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!