Vacation time

G had to go to a conference in Vegas this week, so I took the opportunity to take Dixie and Cersei on a vacation. We went to Clark Fork horse campground, in Stanislaus National Forest - it's just to the north of Yosemite, so very similar terrain. I asked around and got a few good ideas for where to go, but honestly I ended up kind of looking at the map and saying "yes, that's how far I want to drive."

All the pics and video are from MY NEW WEE CAMERA, bought for TEVIS NEXT WEEKEND. I'm gonna go do the social media volunteering thing again, and I'm so excited!

Unbelievably blue sky:


Getting there was pretty easy. It's 200 miles from SF, so it's a pretty easy haul. I stopped at a Tractor Supply in Sonora and asked about that certified weed-free hay, but they were out (and don't carry straight grass anyway) so Dixie had a neverending buffet of EGM Stable Mix, which she loves. Nobody checked, but she loves Stable Mix so it's an easy enough rule to follow.

Road in camp:


The campground was easy enough to find, and I had it all to myself. There's two (or three?) people campgrounds and one horse campground, all near each other. There was a huge crowd of kids and adults - I think it was an organized event - at the campground across the river, and a few campers in the people campground next to mine. I wasn't ~all alone~ in the wilderness, but I had all the solitude I wanted.

Campsite:


I was a little worried that Dixie would be unhappy all alone, with no other horses nearby, but I figured if she hated it we'd leave after the first night. She was surprisingly ok. Pretty alert when deer came through, and she watched for me when I'd disappear out of site to the toilet, but she spent her free time dozing and eating. She rolled in the night the second night, but I made myself listen to the weird noises before I went exploding out of the tent to see what was going on.

Wednesday we dinked around most of the day. I think I went six miles in five hours. We went from grassy spot to grassy spot down a short trail, then back to camp, then back out across the Clark Fork river. I tried to keep us out of the way of the kids and parents, but I couldn't find a good way around the other campground, so I leashed up Cersei and led the horse and dog through camp to the north.

We crossed a paved road into a clearing where the FS had been logging, and wandered through it further north. Eventually we found a stream and crossed that and ended up in a meadow - cue ominous music - with COWS!

OH GOD WHAT


Those black shapes? Bovine monsters.


Dixie never lets a Defcon 2 state interfere with grass consumption.


Then we went back through the logged area to the west, to try to find Arnot Creek, which had a proper trail on the other side. We found the creek, but there was no decent way down.



We followed the creek south back to the road and got across it again. It was low traffic, but the traffic that did go by was absolutely flying. I knew from the map that if we crossed the creek on the paved bridge, the trail I was kinda looking for was just to the west of the bridge, but I didn't want to get halfway across it holding a dog and pony and have some crazed minivan driver mow us down. So we worked our way back east along the Clark Fork.



I didn't really want to go back into the kid camp, and I didn't want to try that paved road again, so eventually I found the best spot and took Dixie across the river again. I didn't film that one - I had to get off to lead her down a nasty slope to the river, then I'd have to lead her up the far side through some downed trees, so I just waded through.

She was such a rockstar. She crossed the creeks and rivers maybe five times that day, and she'd never crossed that type of river before in her life - fast moving water over fist-sized rocks. She's turned into such a point-and-shoot horse.

Anyway, she waited pretty patiently for me to break some pointy branches and clear a path up the other side, then she surged on past me to get up the hill so I grabbed her tail and let her tow me up. Yes, I tailed my horse with no preparation at all. I don't think she "knows how to tail" or anything, but at least I know she's fine with the theory.

(I think it's just an endurance thing - we call it tailing when we get off, send the horse up the hill at a walk, and grab the horse's tail for a "power assist" to walk up the hill behind. Ideally, she'd wait for me to get behind her, then go on voice command, then woah on voice command. All we did was the "tow the human up the hill" part.)

Back at camp, I changed into my clean jeans and sandals and spent the afternoon writing and walking Dixie out to graze. Cersei snored nonstop, except for when I'd get up and unhook the horse, when she'd spring to life and charge out with us.

Last night, Cersei was too tired and sore to sleep on her perfectly nice Thermarest camping dog bed, and she insisted on the comfort of my cot. Somehow we worked it out to where I had my legs bent and she got to sleep on my feet and in the bend of my knees. Also, she stepped on my Kindle and broke it. Dogs are the best pets. DOGS ARE THE BEST PETS. Keep repeating this until it's true. ;)



I had one more meandering walk this morning, down the short dead-end trail out of camp, then we headed back to the city. The house is too quiet, but I'm pretty Zen anyway. :)



Dixie really is the horse of my dreams now. It took a lot of work, on both of our parts, but I wouldn't sell her for any amount of money. So laid back, such a super athlete. We can go do hard fifty mile rides or we can go off totally alone into the wilderness. What more could I possibly want?

I know many of my readers are cat fans, or at least fans of Banders. Banders was very glad to see me - he loves me with all his soul. The Kitten was way too cool to come up to see me; she waited til I called her before she sauntered out of hiding. They were both quite displeased with the dry rations and empty house they'd been left with. Woe, woe is cat.

Washoe Valley pre-ride

Ok, let's get to it!

Apparently this waiting-to-do-a-50-and-getting-ready-to-move thing is stressful. It's kind of like slowly boiling a frog. I was vaguely aware that I was wound way too tight, and I knew I should relax, but I didn't really realize just how tight I was wound.

Washoe is a two-day ride - you can ride the 25 or 50 on Saturday, Sunday, or both days. I planned to go out Friday, hang out in camp and volunteer on Saturday, and ride the Sunday ride. With a two or three day ride, the Sunday ride is usually a little easier, plus the Sunday ride was co-sanctioned with my local NEDA organization - so I could do a not-quite-so-hard 50 AND get NEDA points. Sign me up! I packed 99% of what I'd need, dumped a bunch of food for the goat and cats, loaded the dog and horse, and drove down to Washoe Lake early Friday afternoon.

(Stuff I didn't pack: my good Camelbak. I left it in a friend's horse trailer a month ago, and I haven't caught up with her to get it back, and I'm sure it's full of Death Mold anyway, so I picked up a $20 knockoff at Walmart. I hate knockoff Camelbaks, but Walmart is seductive that way. I didn't pack the GPS, but I remembered a mile from the house and turned around and got it. I didn't pack people-hand-gloves, but I was pretty sure there were two or three somewhere in the truck or trailer.)

Mainly I wanted to get away from the house and boxes and piles of to-do lists, but I was also hoping that a day in camp would do Dixie some good. And it did! She is inclined to stare at the horses coming and going instead of concentrating on eating like she's supposed to. I left her pretty much alone on Friday and Saturday, and she eventually quit staring and started eating. She ate and drank great, and I started electrolyting her on Saturday evening.

I drank four beers (Corona, happy Cinco de Mayo!) and decided it would be a great idea to ride bareback through camp. I did put the bridle on, and of course I wore a helmet, and even though it took me four tries to leap on my tall-ass horse from the top of the ice chest, it was a great idea. The way I see it, Dixie has only three advantages over the Arabs in the sport: she's got a great walk, she's got an amazing brain, and she's always the most beautiful horse in attendance. And how else to show off one's horse's great brain and walk and beauty than by drunkenly meandering through camp? ;)

The weather was absolutely perfect for the horses: high in the low 60s, no precipitation, no humidity, and breezy but not incredibly windy. Sadly, the drawback was that it got COLD at night - down near freezing. I survived better than at Rides of March - I put up the truck tent, put the broken-zipper sleeping bag under my cot, wrapped my cold toes in one of those silver emergency blankets, snuggled up in all my clothes and the good sleeping bag, and turned the buddy heater on a couple of times. (Yes, I have a CO detector.)

It was the weekend of the Supermoon, and they're not kidding. I kept waking up thinking I'd massively overslept and it was 7 am, but no, the moon was just THAT bright.

I woke up Saturday feeling extremely peculiar. My throat hurt and my head was completely emptied of any thoughts at all. They had plenty of volunteers, and I ended up reading my Kindle and napping all day. I took two naps and almost fell asleep again about 4, but I decided that was a terrible idea and started getting ready for Sunday instead.

"Don't do anything new at a ride" is more of a suggestion than a commandment, so I tried Easyboot Gloves at the ride. I know, I've been a longtime fan of Renegades, and I feel oddly guilty for "cheating" on them. But Dixie has such a low daisy-clipping way of going, and as she gets tired, she goes even lower. Gloves have much less bulk at the front of the boot, so there's less plastic skimming the ground ready to catch her hoof on a rock. I didn't want Epics or original Easyboots - gloves or nothing, thanks. I tried on C and S's boots two weeks ago and decided that 0.5's might work, then I measured her after a fresh trim and decided that yes, 0.5's were the right choice. I ordered two, because I was planning on doing Renegades on the backs.

So Friday I put on the Gloves on front and rode Dixie on the beach. We walked in the deep sand while Cers played in the waves, then I coaxed Dixie into riding on the wet sand and letting the waves lick her feet. We went a couple miles up the beach, then turned back for camp and flew down the flat hard sand roads. The Gloves stayed put, with no sand in the boots or gaiters, but I didn't think they looked right. You're supposed to get a tiny bit of spread in the V at the front of the boot, and with a fresh trim, she had no spread. I bought Powerstraps too, but I wasn't sure how to install them / if I should install them.

Saturday afternoon, I went and found Lucy, who's one of the helpful Team Easyboot people. She brought a couple sizes of boots over to my camp and we tried them on - yes, 0.5's were the right size, and yes, they weren't fitting quite right. Dixie has close to perfect rear feet, a little flaring on the outside walls but not bad. Her front feet have persistently contracted heels, even when I keep them totally thrush-free and trimmed weekly. They're just never going to round out like they should, because of the shoes and pads when she was so young.

So Lucy gave me some athletic tape, loaned me a pair of 0.5's with powerstraps already installed, and showed me how to tape hooves. Let me tell you, it's just as much trouble as I thought it would be - and it WORKS. It's not something I'd want to do for every training ride, but it's definitely worth it for competitions. Dixie was EXTREMELY UNAMUSED by all this attention to her feet, and by the time I was taping the fourth hoof I was clinging to it for dear life, yelling "NOOOOO hold still" while she flapped it around like I was a troublesome sagebrush attached to her back leg. But I didn't let her put it down (and get sand on the tape, ruining the tape job), and she eventually gave up and let me finish. The new 0.5's fit picture-perfect on her back hooves, and the powerstrapped 0.5's went very snugly on her front feet.

I bought a cantle bag from Henry and shoved two Renegades in it as insurance. So if you're keeping count at home: four new boots, one new piece of gear on the saddle, a new knockoff Camelbak, and new half chaps. Like I said, it's a suggestion.

I have this irrational aversion to really long posts, so I'll quit here and start working on the Ride Post right now.

The Summer of the Good Horse

I think I've had a hell of a good horse ever since her first 50 at High Desert. I didn't really realize it til she got hurt at NASTR. Dixie was SO good for her rehab - first horse jail, then handwalking, then (bareback!) light riding, and now trailering out to slowly ease back to real endurance conditioning.

Before High Desert, she was a jerk about trailer loading. When we got where we were going, she'd eat hay for a while, dig holes by the trailer, Stare Into The Distance, not drink, and be an ass under saddle.

Now, she loads pretty easily. She eats, and she looks around with a soft eye. She drinks when she's thirsty. She moves out willingly away from the trailer (and kinda drags headed back to it!)

I decided to take her to Patriot's Day Lake Almanor, even though I wasn't going to ride her. I'm following Aarene's lead and just exposing her to different stuff, all the time. I figured we'd get there early Friday and I could ride her around camp. Saturday she could chill out at the trailer (and optionally dig holes) and then Sunday morning I'd get up and ride her on one of the loops, then we'd head back home. My plan, as always, didn't go off flawlessly, but it worked out.

Fire's owner A got hung up at home and couldn't leave her place near Susanville til 2:30, so we didn't get to camp until late afternoon. I got Cersei and Dixie settled, then needed to vet Fire in and listen to the ride meeting. Dixie was chill on the trailer ride out and settled in to the serious business of eating once we got there.



Ridecamp wasn't really much of a place to ride around on Saturday afternoon. The meadow was logged a couple decades ago, so it was full of half-rotted tree stumps. Plus I was hot and I was more interested in drinking beer and talking to people, TBQH!

People! I met Bird the Redhead and her husband. She finished the LD on her cute gelding somewhere just ahead of me and she actually got to show for BC (probably because her gelding has ground manners, lol!) I hung out at her camp for a while, then she came back to my camp and met Dixie. She took a nap and I took a shower and I didn't see them again, but I look forward to seeing them at some other ride.

I talked to a lady with a standard poodle for a while. Cersei and the poodle got along well together, and the poodle owner had just finished the 75. And I met an anonymous reader - I think she did the 50; I hope I'm not underestimating her. ;)

So Saturday was a lot of trotting, a little beer, and one camp shower. I bought one of those black plastic bag camp showers last week, as an impulse purchase after Mel talked about them. I am all about the little luxuries: fresh socks at every hold, and now, a shower after the ride. I threw the shower bag on the hood of the truck when I left, and after I completed it was the perfect temperature.

I just couldn't get excited about booting Dixie up and doing 12.5 miles on logging roads on Sunday. I was kinda meh about it when I went to sleep, and I woke up at dawn thinking "ugh logging roads." I got up about 5:30, made some coffee, and decided to ride Plumas NF near Janesville on the way home.

Morning fog:


I'd parked in this iffy spot in the meadow near a tiny creek. (Cersei loved the creek!) When I stopped, I wasn't 100% sure I could get back out, so that was weighing on my mind all day Saturday. I tied Dixie to a tree, paced around looking at the stumps hidden in the knee-high grass, and backed out in 4-wheel drive.



I backed into a stump. D'oh. I was going like one mile an hour so I didn't even scratch the paint, at least. Dixie was Most Displeased to see me moving the rig without her and she wrapped herself completely around the tree while I was getting extricated. Eventually, I got out to the silt-and-lava-rock road and rescued my poor forgotten horse.

I'm on the other side of the "don't park here" cones, which are not to be confused with the "your friend is saving you a spot" cones. Don't make my mistake!


So away we went to Janesville. I blithely drove up to the one trailhead I know in Janesville, up a legitimate bus plunge road. I was quite calmly lugging up a sheer cliff S-turn at a reasonable 25 mph when an idiot biker with bitch on board passed me, barely missing getting splattered by a half-ton hauling a 30 foot motor home coming down. Anyway. I got up to the parking area where I catch-ride the Arabs and unloaded my four-leggers for a fun ride.

Now THIS is mountain riding!


We sort of hared off in a direction I've never been before and found a bike/dirt bike trail. I decided that I'd ride at Cersei's pace, not at The Speed Dixie And I Should Do, so we just kinda ambled along ears up with the yellow dog bouncing ahead. Lucky for us, we found a little slew just a couple miles in!


Remember how I said she's such a good horse now? Dixie just waded in, drank a bit, and started chowing down on that lovely grass. I let Cersei cool off in the water, then we plodded on.


I sort of arbitrarily decided we'd head out for 3 miles, back for 3, and do a loop around the meadow for another 2 or so. We got to 2.5 out and Cersei started a quail. And her flock of babies!


The babies had just barely fledged. One flew toward and past me in a panic and it was still fuzzy, with just enough wing feathers to get it off the ground. Dixie stopped, quite calmly, and Cersei bounced around in a Labrador frenzy of excitement.


Momma quail puffed herself out just like my momma hen does and charged at Cersei and Cersei backed off (just like she does for my momma hen!) I thought it was video worthy so here you go. If you turn up your sound all the way you can hear Momma chirping over Cersei panting.

Cersei starts a quail family from Funder on Vimeo.

I didn't think the momma quail needed to deal with us twice so we turned around there. The trail was really narrow in spots


And really steep in spots


And Dixie was a total honeybadger about it. (Oh my god surely you know that link is NOT WORK SAFE don't click it at work!) She just walked calmly through it all. I hopped off one very steep bit and led her downhill, down this short 45 degree downhill slope and over a log and under some trees. She ate a tree branch while I broke off some face-height branches. She did not get antsy or fall on me. She's a rock star.

We headed back near the trailer, then turned off for the loop around a meadow.


There's another slew, so Cersei splashed for a while and Dixie ate for a while. We trotted in a circle around the meadow


and popped back out at the trailer. Dixie's ears looked almost disappointed, and Cersei was not on the verge of heatstroke, so we turned around and did the loop backwards. Back through the woods,


back to the slew, more grazing and splashing and drinking, then back to the trailer.

We all hopped back in the rig and headed for home. Cersei, at least, was tired.

Camping without horses, with bonus horses!

Over the holiday weekend I went camping with Mel and her adorable puppy. We're both horse campers who are temporarily without camping horses, so we set off into the wilderness with just our dogs for company.

Well, not really wilderness. We met up at Nevada City, which is doubly misnamed - it's in California, and it's hardly a city. Skillman Campground, the site of the Wild West ride, was reserved that weekend, so we stayed a couple miles down the road at White Cloud.


I got there first and got my truck tent set up. I love that thing, and I'm on the verge of recommending it - I want to see how it does in a real rainstorm and in colder weather before I gush its praises.


It's a little lower down than Reno, only three or four thousand feet. A little more humid, but with all the lovely trees you'd ever want to see. We just chilled out and talked the first night. We ate my lettuce with dinner. I grew something, and it tasted really good!! Saturday we got up, drank coffee and talked for a couple hours, then briskly hiked over to Skillman.


Part of the trail to Skillman is the Wild West trail, so it was cool to hike it and think about riding it. I haven't done a forest endurance ride yet, but I did a lot of forest trail riding in Memphis. It was similar - the trail was much nicer, because it's a hiking/biking/horse trail and not an outlaw trail cut out by four-wheelers. Definitely single track, but there were spots where you could edge a horse off the trail to let people pass.

The most awesome thing was the lack of spiderwebs. In Memphis we'd dutifully take turns riding first in line - the first person eats all the spiderwebs. There just weren't many in the Sierras.

We found a mysterious little concrete tank beside the trail! It looked like a stock tank, but I don't think anyone's ever run stock in that forest. I guess it was some kind of catchment system for the snowmelt. But Cersei knows a good thing when she sees it, and she immediately plunged right in and got a big drink and cooled off. Mel's puppy Tess got a dainty little drink, and we continued on our way.


There's a day-use trailer parking area about halfway between White Cloud and Skillman, and that's where we saw the poker ride signs. When we started seeing horses, I put Cers back on the leash and we kept making our way very slowly toward Skillman.

We were, of course, model dog-owning citizens. We got our mutts off the trail, on leash, and spoke loudly to the riders as they approached. The first few groups went by without a problem, then we came to The Wreck.

There were three horses tied to trees off the trails, with one guy watching the horses. We edged past them, a little confused, and came upon an injured rider and a woman keeping him company. We talked to them for a few minutes while more riders slowly came past. He'd come off his horse somehow, but when he tried to stand up his knees buckled, so he sat down to wait for help. It didn't look like a major injury, but of course I thought of Kate and wondered if there was something worse happening. But someone had gone back for help, so there wasn't much for us to do except keep hiking.

I don't think either of us really realized just how big that poker ride was. We were only a mile or so from Skillman, and that was our completely arbitrary goal, and if there's one thing endurance riders do, it's get to the arbitrary goal. So we kept on - we'd hike as fast as possible for a hundred feet or less, then duck off the trail and loudly greet the horses as yet another group came by.

It took forever! We nodded knowingly at the endurance riders. I ID'd a cute little Paso - they are so distinctive with their paddling gait. The dogs behaved very well. Neither of them barked or put up a fuss.

About halfway through that part of the trail, I decided poker rides are just Not My Thing. Dixie would be utterly unsuited to standing in a long line of other horses on a singletrack forest trail, and I would be bored senseless. Where's the trotting? No one was trotting!

The whole thing was a classic case of shockwave congestion. I don't mean that in a ghoulish stare-at-the-wreck way, but I think every single rider who came upon the injured fellow had to stop and ask if he was ok and if help was on the way. There was just a huge bottleneck behind him.


Eventually, we hit Skillman. We found more water for the dogs and ate our snacks and I cooled my feet off. Mel was wearing crazy minimalist Vibram shoes so she didn't need cooling off. But I got a good look at Skillman, and I see why entries are limited, trailerpooling encouraged, etc. Beautiful site, but not very expansive.

We thought about hiking on, but decided if we headed back to White Cloud we'd avoid the poker traffic. So away we went, talking and walking.

Cersei had a blast at the tank on the way back. She was tired and hot, but she perked right up and leapt into the water and brought me sticks. Little Tess jumped in the water, paddled around, then jumped out and curled up in Mel's arms. Puppies are so cute when they're tired and cold and wet.

We saw so many new things on the way back! I showed Mel what Evil Cheatgrass looks like, and she showed me Evil Poison Oak. Everything was very young, if that makes sense - it looked like May but it was really July. The Sierras had an amazing winter and the snow took months longer to melt. (Squaw Valley was still open for skiing that weekend!)

I found a magnolia. I have no idea what a freakin magnolia tree was doing growing in the California Sierras, but there it was. And we saw these pretty blue flowers - lupines, I think?


The trail opened out and there was an amazing view of Scotts Flat lake, too!


Eventually we realized that we weren't just seeing the same trail with new eyes, we weren't seeing the same trail at all. We'd missed a turn. I cussed my dog, who was ranging ahead of us and had clearly led us astray. We discussed how Dixie would also have led us astray, but Farley actually has functioning trailer radar and would've urged us onto the right trail.


My feet were hot and I slurped the last of my elyte water out of my camelbak while Mel consulted the GPS. She figured out how far back the turn was and we set back off. We took a rather obvious (in retrospect) fork in the road, climbed one more steep hill, and were suddenly back on familiar ground.


When we got back the dogs collapsed together and put off such major Z's that we decided it was nap time. I slouched down in my chair and went to sleep for a bit, then woke up enough to stagger off to bed. I think Mel did the same but I was too busy snoozing to notice her! One glorious nap later and I was ready to face the world again. The GPS reported that our hike was 10 miles - pretty impressive (to me) on foot, but really makes you appreciate the horse/bike/car as a mode of transportation.


I built a fire and sadly overcooked our steaks. Camping cooking is hard, yall! I burned the eggs both mornings - stupid 1 millimeter thick camping cookware - and totally misjudged my fire for the steaks. It wasn't hot enough to really sear the steaks, but it was hotter than I thought, so I ended up on the well done side of things. :( The nice thing is that if you're tired, anything tastes great!

Sunday we woke up early, drank coffee and talked still more! then packed up and headed out. If you're keeping track at home, that's more talking than I usually do in two weeks - but it was FUN! No really awkward silences, lots of good conversation ranging far and wide. I can't wait to do it again, with or without horses.

Done camped!

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm late. I'm worn out!

For those of you who know the area, we didn't make it to Lahontan - we ended up at Washoe Lake. Anticlimactic, but at least we went! S had friends who were going to meet us at Lahontan, and as we pulled out of her driveway, loaded down with horses and food and everything we'd need, they called. Somebody had reserved the equestrian area there, and the friends couldn't find the other horse camping area. They were going to go to Pyramid Lake, because they didn't have horses with them.

We sure weren't going to turn around and unload the horses! But we couldn't go just anywhere, because the trailer water tank had sprung a leak last night. The only place S could think of that had water and was not way far away was Washoe Lake, which is just south of Reno. So we headed from north of Reno, through the city in early rush hour, to south of Reno to camp.

The facility was actually really nice. There was one pipe corral, so we didn't have to set up the hot tape corral - just S's pipe corral. There was plenty of water, some toilets, a fire pit, a bunch of picnic tables, and plenty of horse trails. We unloaded and went for a short ride along the lake.

Here's S, on Tempus, at the lakeshore:


Here's me! Sporting my awesome new Camelbak and my stylin' don't-shoot-me hat.


We rode about halfway up the lakeshore, then cut in behind the dunes and rode back to camp. It was real pretty in that desert-y way that I've grown to like.


Dixie was clearly skeptical of her new living arrangements.


A little dinner settled her down nicely, though. We got the horses settled in for the night, then ate and hung out by the fire pit. We did not, however, have a fire - the other people were bringing the firewood! It was cold, but a flask of Southern Comfort kept us warm for a couple hours. And I got to stare at the stars while we talked! God, there's so many stars out here. Even that close to Reno/Carson City, you could still see the Milky Way.

We got up not too early, let the horses have a couple hours to eat breakfast, and saddled up for a day of riding. S from Cali came out - I think I'll just call him Cali from now on! Here's where we rode in the mountains:


Almost all of it was on gravel roads, with just a little bushwhacking. The highest point was near 6000', up from about 5000' at the lake, so it was a lot of climbing. At least Dixie and I thought so!

DUDE. Nobody really communicated to me how HARD it is, physically, to ride up steep hills. I know to lean forward, and I did not hesitate to grab some mane to help myself stay balanced, but damn, what a core workout. Keeping my legs tucked forward out of the way of her rear legs was a challenge!

Anyway, here's S and Cali. S is sporting her don't-shoot-me t-shirt, and Cali is decked out in his full cowboy gear. Dixie and I were looking scraggly as usual, in our mismatched bits of tack. :)


If we'd kept going 5 or 10 more miles in the direction I'm facing, we could've ridden to Virginia City. There's an active mine in the distance to the right (the black area). We ended up cutting cross-country to my left, then picking up the straight road up the hill on the left.


The world's best graffiti enhanced the view of Washoe. Reno is just over the hills in the distance straight ahead, and if I turned around I could see Carson City to the south. The bright green in the valley is irrigated hayfields, and the dull green is sagey stuff in the Washoe Lake Park.


We wound very gradually down some long switchbacks on a very rocky road and got back to camp about 3.5 hours after we left. Pitiful time to cover 5.5 miles, I know, but the terrain was rough and nobody was in a hurry.

Dixie did quite well. She was not at all sure this was a good idea, and she had to work very hard to get up and down the hills. But she didn't rush, either up or down. I got off and led her 3 separate times, I think - once when we cut off the road through the sagebrush across a steep hill, then twice more headed down when the road got stony. Her feet are getting some concavity already, but she's not comfortable walking on the rocks and I don't blame her. It's easier for her to pick her way following me than carrying me. I might look into booting her, but finding and fitting the right boots is such a can of worms - it's easier to give her a couple months on sand and pebbles, then re-evaluate her need for them.

We came across one guy with his dog quail hunting. He was WAY too far away to blammo us accidentally with birdshot, but we could hear him shoot. None of the horses cared - I didn't think Dixie would mind, and I was pleased that the other two didn't either. And we found a motorcycle frame, all that was left from a stolen stripped bike. Dixie was most intrigued by that and spent several minutes sniffing the whole frame very carefully. No wild stallions appeared to give Ms. In Heat what she thought she wanted, although she stopped to pose like every half mile. Sigh. I smelled like mare pee the rest of the day - thanks, wind!

We watered the horses and let them chill out for a bit, then rode along the lake again til all the humans agreed we were old and sore and ready to go. Cali hauled away home, and S and I decided to head home too. S wasn't happy because she could hear the traffic, when at home she can't hear a bit of traffic, and I missed my husband!

It was a great trip, even if we didn't go very far or stay very long. Wonderful fun. I will definitely go camping again!