RE: RC: Heritage Ride trails - Memorial weekend update

[Barbara H-B <bahoba2@silk.net>]

Well, John, you will keep running off around the country!!(not to mention 
World!)..............
B
>wish i could come to your ride!!!:(
>
>johnt
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Barbara H-B [mailto:bahoba2@silk.net]
>Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2001 8:29 PM
>To: Lif Strand
>Cc: ridecamp@endurance.net
>Subject: Re: RC: Heritage Ride trails - Memorial weekend update
>
>
>Wow!  Lif!  sure wish I was closer..........
>Barbara H-B
>
>At 06:13 PM 5/26/01, you wrote:
> >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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>B

B