S hooked up the horse trailer while I did some quick wood filling on the custom vanity then hand sanded the edges of the round table. B and Cooper were out at 11 but B was back to town to get some things leaving Cooper here. He had her buffaloed he was ill this am but coming to the ranch proved all was well and he just has his nose out of joint with Gulliver moving in.
I sealed the growth ruler with wax and loaded it in the horse trailer to take along and give to Shaina for the lady to pick up, thanks Dude. I also loaded snacks and drinks then when B was back, tack for her and Shaina before we caught and loaded the horses. I suggested S take his bow along so he got it down and loaded too. Both dogs loaded up and we headed out of the yard before 11:30.
Mr Jenkins was loaded up too to go
B had brought her and I a tea from town not realizing S was coming along, thanks B. Sipping on it we were cruising along the 22X when we saw a dog running along the side of the busy highway. We pulled over and picked him up then swung around to the closest houses. At the first house the family said not theirs but after seeing him thought it was a neighbors. The daughter jumped in with us and we drove up the road to the house to find no one home. S with the help of britt turned the big rig around in the junk filled yard. The place was crazy covered in trash half eaten geese and other chaos. There was a dog food dish and chain too. The girl called her dad for the guys number but after calling him a few times we decided to just chain up the dog and drop the girl back at her house with her saying she would be sure to sort it out. We did pass a truck and trailer that looked like the one ahead of us on the highway that the dog may have been following but the girl said not "clay" so we did not stop yet he did turn into that yard. Having the big rig we did not turn around again to go back and see and hope all is well with this pup.
quite the yard ;(
Back on the highway and heading west I called Shaina who was ahead of us to let her know we had a slight delay. When we arrived at Mesa Butte campground she was not there. HMMM now what? The campground was closed so we were parked on the roadside along with others but there are many vehicles that had no caution for blasting thru this type of parking situation. We unloaded horses and brushed but now considered loading up and heading to a cell service area in case Shaina went to Bragg Creek instead. Shaina pulled up having taken a road towards the actual Mesa Butte according to her maps, this will come in handy later in the day but it was all good we were now in the same place.
Above right is the ONLY map we saw at the start of our trip
We tacked up and set out on our trip with Sheldon and the dogs walking us to the river. I told him the approx 2-hour route we would take and if not back in 6 hours send out a search party jokingly. It was a beautiful 20-degree day in our beautiful mountain range.
Shaina also does yoga and dancing while she rides, here are 4 fun videos
The 2 mares were super energetic with Roo bringing up the rear playing the boom box. The views at the lookout point were fabulous as usual.
LOOK at this view!!
The girls voted we continue the loop around so we continued to ride southeast. At the end of one trail we could not find the marker across a gravel road and even stopping a truck for intel on the road north was useless as they had never been before. We stopped at some campers with a little girl and dog in a tent along the river who were new to the area as well. This area did not look familiar to me at all but followed the trail southeast at the campers comments other horses were ahead of us. About 20 minutes crossing John Ware creek a few times and feeling like we were more south towards Turner Valley we turned back and planned to take the gravel road north. As we got going along the road, Shaina recalled this was the road she took earlier and it was only a short ways to the road back to camp. (Short in her Jeep speeding of course HAHA) And by the grace of God she also tied her jacket on my saddle in case it got cooler and by golly she now put it on as we were now in the shade. We made our way down this 9 km road with some pretty tired ponies. We got off and walked for allot of it to help their feet on the gravel. I went ahead and arrived at the bridge just after 6 to cross to the main road to turn left to camp only to find a cattle gate blocking the way (seems Shaina forgot this small detail). Just then Sheldon blast by in the big rig. I was waving thinking he got my pin I sent at the top of the hill where we got service, but he blew by headed east to get service.
The long gravel road walk video
Shaina created this fun video of our day!
These 3 pictures were taken by Sheldon depicting his afternoon.
dog day afternoon :)
The girls arrived not long after and we stood the horses in the river for a bit thinking there may be a gate across the river to get thru and wait at the hiway but no luck. Shaina left Roo with B and crossed to the highway with S returning shortly, Hallelujah. He came across turned around and parked as we untacked some tired ponies. Now another divine intervention was bringing Sheldon along as even though he blew by at the same time I arrived at the cattle gate barricade, we would have had to back track in either of 2 directions that would have taken possibly an hour to get back to the trailer. This 4 hour ride tracked approx 21 kms. B gave them all some bute and put boots on her 2. I loaded them up and we took Shaina to her jeep. A cold beer was enjoyed and a bag of cheezies, I loaded the ruler in her jeep and we all headed home around 7.
this is our route I believe
We were back at the ranch by 8; B and I groomed horses, put boots on Switch too and put in the house paddock S had closed the gate on. The boys had followed us in the yard so all 5 horses spent the night relaxing in the paddock but B did feed Pepper before she jetted home to supper with Dave. S had leftovers out for our supper which I joined him for after feeding hungry Harley. It was now time to have a soak in the hot tub for achy muscles; sore saddle butt and bow pulling shoulder kinds of aches. S said he probably got 60 pulls on the bow today and did a couple hikes with the dogs. A shower felt awesome after then relaxing in bed finishing season 3 of Bling empire and S catching up on the days sports. Whew what an adventuresome day it was!!
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