Owyhee Spaghetti

Monday September 17 2012

It's that time: time to try to decipher the pile of spaghetti on the trail maps - the red, orange/purple, pink, blue/purple, green, blue, yellow, and orange arrows, and the squiggly lines of roads, trails and cow paths,

and get marking trail for the Owyhee Canyonlands 5-day endurance ride, which starts in 8 days. The spaghetti will become perfectly clear, once you are riding the trails on your horse.

Stormy gets to work, earning his keep, marking a couple of miles of the trails with his friend Taxi. It's a good thing I have Stormy to keep track of the colors: blue/purple out, pink out Pickett Creek; blue/purple out Steph's Trail; orange/purple in, pink in, blue/purple in, and yellow/purple out on Linda's Trail.

Just as we arrive back at the house,

Steph is headed out on the ATV.

About 20 miles of trail marked; about 230 miles to go!

Fun video previews of some of the trails are here:

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2012OwyheeCanyonlands/

Smoke Alarm

Sunday September 16 2012

What you see above is not the magical golden light of autumn. What you see below is not flat land in the Owyhee desert. There are 4000 feet worth of mountains straight ahead.

Smoke moved in this morning, quickly, thickly, obscuring the Owyhee mountains, covering the area like a heavy blanket. Eye-burning, lung-singeing, cough-generating, panic-inducing smoke. 

A flurry of phone calls: neighbors, 911; check the fire websites, ride the ATV up onto the flats to see if there's anything to see. Nothing to see but more smoke; nothing new to report.

The closest fire is the Trinity Ridge fire in the Boise National forest, about 50 miles as the Raven flies from here, 146,000 acres. It started on August 3rd (human caused), is 64% contained, estimated containment date October 1st.

Incredible how smoke can travel so far in such a dense pack, up and down mountains, through canyons  and draws, with wind twisting it up and down and sideways, and it still arrives all of a sudden in a mob on your doorstep 50 miles away, thick enough to scare you into thinking it's just over the next hill.

Not a good day to go on a 20-mile ride, or to hike trails to start putting out ribbons for the Owyhee Canyonlands. 

(This is home, 1/2 mile away)

The Big 4-0!

Thursday September 13 2012

There are few dates during the year that are as momentous as the threshold just crossed: after a loooooong summer, the temperature finally fell below 40° at night. (39° bottom left was the low!)

I recently marked a few other exciting historic dates on my Owyhee calendar: the day it finally didn't reach 90° (August 30); the night it fell below 50° (September 2), the first yellow leaf sighting (!!)(September 7), and last night, the night it fell below the Big 4-0 degrees.

It was another long and brutally hot (my opinion) Owyhee summer, with too much sweat, too much suffering (whine!), too many flies, too many night bugs, too many rattlesnakes… but now there is hope.

Blankets can be piled on the bed to be burrowed under at night. Fleece can be unpacked. Gloves might even be worn on an early morning ride.

The sun has started its magical golden slant, with that tint and angle you only get in the fall and early winter in the northwest. 

I know for sure that once again, coffee will soon steam from its cup in the mornings, coats will grow thicker and longer, steam will curl out of nostrils… and the Ice Princess will be thrilled.

We've turned the corner. My next momentous occasions will be the Big 2-0, and the Big "S" word, but I won't scare you winter weenies with that just yet!

Owyhee Canyonlands Preview: Hart Creek Trail

Tuesday September 11 2012

The spectacular Hart Creek trail will be Day 2 of the Owyhee Canyonlands ride, September 25-29. 

The Old West really comes to life when you ride this trail. When you pass the historic detritus of an old homestead, you can't fail to think about the pioneers who settled this country, and you imagine what it must have been like without cars and phones and internet, in the drought-summers and snowy winters, depending solely on the running water of Hart Creek to keep you going here.

(This is just the White People history; of course the Native American Indians were here doing their thing long before the white people invaded - their leavings are harder to find, and I'd just as soon keep them secret anyway.)

[video here]

More to come, and a recap of the last 9 years of the Owyhee Canyonlands at:

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2012OwyheeCanyonlands/http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2012OwyheeCanyonlands/

The Evening Stroll

Saturday September 8 2012

Whether they're up the canyon, or just across the creek, they always come back down around dinner time: 3 of them get grain, the others are forever hopeful.

Sometimes they come thundering down; today they strolled lazily down to the house.

All except for the 3 stragglers:

Mama Perry

Luna

Sunny

Owyhee Canyonlands Preview: Sinker Canyon

Wednesday September 5 2012

We took a 20-mile ride to Sinker Canyon in the Owyhee Mountains. The Sinker Canyon trail will be Day 5 of the Owyhee Canyonlands ride, September 25-29. 

I am looking forward to riding Jose!!!!

On this day, Rushcreek Mac took me on the Sinker Canyon preview ride, with Steph and Rhett, Linda and Tex (aka Ted), and we made a video preview of the trail:

It will be the 10th anniversary of the ride… and it may be the last hurrah. (Next year may have fewer days… or may be pre-empted by the date-changed City of Rocks.) Last year at the Owyhee Canyonlands, it was Jose's and my first ever 5-day ride, and Jose,got the overall Horse of Excellence award! 

♥ ♥ ♥

More to come, and a recap of the last 9 years of the Owyhee Canyonlands at:

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2012OwyheeCanyonlands/

It Was a Good Day

Sunday September 2 2012

He's a funny horse… BIG personality, always expecting royal treatment (in the form of food and treats), always has to be in charge, bossy, generally having a very high opinion of himself. I nicknamed him The Opinionator. You get on best with him when you make him think everything is his idea…

Like when you want him to take a trail that turns away from home, and he doesn't want to go that way, you make him think that he really wants to take the Away Trail, by steering him wide the wrong way, then telling him what a GOOD BOY he is for choosing the correct Away Trail as he accidentally finds himself on it. Then he puffs himself up like a peacock because it was, after all, really his idea to take the Away Trail, and he's hearing, "Good Boy!"

I'm Connie's jockey when she's away, so I keep Finneas fit in Connie's absences. Usually the first time I take him out after he's had some time off, he's pretty enthusiastic on the trail, only objecting at the start to having to go out on the trail, and occasionally objecting if we turn onto one of those Away Trails. Today was his ride back after some time off, and not only was he agreeable to going out, he was completely ardent about it.

He took charge from the beginning, marching out away from home on the trail, trotting or cantering whenever he could, agreeing to turn even further away from home out on Spring Ranch Road, and then cantering all the way back up the wash - all uphill, some of it in sand - working hard. I let him roll because it was all his idea. He worked so hard, I let him choose the trails home, and pick his speed - which was still trotting and cantering, not because we were headed home, but just because he felt so good.  

And icing on the cake of this good ride was that Finneas found not only the water bottle that Sarah lost on her last ride here, but a red-tailed hawk wing feather.

It was the best ride ever on Finneas!