Memorial Weekend

Well it was not looking to be a very promising weekend of good weather! We had accepted an invitation to go to Beaver Creek with Scott/Barbara for the holiday weekend, they were taking their young green horse and wanted it to be a low-key time and since Red had never been highlined or ridden on steep trails yet and it would be Derek/my first together real mountain camping experience, we thought that what they were looking for was exactly what we were looking for. It was us/them and then their brother in law for the weekend. Beaver Creek is just outside of Twisp.

When we left the house Friday morning, it was raining.. pouring actually! It rained off/on over the Hwy 20 pass and as we came through Twisp, the weather seemed to be clearing up.



Initially we had planned to get a short ride in on Friday afternoon, but by the time we finished setting up (around 4pm) it was time to gather some wood, get a fire started, think about dinner, socialize.. As we sat around the fire, it did rain on us for a while and then let up and quit before we went to bed. When we first arrived at camp, we realized that one of the camper vents was so old and brittle from the weather, it had cracked so Derek had to climb through one vent to Duct-Tape the top of the other vent, looks like something we'll need to replace.. and we also discovered we need to re-seal the windows as just in the drive over, the front cabover window leaked enough to soak the edge of my sleeping bag... The vent Derek is standing through actually is broken too and needs replacing, but atleast that one does not leak! :)


The boys all settled on the highline. Red took to it very quickly, he did great although he never did realize he could still lie down on the line.

We awoke to dry weather on Saturday morning, got the horses loaded up with lunches and rain gear and headed out at about 10am.
The ride started out nice, the area is rolling hills and mountains with some great views. We first rode to "Death Valley" which is an area so named because of all the carcasses that can be found down there most years, this year it must have been a good year for the deer because I didnt see any. An occassional bone here/there is all. After we rode through the valley shown above, we started climbing and soon realized we were riding the edge of the Pipestone. The pictures I attempted to take do not do justice to the steepness of the area, everything in pictures appears flatter and easier than reality! :) This picture below, we are looking down into a much larger valley, to the right of us is the Pipestone which is really BIG huge rock cliffs.
Here is a part of the edge of the rock cliffs. In some areas, you are literally riding a foot or so away from the edge, very invigorating at times.. heart stopping at others.. at times you could look straight down to the left through the rocks to the valley below.
Still on top of the Pipestone..
Here we are with the main rock cliff behind us. You can see by how Edgar is standing, just how steep it is.
As we continue on riding the edge of the Pipestone.. You can see the trail ahead that follows the edge of the rock cliffs. Very beatiful trail to follow.
We have just ridden to the end of the Pipestone, standing on the top of the biggest cliff on the other end. I took this picture and then in the picture below put in a yellow trail marking that gives you an idea of where the real trail was along this entire section. There were areas that were VERY uphill! Actually at one point, Barbara had indicated it helps to grab the mane to keep yourself leaning forward on the really steep areas, well this one section we rode up, I grabbed mane and half way up my grabhold of mane pulled right out, Red was working so hard to get up the climb that he jerked his neck forward and my whole handful came out! I didnt know how he would react to such steepness, I would say of the entire weekend, that was my least favorite moment, but definately worth it for the rest of the riding.

We are still standing at the same place, just now looking the other direction to the valley below that we will be riding to.

This picture below is very dissappointing because basically after riding the cliffs, we came out to an area above this lake and ran into another group of riders. We decided to venture away from that group and head straight down to the lake and follow a trail that had not been used in a very long time! This hillside here is actually very steep and it was interesting following it.. I think the fishermen in the lake were probably in awe of these 5 horses forging a new trail down this hillside because standing back, you clearly cannot see that there is a trail there. We all joked about the "pop" factor of our undies unplugging at the bottom of the hill.. lol I asked Scott what he would consider that hill to have been on a scale of 1-10 (1 being easy) and he said he'd call that a 9!

The rest of the ride that day was pretty laid back and easy in comparison to the first half. We had lunch overlooking the lake, got sprinkled on just a bit but not really enough to warrant putting on rain gear. I did put my rainpants and poncho on, realized quickly that was a mistake because there were sun breaks inbetween the sprinkles and when that happened, I felt like I was inside an oven! :) We rode for over 4 hours that day, the horses did really well. I realized that Red needed constant guidance on the trails, he tends to venture off on occassion and when on the steeper trails, he is a little careless with his feet placement and he really needs my legs to help guide his legs to keep us both safe. He was not trippy at all, which was great because sometimes he is very lazy as well and doesnt always pay attention.

I was very impressed with Derek that day, riding on the edges of hillsides and cliffs did not bother him at all and he never was uncomfortable with anything we did that day. I think at times over the weekend, he and I both may have been comfortably uncomfortable. That is how I like to put it.. we were pushed to about the max of our zone and mostly because we both had not been in those situations before on our horses. I've ridden very steep trails, but not on Red. I dont know how Red will react to things yet, I dont trust him 100% yet so there are some miles he and I need to establish before I can have confidence in him to get me from A-B safely! Edgar did awesome.. that horse was a real trooper for Derek and didnt give him any worries or concerns or issues the entire weekend. He really couldnt be any better of a horse for Derek to be riding and Derek feels the trust in his horse that he will keep him safe.

This here below is our watering hole just across the road from our campsite, we led the horses down here multiple times a day for fresh water, even though we brought water as well. It was nice to get the horses out for walks in the early morning or late afternoon, there was a potty about 5 minutes down the road, so we took advantage of that as often as we could by stretching the horses legs while we used the potty.

We awoke again on Sunday to even nicer weather! Look at the sun shining through the trees at the creek! It probably only reached maybe 70, it was not quite warm enough to be in just a t-shirt, definately perfect riding weather. This picture below is after we rode up to a watering tank, a great view!

Scott was not too thrilled to have his picture taken, but it was too funny that this was the only rock in site to use as a mounting block! :)

We contined on past the tank along a pretty decent trail that was not always for the faint of heart! :) Stopped at a nice spot to sit and eat lunch.

Derek eating his "MAN"which! So called because of all the meat he loves to have on his sandwhichs..

Our view.. On the ride up to this spot, we saw an airplane flying circles and realized "smoke jumpers" were practicing and jumping out of the plane, we were about 15 minutes too late to have had a perfect viewing of that from this spot. We did see some hangliders that jumped off a hillside lower than us. The hillside they came off of, was the same hill that a group of horses were running on, they seemed to be spooked by the rather large "birds" that were soaring around them! It was really neat to see them all running (although they were quite a ways away).

I just thought this log and wild flowers were really pretty.. These yellow mini-sunflower looking plants were all over the mountain!

Derek most likely has a handful of Bacon flavored sunflower seeds in his mouth! :)

The trail back from lunch..

This was towards the end of the ride, Scott was looking to see if there were any trails that way. I wish the picture had been clearer.

When we started out on our ride Sunday, we rode up behind our camp up to a drainage ditch, which was WAY up high above the campgrounds and VERY steep. The ditch part was OK but it hadnt been used in a long time by horses, so it was overgrown with a lot of sagebrush. So more than half of that section, was riding on the very edge of the ditch on ground that liked to sluff off, the ground was soft. And the horses (Red in particular) did NOT like having the sagebrush on his legs, so I really had to work very hard to convince him that he should risk his legs to save my life! It was pretty hairy up there. We followed that for atleast 30 minutes. When we were almost to the end, Scott's horse did a young green dumb thing and all I will say is that I have never been so impressed with one's ability to avoid disaster and I will never question whether or not Scott can ride! :) It's his tale to tell if he so chooses... Barbara and Rick did not see it as they were in front but Me, Derek & Scott all had to change our undies after that one!

After lunch on our way back, we went a different direction and headed out to this sloping meadow and back up into the hills. On the way up the hillside (again on a pretty steep trail) Red was acting a bit more persnickity than earlier in the day, he was irritated and working hard at not staying on the trail. Well as we climbed up, I'm really guiding him with my hands and legs and up ahead I hear Scott say something about Blue Flowers.. I wasnt paying much attention because I was entirely focused on Red. Well apparently just as Scott had said something like "these blue flowers are really pretty, Piper do you know what they are called?" Well all he hears is me yell out "Fucking Horse!" lolol Derek who was inbetween us, says to Scott "Well apparently they are the Fucking Horse Blue Flowers!" It was hilarious to someone who was not me! At that moment, I was pissed off obviously at my horse because he had stepped completely off the trail onto the downhill slope, all 4 feet off the trail, I dont know where the hell he thought he was going to go, but I quickly jabbed him with my leg to sidepass him back up onto the trail and yelled out in frustration "fucking horse!" ;) I can laugh now at the way the situation unfolded but I was having a moment with Red and was trying to stay alive!

We did A LOT of up/down riding in 2 days, got in 9 hours in the saddle and the boys were tired and sore by Monday morning. We decided not to ride on Monday because they had worked their tails off for us for 2 days and their backs both were sore. And although I had a few moments of frustration at Red, overall he did really good for me. I just have to really pay attention when on the tuffer trails and really focus on keeping him centered. The good thing is that he knows his leg aids VERY well, so a little leg keeps him ontrack but it does somewhat suck that I cant just sit back and relax in areas where one really should relax! ;)

I did ask Scott since he had indicated he wanted the weekend to be relaxed and low-key, I asked if that type of riding was his idea of Low-Key? Because if so, then I wasnt sure I wanted to know what his idea of non low-key was!! :) He said Kelly was doing so well on Friday and Saturday's rides that they felt comfortable doing a little more difficult riding.. whew cuz I was worried that maybe his idea and mine were completely skewed.. I'm not sure Derek and I were 100% ready to jump in 2 feet with the hard riding we did, but we both left the weekend happy with the riding we did and happy we pushed ourselves to go with the flow and just do it.. It allowed us the chance to really see the capabilities of our horses and where our "line" is on the type of trails we will do in the future. I think that the trails we rode, we'd ride again (except maybe the drainage ditch unless it was cleared out and we didnt have to ride the edge).

We both really enjoyed Beaver Creek. Scott indicated that he and Barbara cannot seem to get club members to want to go there. After spending a weekend there, I have no idea why! One can do VERY VERY easy easy riding there.. I would say a green horse and green rider could do a lot of good riding without ever going near the trails we did. And I hear there are maybe even tougher trails than what we did, so there is something for everyone.. The best part (okay not best but a definate great thing) was that the traffic over Hwy 20 going over and coming home was fantastic! We did not hit 1 backup at all, infact we were the backup most of the time! lol I hear there was a 27 miles backup on I-90 on Monday's return and I'm sure Hwy 2 had a large backup as it always does.... From our house it was a 5 hour trip and that was taking it pretty slowly.

We returned home to Russell who was very upset with us for leaving him behind! :) We look forward to more riding and pushing the horses a bit more on our rides to keep them in shape and ready for the next mountain to climb.