killed...or worse, embarrassed! If I were smart - I'd pack Jack and ride Drifter but.....

It was an awesome week. I finally got to do something besides clean shit - move shit- lift heavy shit and/or throw out shit. I discovered several nice camping spots in the event I come back North next summer. 

Trail Log: 8-11-2024

Left - dog leg to nice camp - Right - to Schneider Meadow

 

• Trail: Trail Creek - Schneider Meadows - Trail Creek NF6610
• Miles: 7.25
• Riders: Self
• Horses: Jack - Drifter
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: I thought for sure I'd been to Schneider Meadows in the past but now I don't think so. I put in off Clear Creek Rd and started riding. I took a dog leg off the main road until the trail fizzled out but found a nice spot for a camp. We practically stepped on a deer while crossing a downed tree. Thankfully neither horse did much (Riding Jack - towing Drifter) There's never a good place to get bucked off, but getting dumped this far off the main trail where they'd never find your carcass might be worse. 

We rode back to the main road toward what I assume to be the direction of S. meadow. We saw a big elk browsing Clear Creek. You can get pretty close to them if your on horseback so I dove down the bank to see if I could get a picture. It was steep and towing Drifter and trying to operate a camera at the same time wasn't particularly smart in this terrain so I gave it up. 

I really need to get some sort of trail app for my phone...or better yet, get a real map from the Forest Service. There's a novel idea. After looking at my Garmin Basecamp tracks it looks like I made it to the lower end of the meadow. I crossed Trail Creek headed toward Meadow Creek. Schneider Meadows sits between the two creeks, according to Basecamp. 

The air quality was much better and didn't increase until we got to higher ground. The Town Gulch fire is at 37% contained. The wind started to gust and the smoke increased to the point it made me nervous enough to turn around and head back. 

Drifter is not a water baby so crossing this a couple times was good for him. 

Trail Log: 8-4-2024

looking toward the valley

• Trail: Tunnel Creek - NF100 - Holbrook Creek
• Miles: 4.14
• Riders: Self
• Horses: Jack - Drifter
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: Tired of waiting for it to cool off...tired of waiting for the smoke to clear. With most of the major moving done, it's time to get back in the saddle and get myself and my critters back in shape. I saddled both horses and hauled toward tunnel creek. Instead of staying on the main trail to Tunnel Creek, we veered off to the right toward Holbrook Creek. I grew up on Holbrook Creek and live here in the summers since moving to AZ...but I've never seen where Holbrook originates. I didn't see it today, either - as we turned around. I didn't even know it was Holbrook Creek until mom informed of such when I got back. I'll make a point of going farther another time. I rode Jack in and Drifter out. It's still smoky everywhere you ride but at least it is a few degrees cooler in the mountains. I met two DFW firetrucks on my way out. Apparently there is a fire up Holbrook somewhere. I didn't see evidence of it as the smoke is lingering from fires in other parts of the country. 

Good friends 

Trail Log: 7-24-2024

(L-R) Mark - Me - Lee

 

• Trail: Sugarloaf - Deadman - Fish Lake
• Miles: 8.35    
• Riders: Self - Majella - Darrel - Lee - Mark 
• Horses: Drifter - Jack - Sorrel - Douglas - Leah
• Dogs: Groot

Notes: Finally got my sister to ride with me. She rode Jack and I rode Drifter. It was great being able to take both horses. Darrel M. picked us up at my place and we hauled up to where Lee and the group are camped. I missed being able to camp there all week but it fell on the week my kids were all coming to visit. We opted for a fairly easy ride since Majella hasn't ridden in years. Drifter is barefoot but I didn't even have to put his boots on. His feet held up nicely. I've been shaping them myself and putting a mustang roll on the toes. Seems to be working. It's still smoky everywhere but it was a few degrees cooler in the mountains. 

We saw a nice herd of elk with a couple of bulls in the mix. The lupin was not as vibrant as the last couple of years but still present. 

Mo and the BW's