Welcome to our ranch near Canada's west coast in Beautiful British Columbia's West Chilcotin mountain region. Where calling the vet means hollering back at the house to bring your kit, new friendships are formed from the back of a horse and true fun for a five year old is getting a machete for Christmas. Where 'cutting the dinks off' has a totally different meaning than what first comes to mind, Muck Boots are a household name, a hand shake still means something and the coffee is always on.

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Blue Canyon Ride, Post #1


What seems like almost years ago (actually only a couple of months) an idea came up.  There were several journal writers on the trail ride we happened to be on, so I asked if every person would give me an excerpt from their writing from a particular day.  Everyone agreed this would be a fun idea and we settled on the "Blue Canyon Day Ride" day.  

So I finally got one and thought I'd share.  Perhaps this will get the rest of the riders motivated to share their own stories.  ;)  
                        
Squirt waits patiently.......

 August 14th 2015
  Yeh! It is a day ride today to Blue Canyon., ( we got to sleep in). We left camp around 1015 under cloudy skies with sunny breaks, perfect riding weather, not too HOT! Lovely ride to the top of the ridge, ( very uneventful...yeh)! The view from the top of the ridge on the Blue  Canyon side was spectacular, we could view Pan Valley and Blue Canyon from one spot, fab photo opportunity, I got some wonderful pictures today,
 my favorite is Punky holding most of the horses, they all look like they are listening to her.
 Sandy is now on his forth puzzle of the trip, Olivia, Magalie and Jacques seem best at figuring these things out, me not so much. We arrived back at Pan's Camp at 1615; too lazy to go to the creek spa to night,
 seems cooler tonight.
 OMG! STEAK! scalloped potatoes, corn with rocky roads for desert, we do these people pull all the food from???
After dinner many rat stories ensued, way and too much grossness and lots of laughter. I don't think Magalie was too impressed with the rat stories. I doubt the smell of pack rats around the cabins had anything to  do with the stories, ha!
Amazing skies tonight, the view down Pan valley... stunning!



The mention of the 'spa' in the above writing reminded me of these crazy, crazy, CRAZY women!  
You may remember that many months ago, I posted one of my favorite photos and titled it something like "Pan Valley Spa".  Well, this year, it was not so hot, particularly on the day we were in the 'spa' area.  We had gone on a lovely day ride up to the majestic Pipe Organ mountain, but jackets were kept on.  But these crazy ladies decided that it was still a SPA day.  Seriously.  
So while this photo was being taken, I was hunched around the campfire, pretending to help cook so I could stay near the flames, with my toque and scarf firmly in place and jacket done up to my chin.  

These are some tough gals.  This photo still gives me goosebumps!  It was COLD!    




The Pan Valley Spa.  Still beautiful, but a tad cool this day!  



In other news, we are full swing in to 'round up' now.  We've found all the main groups of cattle but are working on gathering the wee groups of 2 or 3 now.  (They are much tougher to find!) 
 Usually we try and get out first thing in the morning so you have a chance of getting to their hideouts before they leave again.  Like finding a needle in a haystack, truly.  We are just starting to put all the cows in to 'one pile' at the moment, so will know by tomorrow evening exactly how many we are missing.  Hopefully not too many as the big trucks show up on Monday!  I have been trying to remember to pack my camera, but the weather has been grey and rainy lately, so I don't really have any spectacular photos to share.  

I've been riding my 'city boy' Kenny mostly.  He is sure turning into a sweet guy to ride.  He has been a lot of work to get there, but really has a heart of gold.  He is finally figuring out how to pay attention to where his feet are (a much safer option) and that just putting his head down and doing his job is much less work than throwing a hissy fit and then having to put his head down and do his job anyhow.  He has covered plenty of country in the last few weeks and is a better horse for it.  I now feel totally safe taking him in to any sort of country by myself.  A far cry from this summer when I didn't feel like he was safe to ride down a hill!  Not that he was going to do anything 'bad' on purpose, but neither of us had any idea or control of where his feet might land.     

Until next time, take care all!  
Punky        




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