Saturday, August 14, 2010 - Top of the List Ride Today!

Wow! What a fantastic ride today! We were out about 4 hours, covering the 10 mile outer loop, with great views of the Pacific Coastline and one looking right down 101 for miles. The trails had just a few spots with some stone, but mostly they were dirt and pine needles. Again, the forest seemed ancient, with moss hanging from limbs and covering all the stumps, but this time there were very few cut stumps. Apparently there have been fires and wind storms that all but flattened the forest back in the 1930's, so the oldest trees were more than 70 years old, which around here makes them a good 30 inches in diameter. The trails had placards at every intersection, making it impossible to get lost, and there were even informational placards discussing points of historical interest and one that showed animal tracks so that you could get to know who you're sharing the trail with, from muskrats to bears. Be sure to take the short loop up to Cape Mountain, there's a regular little museum exhibit up there, with blown up pix of what the forest looked like in 1934 after it had been razed by Mother Nature, not to mention a great place for lunch. The trails were well groomed, no problems at all. We even passed through the Dry Lake Trailhead, which, in addition to a parking area for day use, also has an area with multiple corrals, a group camp as it were. All in all, this one definitely goes to the top of the list for trails, making the only drawback the lack of easily available water and the lack of knowledge on the part of the folks at the ranger station.

Friday, August 13, 2010 - Barrel Day

After breakfast, I headed down to the nearest town of Florence, and found a hardware store. I explained my problem, that we wanted to remove the top of the barrel (it was melted on), and she referred me to their equipment/tool rental place a block away. A very nice man on a scooter chair named Bob helped me. He whipped out a skilsaw and was soon cutting through the top like butter, then he wouldn't let me pay him (his Friday the 13th present). After thanking him profusely, I went to the Safeway next door to get Hubby the dark chocolate we had forgotten early, then back to the hardware store for drum liners (55-gallon garbage bags), then down to the car wash to wash out the barrel. Fortunately, though it looked and felt like oil, it washed down easily under high-pressure soap and water. Then I found a 76 gas station with a handy hose, lined the barrel, and proceeded to fill it to the top. My plan was to twist-tie the top to keep it from spilling, but there wasn't enough left at the top, so I bungeed the lid from the metal grain can on top, and put the top that we cut out from the plastic barrel and bungeed that as well, both fit well enough to do the job. Drove slowly back to camp, spilling very little. After filling their two big tubs about halfway up (three portable buckets apiece), we still had almost two-thirds of a barrel left, so this should be plenty for the weekend, especially since there's likely to be water on the trail. Had hoped to get a short ride in, but too much work to do, and Hubby had the need to take a nap from his exertions while I was gone, so we called it quits by 4:15, opened the bar and settled down for the night.

Thursday, August 12, 2010 - Drive Day to Horse Creek, Siuslaw National Forest

Got up about 7:00, got out by 8:30, heading west until we picked up 101, the famous Pacific Coast Highway. A little while later we saw our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, in effect completing our cross country trip, from sea to shining sea, though I said it doesn't count until the horses get their feet in the Pacific, the way they did in the Atlantic on Assateague Island last October. That will have to wait till next week, when we'll be actually camping on the beach. Meanwhile, we had more immediate challenges to solve. We knew that the campground we were going to had no potable water, and the stock water was somewhere 1000 feet from the camping area. Though I tried to find out from the local ranger office whether we could reach the water with our truck, I couldn't get a straight answer. I spoke to two girls who didn't know anything other than what was on the website (which I had already read, thank you very much), then got transferred to someone's voicemail, but who didn't call me back until after we had already arrived. We stopped in a small town to try to find some kind of storage tank for water, but all the local farmer's coop had was a 63-gallon one that fit into the back of a pickup, which would have been perfect except it was over $200 (yes, I'm the thrifty type). As we were leaving, though, I saw a plastic 55-gallon drum by the front door with a sign asking for food donations. I went back in and asked if they sold those drums, and was told no, but the lady at the desk asked around, even getting on the phone to find out who had them, and discovered they were from a feed store just up the road. So she called them and handed me a phone, and sure enough, they had one. If we wanted it, it would be sitting by the back door of the loading dock, and we were free to take it, no charge! So we ran by and picked it up. It was dirty, looked like it had some kind of oil stuff in it, but it turned out to be something they use of cow teats for some reason. We put it in the back of the pickup, not sure whether we would need it or how it would work, but convinced it would be useful at some point. We continued to head south on 101. Though we were driving right along the coast, the turn into the forest took us up a narrow road that climbed into the hills (it's hard to call something 1370 feet above sea level a mountain). I let Hubby go first to scope out any problems, and he started out rather disappointed at the campground, and particularly in the distance to the water, which, in fact, was actually down a switchback on the trail, better than a quarter mile away, with no hope of being able to lug any up to the campsite. Contrary to what the ranger gals told me, it was not a pond or lake, but a trough with a hose coming out of a spring to fill it. It would have to be walking the horses there until we could modify our newly-acquired barrel. We found a pretty nice spot facing a bank of trees, and after getting the horses in their corrals, spent an hour getting the satellite dish set up. Afterward, when the horses had had time to eat some of their hay, we decided it was time to get them to the water. They had had a long drink when we filled the RV tank at a campground up the road, so they weren't desperate. Anyway, I put my bridle on Apollo, and swung myself on to his bareback, something we had never done together before. He wasn't quite sure what was happening and pranced a moment, then settled down when he discovered he could now reach clover. I let him graze a bit, letting him (and me) get accustomed to this new feel. Hubby handed me his mare's lead, and off we went! I sensed that both horses were a bit curious about what this new thing was, but were on their best behavior, almost like they were trying to help me out! Good horses! We made our way to the trailhead, then down the trail, which has a pretty good grade to it. Made it down to the trough without incident, and they both had a good long drink. Back up the hill (I'm not ashamed to say I had to hold onto his mane to keep from sliding back too far), and got back to the campsite in one piece in just a little over ten minutes. Everybody happy at the new experience! Off to bed with a list of things to do in the morning!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - Great Ride at Tillamook State Forest, Except...

Excellent trails, soft footing, almost no rocks. Beautiful old growth forest, with huge stumps covered with moss. You can practically see the burly lumberjacks in red plaid flannel shirts, hefting long-bladed two-man saws on those giant trees, a mule team hitched to a wagon nearby. Some areas were almost primordial, with moss hanging, lots of moisture, the ground on both sides of the trails completely covered with green ferns and low bushes, at times growing into the trail, which, surprisingly, had only minor and old signs of use. Really a beautiful ride, except... the trails frequently crossed the gravel forest roads, which were constantly in heavy use by these loud, mosquito-like motorbikes. Fortunately, the motorized and non-motorized trails were almost never the same, unfortunately they sometimes paralleled each other, and often crossed each other. This wouldn't be quite so much of a problem if the riders adhered to the 25 mph speed limit, but they rarely did. We were lucky to have only one incident, when Hubby and I had stopped to look at a map kiosk at a trailhead, and he had gotten off his horse for a minute, when suddenly we heard the telltale buzz coming from up the road. Before we even had a chance to react, two cycles buzzed by at top speed, sending his horse toward him, stepping on his foot and knocking him over (which, at least, is better than having her bolt with him on top of her), and my horse snorting in a tizzy for a few seconds but with no place to go. They were gone so fast they didn't know what to do, which I guess is a good thing. It's a dangerous place, and though it's obvious the forest people have tried to reduce conflicts, there is still major room for improvement. I would suggest a Horse Crossing sign and 5 mph limit at every crossing, at least that might minimize the racing that seemed to happen constantly on every straight-away of the road. And this was during the middle of the week, I would hate to see in on the weekends! It's easy to see why the horse camp was empty and pristinely clean of any signs of horses ever being there, though it was a lovely setting. Not many large sites, though, and the one we used (#10) would have been perfect if it hadn't been for the immovable fire grate placed right smack dab in the middle of the best place to park an RV. Oh, well, maybe someday we'll find the perfect horse camp. We'll keep looking! Packed up all the extraneous items in preparation for tomorrow, then relaxed for the evening after our 5-hour ride.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - Dreary Day

Slept even later than usual, didn't get out of bed till past 8:30, having heard the sound of a vehicle pass us, evidently the park workers came in to clean. I went out to feed the horses and discovered it was wet outside. Not exactly a rain as much as a collection of humidity dropping from the trees, and it was quite cool, in the low fifties. I covered up the hay with a tarp to protect it. After breakfast, Hubby finished re-working the drill pump setup, even adding a makeshift filter to keep the hose from clogging up, then we finished filling up the horses' tubs plus a spare. It being so cool, they aren't drinking much anyway. Though we had planned to ride today, with the weather being so damp and chilly, we thought the better of it and stayed in for the day, mostly reading and watching movies. Good idea, actually, helped us recover from last weekend's long rides!

Monday, August 9, 2010 - Travel Day to Stagecoach Horse Camp, Tillamook State Forest

Didn't get up too early, as the trip today is only about 2 ½ hours long, though we did need to stop and shop for groceries and to buy some green coffee beans (Hubby roasts his own) in Portland. Found a Safeway store before we got on the highway with relatively inexpensive gas, did our food shopping and jumped onto I-5. Stopped at the rest area to dump, then went into downtown Portland to get out beans a the Portland Roasting Company. They didn't ordinarily sell green beans, but did make the occasional exception for folks like us who roast there own. It turned out to be a rather circuitous route, but we did get a good look at Portland, trolley cars, storefronts and derelicts and all. Finally got back on the highway, and after a bit of climbing (we're only at about 2000 feet, so it's not at all like really climbing), we turned onto the gravel road that would lead us to the Horse Camp in about 5 miles. We arrived to a narrow camp road, with only 11 sites, most of which were only suited for small rigs. There were a couple of larger sites, but they were a long way from the water source, which is a makeshift trough with a hose that gravity feeds off a small creek. I had forgotten about filling up our RV tanks until we were halfway up the gravel road, so we figured we would have to conserve, and maybe use the stock water for washing dishes, and skip our bi-weekly shower until we got to our next location, thinking at the time the stock water would be from a spigot like the last camp. No such luck. The best site for us would have been perfect, right next to the creek, except it had a huge set-in fire grate right in the middle of the area we would like to park. Not to be deterred, we backed in over the top of it as far as we could, and just managed to barely be back far enough to be off the road. Had the silly fire grate not been there, we could have gotten another 6-8 feet back, not blocked the corrals at all, and had plenty of room for the pickup as well. I really wish the Forest Service would have an expert come in and look at their campsites, it would be so easy to improve them in a way that would make them much more attractive, and bring in more user fees. Of course, I should mention this is a state forest, but nevertheless, why build a horse camp without understanding what horse campers need? I will give them credit, though, about one innovation we hadn't seen before. The corrals had high crossbars on them, and at first I couldn't understand why, but then I realized that the middle one was higher, and that if you put a tarp across it, you would create a temporary roof for when it rains. A good idea for an area like this, where it apparently rains a lot. Anyway, we had to spend another hour rigging up the generator, the drill pump and a hose system so that we could pump water from the creek to the horses. It was too steep to carry up tubs, so in the end, we felt this was the best solution. The only other one would be to walk the horses to the trough, which isn't far, but we like it better when the horses can drink for themselves. We weren't sure our little drill pump would have the power to push water that far and at that much of an incline, but it managed quite well. As it was getting late, we only filled the tubs about half full, with plans to finish it off tomorrow. Had a bite of dinner, watched a movie, off to bed, still tired from our two long rides over the weekend.

Sunday, August 8, 2010 - Another Ride Day

The day started out a bit misty again, but cleared up nicely throughout the morning. We had decided to take another, shorter ride today, and on the suggestion from one of the folks from last night, we decided to head to the Kalama Falls, which were supposed to be lovely. When I asked this morning how long a ride it was, one of the ladies said two miles, but was contradicted by one of the men who said five miles. Not wanting to take a long ride today, I hoped that five was the outside, as that would still make it almost 3 ½ hours, the max we wanted to be out. We got out about 11:45, heading out the same trail as yesterday, but with a quick turn to the right that headed us out toward the Falls. Again, we were thankful for the extra signs and ribbons left behind by the Fun Ride group, as the regular trail markers were sorely inadequate. Part of the problem was that Kalama Falls wasn't actually part of the National Forest, so it wasn't on any of the maps we had, so it was guesswork the whole way. It started out nice, but again turned rocky before long. We eventually came to a dispersed camping area with some young men misbehaving in the woods, and almost lost the trail but for the ribbons. We crossed Forest Road 81, and continued on through more rocky trails until we came to a gravel road that had no signs and no ribbons. We noted hoof prints scattered around, but most of them seemed to go kitty corner across to a berm of gravel, then on to a grassy road behind it. We made the same choice, and were rewarded about 100 yards up with another ribbon. That was the nicest part of the trail, mostly grass and a good place to get some trotting in, though it began to climb again. That eventually rolled into another gravel logging road, and we had now been out for more than two hours, already past our point of no return if we wanted a three hour ride. We made the decision that if we didn't hear the falls soon, we'd head back. Well, shortly thereafter we heard the falls, and the ribbons indicated a right turn. We could heard the falls off to our left, but then the ribbons indicated a right turn onto a lava field. We followed the ribbons, but they petered out, as did the trail, and the sound of the falls diminishing. We stopped at a campsite and had lunch, planning to head back immediately. As we came out of the lava field on to the road, however, I noticed a trail across the road. I suddenly remembered something one of the folks from last night had said, "Leave your horses in the lava field and walk down to the falls." So I persuaded Hubby to let me hike down the trail to see if, in fact, we were in the right place. Indeed we were! I came back and we led the horses to a little grassy area along the trail, then hiked down a very short ways to the river. Going left to the end of the trail, I found a beautiful view of the falls and the two streams that came together at that point. There was a huge tree that had fallen (or been put, though I don't know how!) that had obviously become a much used footbridge across the lower stream, so we crossed it and followed the trail to near the base of the waterfall. Had we wanted to climb across rocks, we could have stood under it, but we were already taxed from the long ride, and knowing we had a long ride back simply took a few pix and headed back. It was a beautiful spot, it was just that it was more live 6 ½ to 7 miles each way, something we really hadn't wanted to do, but hey, we were there, we made it, we made the best of it! The trip back ended up being shorter, partly because we did a bit more trotting and even cantering along the grassy road (as we were descending now, it wasn't as hard on the horses), and followed the road for the last bit, avoiding the rockiest part of the trail. We did eventually turn back onto a trail that seemed to head in the right direction, and sure enough, it brought us right to the campground trail. My gelding immediately turned left, knowing he was almost home, though I couldn't have said for sure which way to go. Minutes later we arrived at our campsite, exhausted after another long ride. We didn't go socializing tonight, we were just too tired and a bit sore. Looking forward to a good night's sleep in preparation for our travel day tomorrow!