Horses on the hay meadow at Six Mile.
Anyhow, was trying to organize some photos and came across a few from riding range this past summer. That was the good part about this past summer of fire (besides we got wonderful haying weather).....lots of range riding. I thought I'd tell you a bit about one of our adventures. Nothing shocking or dramatic, just a fun couple of days.
So at some point I got an idea in my head that we should do some exploring and figure out how to get between our two ranges (new and old) from the high country. I had been through the several miles of bush and brush many years ago (when I was range riding for a living) but certainly the trail was not clear in my head. Nor is it clear on the ground. It's more a trail of 'by guess and by golly', although there are some very definite landmarks, if you can find them.
Lush green, but pretty smoky.
We were actually quite lucky to be comparatively smoke free over the summer, but this particular time, it was pretty thick and heavy.
So Magalie, Cody and I saddle up our mounts, stash a package of burger and one of smokies in our saddle bags and head for the Cabin late one afternoon (about a 2 hour ride up if you are being quick). We organized for the night, packing water, laying out supper fixings and arguing over who sleeps on which bunk. Our horses enjoyed a quick rest and then we headed out again at about 5:30, quickly covering the couple of miles we needed to travel before we started exploring new country. I had a good idea where to start, and with the very questionable help of an electronic unit, and dad's directions, we zig zagged our way around until we came across some cow trails pulling us in the correct direction.
No shortage of feed!
One of the very obvious landmarks is the "747 Flat", which is apparently named because someone figured it was big and flat and dry enough to land a 747. It is long and dry and flat and perhaps a 747 could land, but I'm quite sure it would never take off again. I was happy to see the Flat anyhow, as I knew we were on the right trail. Trail is a pretty loose word, there are many trails, in many directions, mostly made by wild game and cattle and they generally do more to confuse that assist.
Made it to the 747 Flat!
Eventually, we came to the Corkscrew Basin, our intended destination. With the smoke so thick, it was feeling pretty late and none of us wanted to find our new 'trail' in the dark so we didn't spend much time. We saw a bull and a small handful of cows (and plenty of tracks), high fived each other for our navigating skills and wound our way back down to the Cabin, marking our trail back the way we came. (We originally intended to move cows along that trail, but they were smarter than us and found a better way. The way we went worked, but after consultation with dad and Google Earth, turns out there were some better options.)
Found it!
Zip coming back from a well earned drink.
It was pretty much dark when we got back and hobbled the horses for the night. The Cabin is inside a nice little pasture, so we don't have to worry about them heading for home! There is plenty of food up there as well, so we made up some sort of Burger Pasta Mishmash, set a bit of a bread to rise and went to bed. In the morning I cooked the smokies and a bit of cheese in the fresh bread dough to make something similar to sausage rolls. Easy and delicious and still good after banging around in a saddle bag all day. We had fresh buns for breakfast and were ready for a new start.
It turned out that Magalies horse was a bit sore from our previous day's marathon, so she headed straight home in the morning. Cody and I retraced our footsteps (kinda) on our new 'trail' from the night before and rode though a huge amount of range over the course of the day. We put out salt that had been transported by snow mobile the winter previous and enjoyed checking out some new ground. The grass was lush, and the flowers were incredible. We stopped for lunch on our way home late in the afternoon and enjoyed a good long nap (riders, dogs and horses). I don't know exactly, but I would say we easily put on 40 kms that day, probably quite a bit more.
I rode my big Kegger horse. Do you SEE how high my stirrups are? He is way too big for me. He turns his head and sighs at me when I get up without a stump. Zip is right konked out in front of him. She needs the sleep, but wants to make sure we don't get away without her.
Laying down to rest after a water break, but still alert and ready to go!
Bet that roll felt good and was certainly well deserved!
Seems hard to believe that only a few months ago we were riding out into new country with plenty of daylight left at 5:30 pm. And now at the end of November, we need lights to see decently by 4:30 pm. Ah, but it will come around again.
Cheers folks,
Punky
