Memorial Weekend

This is not how we had planned Memorial Weekend, but it's just the way it worked out!
The original plan was to haul the car on the flatbed over to Beavercreek (Twisp) to go camping with some horse club friends; we wanted to explore the area with no horses or dogs! Well the trailer floor is pretty weak these days and we couldnt get the lights to work (bad connection on our truck) so this is how we got there.. Derek drove the truck/camper and I followed in the car! lol I did get GREAT gas mileage though as a bonus! I thought this was going to be my top MPG but I actually got up to 44.3 MPG. The car has only been getting about 27 city miles, but the other day I got a flat (damn screw) and Les Schwab checked all the tires.. they all had about 50lbs of pressure; factory settings indicate 35 is best, so they dropped the pressure and I am now getting 30+ city miles.. :)We arrived on Thursday afternoon.. the next day Derek, Scott & Barbara hiked up a trail to do some clearing. The picture above is of the trail overlooking camp down below.. It is the same trail we rode 2 years prior, that had a lot of sage brush in the way and since it is a very steep trail with NO room for error and no real good options to get around the brush, they wanted to cut it out. If you are wondering why I did not go with to help, just look at that picture!! I was not about to hike up that hillside to get to them! :)

As they were hacking away, they came across a rattle snake! We've been told rattlers are in the area, but not very active in late May. This was Derek's first encounter with one, and he was determined to kill that snake! When they got to it, he threw some large rocks at the snake but was uncertain if he had killed it. And since he didnt have a safe way to shoot the snake at the time, they all hiked back down to camp. Derek and I drove to town and he purchased some shot shells for his pistol and later that afternoon he hiked back up the trail, determined to bring back a dead snake!Sure enough he did! The snake had moved down the trail further under some brush but Derek managed to safely kill it.. I wanted him to cook some up (not so I could eat it but thought he might enjoy eating some) but cleaning and skinning it seemed too difficult to attempt so he chopped the head off, put it in the fire, chopped the rattler off and kept it to give to his boss, then threw the body over the hillside. :) He had told his boss that if he came across a rattler, he would bring him back the tail... never imagining he would actually have the chance! lol

The next day we drove over to Twisp River Horse Camp.. I've heard of it for years, wanted to see it in person. Beavercreek is on the North side of Twisp, up in the hills.. TRHC is on the South side of Twisp, up in the mountains! There were no campers there, apparently it is a bit too early in the season as there is still snow at that level.. not a lot, just patches here/there. It seemed nice though and we look forward to riding there some day.

We came across a few deer on our drive up the mountain and then also came upon a pile of poop in the road that was so big, I made Derek pull up to it and open the car door, so we could determine if it was sasquatch shit or bear or ??? We took a mental note and once back at our camp, asked the others what they thought it was and we now know it was Moose Poop! Dena & Paul have a cottage up North of Twisp in Oroville, an hour and a half from us. And since Jen/John and Dena/Paul were all at the cottage that weekend, we decided to make the trek up that way to see the place and say hi. We didnt stay long, just long enough to see the house and the ammenities at the little community resort. Its a cute community, makes you feel like you stepped back in time or into the movie "The Truman Show" with Jim Carrey, where everyone smiles and all seems too nice to be real... :) Guess I could have taken a picture of the community, but all I seemed to get was a pic of this quail.
We were having a great weekend... a lot of driving around, got in a 45 minute post-dinner walk one night, Derek is pretty excited to start doing more hiking.. We ate VERY well, our dinners were all foil dinners and delicious. There were only 4 other camping that weekend in our little group, but we knew a few others camping/riding there that weekend. I'm always suprised that the campground is not fuller as it is a really great place to go for a Spring campout, with excellent riding and camping!

We tried to do some fishing, that was a bust! Too difficult to fish from the shore at the local lakes as they all have weeds around the shoreline and you can only use artificial lures, so no cast and wait with bobbers fishin! :) The weather was perfect, but I definately was missing my kids (Ellie Russell & Cooper).

Sunday started out well, but ended poorly. It was the day we attempted to fish, with no luck and a lot of backwoods driving, we ended up back at camp and laid down for a nap. My cell phone rang at 2pm, it was Barbara... I attempted to answer and there was no response on the other end.. I had a feeling something was up but I couldnt reach her via phone or text and had no idea where they might be. At 3:30 we decided to go hike the pipestone, jumped in the car to go but saw a Search & Rescue truck drive past us at camp, so we followed it up as I now realized it was late and the 4 horseback riders should have been back by now. We learned it was our group that was in trouble.. :(

Long story short, Steve Williams and his wife Bertha were riding with Scott & Barbara. As they were leading their horses up around a downed log, Bertha's mare refused and ended up stepping off the trail and falling down the cliffside. The guys got to her and attempted to lead her back up the hill but she again refused and ended up going down again. Steve took off on foot after her and the 3 others stayed put waiting for Steve to return. After a couple hours, with no indication of where Steve was, they luckily were able to reach 911 to call in help.

It was a very long day and after a lot of searching and coordination, the group of 3 were found and made it back to camp around 6pm, then Steve was found and brought out of the woods on horseback by other friends at 7pm. As for Bertha's horse, according to Steve, she unfortunately had a 3rd tumble down the hillside and died at the bottom of about a 500' fall..

A few lessons learned even by Derek & I, even though we did not ride that weekend. We tried to help, we were at the command center for hours and out driving the roads, trying to see if Steve had come out anywhere. We felt helpless but did all we could. The horse was not an experienced mountain horse and the trail they were on was more difficult than I think she should have been on.

There are a lot of very easy trails at Beavercreek to take, so it is too bad that this tragedy had to happen. Over the years, I have heard stories of many different trails and horses going over hillsides and cliffs, some making it out.. some not! Brings thoughts to me and reminds me to NEVER push beyond my comfort zone or my horses skill level and that its is OK to take things more conservatively and slowly. It is far better to do that, than to be walking out of the woods without your horse.

The weekend reminded me of a time that I experienced a horse going over a cliff while out riding. This was way back, 20+ years ago when I still lived at home. My sister and I had taken the horses out to do one of our trail loops.. we were having a good ride but as we got close to home, we came across a log across the trail. We literally were just 5 minutes from home and the only option we knew of was to either cross that log or turn around and go back the way we came, 90 minutes to get home if we went back. It was starting to get to dusk and we'd never get home before way too late to be out and on the roads so over that log I was determined to go. We got off the horses to lead them over, the log was lowest on the downhill side of the trail and my horse jumped over easily. I tied her up as my sisters mare "Darrell" was unwilling to cross. She was still young and fairly unexperienced on the trails. Her mare just refused and refused to budge.. We were spanking her, pulling, coaxing, nothing was working. My sister was ready to head back the long way but I was determined to get that damn horse over the log! Well the mare reared up in frustration I'm sure but when she came down she twisted her body and her front legs came down on the downhill slope and she fell, falling down the steep embankment to the bottom. It was probably only a 30' drop but it was far enough to panick my sister!

We quickly realized her mare was wedged upside down in some downed logs at the bottom. She was not going to be able to get up with her saddle hung up on trees. Carrie started screaming, I cant remember if I consoled her or just told her to calm down and go get help.. or maybe she stayed and watched me.. But I climbed down the hill and get down to her horse who THANK GOODNESS was not thrashing around.. She was very calm for a horse pinned on her back! Risking life, I was able to reach the cinch and get it off of her, then encouraged her to move to get up, she did and walked out of the hole with just a few scrapes.

It was then that I realized I had the mindset to get things done in a panick situation and was the cool headed one and not the panicker! Something I have held onto all these years because although I've been very lucky to have that experience be the worst of what I've had to deal with on the trail so far, I wont always be so lucky.We ended the weekend with a nice drive home, a stop along the way to get a great view of Ross Lk and then very happy children greating us at home!! We had wished at times we had the horses, but it felt great to just get out camping. Looking forward to more trips this summer!