200 Miles of Trail

Tuesday May 25 2010

It's a community effort, marking 200+ miles of trails for this coming weekend's 3-day Owyhee Fandango endurance ride: friends, neighbors, horses... even the dogs want to help.


Steph's been out on the ATV (and several miles on foot) all day the last several days.

Tom Noll and Carrie Thornburn chose the nastiest day of the entire Owyhee spring to mark the Whiskey Traverse on horseback along the Snake River... Tom mentioned something about frostbite, but that's endurance riders for you!

I went out on an ATV Sunday (slowly, and only on good roads because they scare me!), and then hoofed it a few miles to flag trail. I would have driven to another area and marked more trails on the ATV, but there was this wee little thunderstorm I would have driven into. I may not be able to hear thunder until it's way too close (i.e., right on top of me), but I can see thunder, and there was thunder in those clouds.


Yesterday Carol and I marked part of the Hart Creek Homestead loop with Jose and Suz. Trail marking from horseback is great for teaching Whoa to those horses that can't stand still. Your horse must learn to stand still, (and brace himself), when you lean waaaay out of your saddle and to the side to reach down and tie a ribbon onto a low sagebrush. You get on and off a lot, so your horse gets it in his head that it's not all Go Go Go. Now is especially a good time for this kind of training, because the more your horse Whoas, the more grass he can eat. : )

We walked and marked part of the trail on foot where the bushes are so low you'd have to be either much younger, or a contortionist to be able to do it from horseback (which we aren't). This part was all uphill for a mile or two, so we got our exercise for the week. Smart people would have marked this loop in reverse - walking down the ridge to the creek while tying ribbons, but we had to double check the trail in the correct direction that I'd marked on foot the previous day. Good thing we did because we added a lot more ribbons to make it easier to see.


There is so much grass, particularly cheat grass (some of it starting to turn a pretty magenta), out right now that some of our regular trails are somewhat obscured. Riders may have some problems pulling their horse's heads out of the grass so they'll keep going down the trail.


We got enough rain/snow/sleet last Saturday, and there are enough showers in the forecast (20-30% through the weekend), that the trails are going to stay in fantastic shape - soft and kind but not dusty. The wildflowers are simply outrageous. The Indian paintbrush varies between pink, orange, and deep red. Sometimes many shades are growing right next to each other.




There's plenty of water in the creek crossings, and neighbors Rick and Carol will be putting extra water tanks out.

Steph will be out marking trail all day again today, and I have some marking on foot to do and some trail to rake clear of rocks (just a short stretch!)

We're a bunch of tired puppies, but it will be worth it.


Photos from today's Hart Creek Homestead loop ride can be seen here.

BFFs

Sunday May 23 2010

What started out as a babysitting gig for Stormy has turned into a Best Friends Forever alliance.

When Tex first arrived, we put him in a pen with Stormy so he could have a companion while he got to know the other horses over the fence. Stormy - always low man on the totem pole - enjoyed being able to boss the new little guy around. He pinned his ears and drove Tex away from the food, from me, from his friends over the fence. Stormy let Tex eat... but only if he was on the correct side of the hay feeder. Stormy let him stand close... until he decided to drive him out of his space.

It wasn't long, however, before Tex had Stormy's number. Stormy would pin his ears and throw his head at Tex; Tex would take a step back, then he'd step right back forward. Pretty soon Stormy would pin his ears and bare his teeth at Tex, and Tex would pin his ears and bare his teeth right back at Stormy. And pretty soon after that, it was Tex pinning his ears and driving Stormy somewhere... but he never drove him further than a step away, and he never bit or kicked, because Stormy had become his best buddy.

When we turned all the horses out together (the Owyhee bunch, the 2 Hoodlums, Krusty, the Arizona herd, and Stormy and Tex), Tex stuck to Stormy's side, no matter what the other horses did.

And once Tex got brave enough to cross the creek, he pretty much since stayed by Stormy's side. He follows his pal everywhere.

When Stormy goes off on a ride or goes out to mow the lawn, Tex will stand and wait at the gate, or he'll pace the fence until Stormy gets back. Stormy doesn't get upset if he's separated from Tex, but he enjoys having his sidekick follow him around. He thinks it's pretty cool being the Big Brother (who gets pushed around by his Little Bro).

They drink together.


They eat together.


They argue together (but only briefly).


They roam together.


They travel together.






They exercise together.






They romp together.




They are Best Friends Forever.

Cold Wind

Saturday May 22 2010

...is howling! It snowed for 1 1/2 hours this morning. Big fat, wet, gloppy flakes. This, after cold rain and sleet much of the night.

Only a little stuck on the ground, but there's more coming tonight and tomorrow. The Owyhee mountains are hidden behind a wall of white snow clouds.

The Raven was pretty excited about the snow - near the end of May!

But the horses are nowhere to be seen. Steph thinks they all hightailed it back to Arizona.

The Tiniest Heartbeat

Thursday May 20 2010

Remember the killdeer nest with 4 eggs that I roped off from the horses? Ma or Pa Killdeer has been sitting on that nest every day (for about 24-28 days). Every day I've been checking on her, and then suddenly yesterday morning, she was gone. And the eggs were gone.

From the moment of hatching, killdeer babies are "precocial 2" - downy, open-eyed, mobile at birth, and capable of finding their own food while following their parent. So they had moved out, already out in the big world.

Darn, I missed the babies - until this afternoon when, about 40 yards away from the nest near the creek, a killdeer did its broken wing display, trying to distract my attention from where I was walking. I thought there must be babies around, and I walked ever so carefully forward - until I saw it.


It was so tiny and fragile and defenseless, about the size of my thumb - it took my breath away. It was standing, motionless, silent, helpless, completely vulnerable. I ran to get my camera, then ran back - and had a hard time finding it, even though it was at about the same place, now sitting in the dirt. I held my breath the whole few minutes I looked at it, fearing I'd blow it away or scare it or reveal it to a predator.

How on EARTH do these animals survive - indeed, they thrive around here - first, laying eggs on the ground any ol' where, where they have a great chance of getting stepped on, then the babies surviving when at this stage they can certainly not avoid predators?

Doubtless there were more baby killdeer around - but I left before the dogs came galloping after me, or some kestrel happened by.

It's that ol' Darwinism thing again - I guess it knows what it's doing.

Fandango Flagging

Thursday May 20 2010

We went out to mark some of the trails for the 3-day Owyhee Fandango ride May 28-30. You'll see some of this if you do Day One.


Holy Moly - it wasn't deer, it was big horn sheep! I've only rarely seen these, and never here - they are usually 2 drainages further east. You'll be real lucky if you see these!


(We also saw a deer, 2 lone pronghorns, a nice brown snake, a red-tailed hawk nest, ravens.)

Picking a trail through the brush, heading to the Rock Corral.




The flowers are pretty outrageous in the desert right now - lupine, bitterbrush, Indian paintbrush, biscuitroot, buckwheat, daisies, phlox, aster, and others I don't know. The blooming bitterbrush and the lupine smell so sweet.






Mac was a bit frantic on his own, but Rhett is coming now!




Don't want to get off to tie a ribbon here.


Boot malfunction!




We had several boot malfunctions! This was on a steep slope that I almost fell down on while trying to remove the hanging boot - fortunately Mac just stood there and didn't move!

Hart Creek drainage, looking toward the Owyhee mountains.


Coming down into an old homestead.


Steph points the way.


Mac and Rhett have a discussion.


I found a Raven feather!


There's a crazy amount of grass, too.




Back into the home creek after 7 hours of marking trail.


A good day in Owyhee! Come see it at the Owyhee Fandango in southern Idaho end of May.


More photos of the Alder Creek loop here