Woke up an hour before the alarm, decided to get moving early. Packed up, stopped at the dump, then headed out before 8:00. Stopped in Laramie to pick up some fly spray and another saddle bag. Meanwhile, I called the BLM to find out about potable water at Encampment River. I had left a message more than a week ago and had never had the call returned. I had gotten the voicemail of the same man when I had called earlier, still no return call, so finally I had to insist on talking to someone who knew something. I wasn't about to drive all the way there only to discover we needed to pick up water. Finally spoke to a woman who, after several minutes of conversation, determined that our rig wouldn't fit into any of the sites at Encampment River, wasn't sure about potable water, and thought the corrals were a long way from campground, all negatives, I realized based on that information, I just couldn't see us spending the weekend there either. I spent another half hour on the phone trying to find alternatives, and finally decided on Pelton Creek Horse Camp. It was the only one within striking distance that seemed suitable, so after a discussion with Hubby, we set out to Pelton Creek, just about an hour away, which would get us in good and early, which we wanted to do as Friday are the day it becomes hard to find a decent spot. So off we went! Traveled on mostly flat prairie until just before we headed into the forest, then started slowing climbing. Had to stop at one point as the van approached overheating, than proceeded on after a few minutes of cooling. Finally reached the top, then started descending until we hit the Colorado border. Almost immediately after that we saw a hand painted sign that said Pelton Creek, so we turned down a dirt road, and soon saw real signs that indicated we were in the right place. We traveled the near 10 miles to the last campground on the road. Once again, Hubby went in to reconnoiter, he had a long discussion with Bob the campground host, then finally came out to fill me in. Apparently, horses weren't allowed in the campground (despite many lodgepole pines that would have been perfect for a highline), only at the corrals, a sign for which we had passed about a half mile up the road. The only water was a hand pump (yes, a pump!), and that was in the campground, there was no water at the corrals, but it was near the creek so we figured we could get water there. Most of the sites at the campground were pretty small, but Bob said we could camp up at the corrals, for no fee at all. We decided that's what we'd do. We spent the next hour at the hand pump filling up our tank, using a clever device consisting of a plastic soda bottle with the bottom cut out hooked to a hose that went into the tank. The pump was higher than our tank, so gravity worked. I must have pumped about 1500 times to get the tank full! It was coming out only in a pretty small dribble. Once done, we headed out to the corrals. The road was quite steep, and it was at an angle better for coming in the other direction, so I had a few scary moments trying to turn around using a trail next to the road. Finally managed it. Then I headed up the road to the corrals, giving it gas to try to make a run at it. I think I might have just dragged bottom on a high spot on the road, because I slowed to the point of not being able to go any further. The van just didn't have the power. Maybe the extra weight of the water didn't help either :-). Anyway, I radioed Hubby, who had gone up ahead of me and was chatting with another fellow who was preparing to leave, and he put the horses in their corrals, dropped the horse trailer, and backed down the road to me. I hooked up a tow strap (which doubles as our highline tree saver), and with the help of his pickup, we managed to get up to the top with no more problems. We got the horses settled, and the RV situated (with levels, because I was sick of being lopsided as we had been for weeks now), then decided to do a water run. We gathered every tub we had, loaded them in the back of the horse trailer, which was now reconnected to the pickup, and headed down to the creek below. Once again using the nylon strap, we looped in around the handles of one of the smaller tubs, threw it into the creek, pulled it out, carried it up to trailer and dumped it into one of the larger tubs. After a dozen or so throws we had two large tubs, two small tubs and a cooler full of water, which we brought back up to the horses. Once they were situated with water and hay, Hubby and I started getting the RV opened and settled in. It was a really good thing we got here early, by 11:00 or so, because it seemed to take the whole darn day to get settled. By 4:00 we were in, everything ready including the generator, but exhausted from all of the physical effort. We finally settled down to cocktail hour and dinner, settled in for the evening. When we put the horses to bed, we also put the tarp over the new hay (which the horses LOVED, by the way), because it looked like rain was coming in, which in fact it did later. In the evening, we were joined by a cadre of folks, who we learned were a horse club coming up to clear up the trails. Then, just before it got dark, we saw something neither of us had ever seen before, a (practically) night rainbow. The sun was almost down, the sky was mostly dark with a few streaks of red on the clouds, when we saw a beautiful dark rainbow off in the east, truly spectacular, more than the picture shows. Really gorgeous, seemed a darker shade of hues than a typical rainbow. We have to say, we LOVE our new back yard, it's one of the prettiest we've had in a very long time. We're considering staying longer than the weekend, but we'll have to wait and see. Obviously no cell phone signal here, so it will require trips to the nearest town occasionally. Meanwhile, we went to bed just after 9:00, exhausted from our long and eventful day!
