Owyhee Canyonlands ride

["Steph Teeter" <steph@endurance.net>]

I've change the course quite a bit from the September Owyhee ride - here's a
description of the trail.

First loop is 30 miles. Heads down to the Snake River (Birds of Prey area) -
mostly dirt road and cow trail. Not much in the way of elevation change,
just rolling. Nice scenery - low country, bluffs and buttes and sagebrush.
Some cross-country stuff around the bluffs and through the washes. Some of
the road is rocky (mostly the first 1 1/2 mile in and out of camp) but it's
not too bad after that. Some sand, but nothing horrendous. It will be a
fairly fast loop.

The second loop is a 20 mile loop. More sand on this one - several miles of
fairly sandy cowtrail, plus some rocky trail the first mile out of camp. But
it's all trottable if you have pads or a tough footed horse. We finally got
some rain so the sand won't be quite as deep. There is one real rocky
section down to the mouth of a very cool canyon - maybe 2 miles of rocky
technical trail. Then x-country and cow trail (still a little rocky) back up
to better going. This will be a pretty fast (trottable) loop for the first
12 miles, then slow around the canyon, but the last 5 miles will be good
going again - one short steep rocky downhill section - then dirt road back
to camp.

The 80's will do a 15 mile loop twice for their last 30 miles. Mostly great
trail - dirt road or cow or motorcycle trail, some rocky road in the
beginning (out of camp) and then at the end (back to camp) but mostly stuff
you can still move out on in the dark. Plus there's a full moon if the skies
are clear.

 Average temp for Oct 27 is 59, average low 26. Could freeze at night, could
be windy. Unlikely to have rain (this is serious desert) but ya never know.
I have three vets so hopefully we'll keep riders moving along. Potluck
dinner and bonfire Saturday night. We'll have an award for the best dressed
(Halloween) horse & rider team so be sure to dress up!

Steph