Saturday, July 10, 2010 - Worst Ride Ever!

We started the ride today thinking we'd take two short rides over the weekend, today and tomorrow, but open to the possibility, if Hubby felt okay, to make it a long ride today and rest tomorrow. It turned into an interminable trail we wished would just END! Here it is in a nutshell: sunny, rocks, rocks, stopped to put boots on, more rocks, rocks, then bog, then bog with rocks, hikers, more rocks, more hikers, more hikers (turned out to be a three-mile long stream of three large groups of boy scouts who had camped ten miles away and were hiking back), more bog, short boardwalks over bog, long boardwalk over bog, rocks, cold wind, hail, rain, stopped for lunch, horses grazing on grass, got spooked and ran off, had to walk back half a mile to retrieve them, met up with Hubby (who should have stayed put but didn't), had lunch, continued on more rocks and bogs, came to a sign, we proceed on, went about two miles before realizing we had misread the map and missed a turn, retraced our steps, past our initial lunch spot, passed our actual lunch spot, past where I caught up with the horses, finally found the turn marked with a itsy-bitsy carved wood sign the same color as the tree it was nailed to, pointing up what looked like a creek bed, which is why we obviously missed it in the first place. Headed up the creek bed, climbing, climbing, climbing (the last thing we needed was higher altitude!), climbing some more, dead trees everywhere, both standing and lying down, looked like a clear cut years ago with no cleanup afterward, truly ugly forest, then we crossed to a ridge, then more climbing, then an intersection with a sign that wasn't very helpful, (all the signs had trail names, whereas our Forest Service map only had numbers) finally opened into a meadow (with rocks and bogs), weren't sure which way the trail went, finally realized that piles of rock were the markers, followed those, back in the woods, more rocks, another climb, more meadows, more piles of rock, more dead trees, some across the trail with difficult bypasses, felt like we were going in the wrong direction and for too long, finally found what looked like a turn to the left and took it, more dead trees, more rocks, suddenly opened up into a forest of baby pines with branches that overlapped the trail, sunny again, by now it seems to us as though we have missed at least two left turns and traveled miles farther than we had anticipated, than another look at the map suggested maybe we were actually still on track, just that our travel speed was so slow (probably down to about 1.5 mph from our usual 3 mph) that my calculations were just wrong. I recalculated and estimated we'd find the turn in the next 25-30 minutes, and sure enough, there it was, a stake in the ground saying "China Meadows", pointing to what looked like a sheer dropoff the mountain. I couldn't believe that was a trail, but alas, it was. With the horses exhausted, it was a dangerous move, but we had no choice. We headed down the rocky trail (what else), dropping almost straight down for the first 100 feet, then gradually eased, then opened up into a giant field of grass and rocks. Managed to find a few more piles of rocks to follow, finally one had a sign stuck in the middle of it indicated it was an intersection (though the trails weren't visible at all, and didn't mention the horse camp or China Meadow, only other trails going off in other directions), managed to keep following rocks until a trail appeared in a small aspen section of forest, stopped to water the horses at a lake, then came to what looked like a fork (with no signs), one that crossed a small creek and the other, more used trail, that followed the creek). We followed the creek, soon realizing it was the creek that we had been getting water from, and we were on the wrong side of it. Found a place to ford that had a trail on the other side, mostly washed out. By now we had seen the campground at the start of the road that leads to the horse camp, so we at least had our bearings. Probably should have taken the creek crossing earlier, but who knew? Trail finally led to an ATV trail (more rocks), and I turned left, Hubby argued we should turn right but I convinced him I knew where we were, and ended up exactly where I thought, at the trailhead. Unfortunately there was a cattle guard, so we had to follow the fence to a break, and ended up right where we started, arriving home at 6:50. It's the only time we can remember arriving home grateful it was over, and not able to find hardly any redeeming factors on the trail. Granted, our view might have been a little tainted because of the problems with the altitude, but it was by far the worst, rockiest, most uncomfortable, poorly marked and maintained trail ever. Yuck! Hubby could barely walk when he got of his mare, I sent him in to feed the dogs and took care of the horses myself. We struggled through dinner, both took some painkillers, and crashed into bed.