Heritage Ride trails - Memorial weekend update

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

I just got home from GPS-ing another section of trail (hoping *this* time 
the GPS was set up properly).    Yesterday was spent frantically getting 
ready - I haven't been riding in a good long while so had to hunt down my 
tack, the trailer was missing two tires that had been flat which I hadn't 
yet picked up from being repaired, and in the back of the trailer was a 
*large* dog house - big enough for a small donkey to stand up in (if it 
could crawl through the dog door).  I took it slow and easy yesterday,and 
got everything in order without (hardly) losing my temper.

This a.m. I took off - not simply on time, but actually early - anyone who 
has known me for any length of time will be amazed at that fact alone.  Got 
to the rendezvous point (where I was meeting the rancher who knows that 
section of the trail) 15 minutes ahead of schedule.  Tacked up Kelsey - not 
Sassy who kicked me... I'm no dummy! - got the GPS carry case securely 
attached to the saddle and realized that Mr Laney hadn't gotten here.  I 
had the impression that this was not the kind of guy to be late.  Hmmm.

I had brought a book (never leave home without one) and settled in to 
read.  Tanked up on water.  Read some more.  Had to pee.  Read some 
more.  Finally at 11 a.m. I decided to just start riding by myself.    This 
is a section of trail I wasn't familiar with due to a last minute trail 
change, but I figured I could follow a trail with the best of them.  So I 
locked up, hopped on Kelsey and took off.  Got only about a tenth of a mile 
when Mr & Mrs Laney drove up, big grins on their faces and asked what I was 
doing riding there?  Seems I had spaced out and parked at the wrong forest 
road!  They had been waiting up ahead a few miles for me.  Sigh.  So I 
reloaded Kelsey and drove to the *real* trail head.

We got off to a late but great start, and I even figured out the GPS pretty 
quickly.  Gang, this section of the trail is absolutely breath-taking (of 
course there's other breath-taking sections too, and I don't just mean 
altitude).  We were riding up trail, not down, so don't anyone who's riding 
the ride memorize what I'm going to describe.

First we rode a few miles along a hunter's track - sort of a dirt road, 
mostly two ruts (kinda like the road to my house).  Kelsey was a bit 
jiggly, not wanting to settle down to the ground eating walk that I know 
she's capable of.  Didn't matter - I was having too good a time.  After 
about 2 or 3 miles the road crossed a couple miles of gorgeous flowered 
meadow.  The view was spectacular, the sun was shining, there was a light 
breeze and the GPS appeared to be working.  Who could ask for more?

Then we started descending an old stagecoach road, very washed out and full 
of rocks and boulders.  This required picking carefully through.  Kelsey is 
barefoot and was looking where she was going, so I felt very secure.  We 
turned off on a smaller trail, weaving through Ponderosa pine trees on a 
narrow cow track, descending (remember, during the ride it will be 
ascending) down to the San Francisco River at the eastern-most end of the 
town of Luna.  Not that Luna is actually big enough to be called a town, 
but it's polite to call it that.

Anyway, we now rode for a bunch of miles - maybe 5-7? - along the San 
Francisco River.  This isn't a river like the Mississippi, but what people 
in wetter climates would probably call a stream.  Clover and something 
called "red top" (I think) grows naturally along the river bed looking lush 
and beautiful, and as we rode along downstream the canyon walls got steeper 
and higher till we were in a very deep canyon - I'm guessing walls several 
hundred feet high.  We saw fresh bear poop and tracks (Mr Laney said it was 
from last night) and we went off trail once so he could show me a 
pictograph.  He called it two moons - looks like a D and it's mirror 
reflection, painted a deep red on the canyon wall across the 
stream.  Pictographs aren't common in this area, although petroglyphs are, 
so that was a real treat.  I may divert the ride trail a bit so that the 
pictograph can be viewed, although coming from the ride direction you'd 
have to turn and look back to see it.

Speaking of across the stream - we had to cross the Frisco River (as it is 
called here) as I recall 13 times.  It's not ever more than belly deep on a 
horse, mostly less, and in two weeks it'll probably be even lower.  The 
footing is good everywhere.  Kelsey, who spent almost a year in a pasture 
divided by a similarly sized river/stream told me that she couldn't 
possibly cross the first time.  We had a discussion about that.  Finally so 
we could just get on with it, I hopped off and led her across.  She went 
meekly, as if she hadn't been making such a fuss.  The second crossing she 
just ambled across, but the third I had to lead her again.  Nothing like 
riding for a few hours with wet shoes and socks.  After that she was just 
fine.  No accounting for horse mentality.

Finally the Frisco River left the canyon and we crossed over onto the Laney 
Ranch in a beautiful bluff rimmed green valley.  The Laneys have been in 
this area since the turn of the last century and during my ride I was 
entertained with many stories of days gone by.  Of course I didn't bring a 
camera - I had my hands full with the GPS (the Forestry Dept really needs a 
more convenient unit!) and couldn't have managed anyway.  That canyon is 
just so beautiful I can't begin to describe it - so I hope that people who 
ride the 55 miler will bring their own cameras!

Tomorrow I'll be GPS-ing more trail.  So that's my Memorial Weekend so far!



Lif Strand
Quemado NM  USA
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