Where Have we Been

I really have to do this more often, it seems like every blog I write I have to use a different platform. A few months ago I switched from my old trusty PC to a new MAC and that meant I had to leave LiveWriter in the dustbin, and go back to blogger, and now it seems like blogger changes something each and every time I write a post.

When I left you last we were way back in early September and riding the West Country of Alberta with old and new friends up there. It was not to long after that that we loaded our new trailer and headed south. We missed our annual trek up the Boulder River south of Big Timber to visit our friends Mike and Janna. Seems that their calendar was a little out of wack and they were starting winter early there. So that meant we just pointed our rig south and set the cruise. The weather reports kept giving us encouragement to make some miles as snowy weather was following closely on our heels. That was no problem for me as those who know me know that I have a bad case of PDD (Paul Dahl Disorder), but it was not so great for Brenda and her bad knee. We stopped the first night out in Dillon, Montana and the next night we had given the cool weather the slip and slide down the Virgin River Gorge into Logandale, Nevada. Both new stopping places for us, but thanks to our friends we found places to stay with no problems.

Once we roared through the traffic in Phoenix we arrived here at Dogpound South. Much to Brenda's chagrin our house was decorated for Halloween and not with fake spider webs but with the work of a major colony of Black Widow spiders. After a day or so of sweeping, wiping and pressure washing from my very clean orientated wife the decorations were gone. While she was at that I was busy getting the horses settled in and putting some hay up for the winter. Well that and trying to keep the pressure washer from overheating and burning up.

But enough of the clean-up we came south to enjoy the warm weather and do a little riding. We are a little earlier than other years so the weather has been warm, maybe even a little to warm for us northerners but we are suffering through the heat, remember 75F is hot back home, and getting out into the hills for a little riding.

I had an opportunity to join our good friends K & Teresa Rogers, and Dave and Linda Modahl on a day ride in the Rainbow Valley SW of Phoenix. It was a great day ride and a wonderful place to do a little training work.

Making our way through the valley

 We wound our way around the mountain and stopped at a couple of tanks along the way to water our critters. And do a little treasure hunting. Below you can see Earl looking at Dave's treasure and probably thinking "You've got to be kidding me, I don't run on gas".

Our next adventure was up into the pine forests north of Phoenix, I promised not to reveal the location but I sure didn't say I wouldn't share some of the scenery.

Brenda hanging out under the apple tree

Linda and K at the falls

This last weekend we headed off with K and Teresa to Catalina State Park down near Tucson. We had been there before a couple of years ago but had not ridden the trails in the park very much so thought we should give them a try. They have a great Equestrian Campground there, and much to our surprise we had it all to ourselves. A few day riders slipped in and out on both Saturday and Sunday but we never saw another horse on the trails. There were lots of hikers and a bunch of bikers, but all were very courteous and appeared pleased to share the trails with us. K managed to make a couple of little girls days with rides on his beautiful Paint mare, Delta Dawn. We were happy to take some great photos and hopefully be included in some other folks pics also.

Some nice scenery in this part of the country, down along the Canyon Loop

This fellow was watching a Road Runner on the ground, who was probably watching a lizard

Of course no ride in the Tucson area is complete without a photo of some Saguaro's. There are a lot of them down here and they make for beautiful pictures, but something I have never seen before was this Crested Barrel Cactus.

Found along the cutoff from the 50 Year Trail to the Sutherland Trail

And what is a beautiful background without beautiful subjects.

Teresa Rogers and Brenda along the Sutherland Trail

Well that catches you up with our travels and adventures to date and I will try to keep things a little more current from now on.

Back to the Bighorn

Last week we once again headed west to the Yaha Tinda ranch. Unlike last time when we stayed at the Eagle Creek Campground this time we went right into the ranch and joined our friends, Ken and Verna Pohl, at the Bighorn Campground. It is situated alongside Bighorn Creek and the effects of last June's flooding were still evident, but still a beautiful spot.

The view from our campsite

The picture above not withstanding the first three days of our stay the weather was spectacular with warm temperatures and hardly a cloud in the sky. We got on the road early the first day so once we set up camp, said our hello's, we saddled up and headed across the Red Deer River and up to Hidden Falls. This is one of our favourite spots here in the valley and always a nice ride.

Always nice to have Big Ben along to scout the river crossings

For those who know Ken and Verna's ponies, Beauty didn't shrink, she is on vacation and Seeker is filling in.

Willow is thinking "Nope, not me, no way"

This is a good trail to remember your rubber soled boots on

Hidden Falls

Tomorrow's Ride

Wednesday we enjoyed a nice breakfast and a great campfire and then got ready to head up to the Sheep Cliffs. All the years we have been riding here we have never made the turn up towards the Cliffs. It is a long climb and the trail although not rocky has a fair amount of exposed roots that your mount has to negotiate.

Lots of up and lots of roots

Some of the rest stops come with spectacular views

Along this trail you climb out above tree line

And the views get better and better

And once you get to the top it is time to rest up for the ride down.

More and more beautiful views as we dropped back down the 3400 feet to our camp in the valley.

Fall is definitely in the air up here in the high country.

Day 3 we saved for one of my favourites rides on the ranch, the rest of the world call it Poplar Bluff, but we just call it the High Trail. It is not as high as Sheep Cliffs but it sure has some nice views along the way.

Beautiful ladies, fast horses and spectacular scenery

Brenda just had to let her go for bit!

Ken, Verna, and Penny enjoying the view from our lunchspot

The Pohl Gang

The next day a little rain came into the valley and the Pohl's headed for home. Later in the evening, well a lot later, actually early in the morning we got new neighbours, Mike and Shauuna Lewis. They, their horses and three dogs arrived in the wee hours and we spent the next day getting to know them and their dogs, Night, Ruger and Watson.

Mikes Yukon Candle

Here is a look at our rides on the ranch this year from Google

A couple of posts back I wrote about saying goodbye to our motorhome, well the deal went through and with a little horse trading our travelling style is changing but we are still travelling even though I think we need a little bigger turn around at both Dogpounds. We still have lots of room but with this rig we can take along a bunch of our four legged friends.

The Loss of a Wonderful Woman

And a good friend. This morning we got a terrible shock when our friend Rod Ivers told us that Loyce, his wife of 45 years had passed suddenly yesterday.

Brenda called me just as I came out of the swimming pool in Sundre and I just sat in stunned disbelief in the parking lot for a while. There are no words to describe my thoughts.

We met Loyce and Rod back in 2009 at the Kerrville gathering and again later that same winter in Rockport, Texas. It didn't take more than a minute to discover what a warm loving person Loyce was and over the years we have both entertained and been entertained by the Ivers at our various wintering spots. We have gotten together to break bread together on a number of occasions and Loyce was always interested in trading stories about our respective grandchildren and even sent some of her crafts home with us to Canada for the little ones.

I wish I could think of some words that would help her family with the sorrow that I know will engulf them from the loss of this wonderful woman but there are no words, just memories of the good times and the knowledge that she loved them above all else.

Brenda and I want them to know that she had a positive impact on a lot of folks and we will be sending our thoughts and prayers from up here north of the Medicine Line to help comfort them in this time of loss.

Until we all cross that line and can share another campfire Loyce know that we will cherish the memories of our time together

Times are a Changing - Our Rigs FOR SALE

We have decided to put our Motorhome up for sale. It is a 2009 Fleetwood Discovery 40X. That is the model that has a front kitchen and a mid-ship television. It has three slides and is a pretty roomy rig, I think down in Kerrville a few years back we had thirteen folks inside one rainy evening. Now we were all friends but it still had room for a few more.

We ordered this rig from the factory so it came with all the things we wanted and needed. Unlike many it has both a gas and convection oven, and heat pumps, and a washer/dryer combo. Also a factory installed Satellite Dish on the roof and seeing as how we like to get our Canadian channels we also installed a Motosat dish for Shaw/Star Choice also.

We like to get out where the places are less crowded and enjoy the quiet of the countryside so solar was a must, and we had four extra batteries installed. We had AM Solar install 400 watts of solar generating capacity on the roof along with all the necessary power management equipment. This system has served us well and we are able to do almost everything from computering to TV watching without having to use the onboard 8KW generator.

A couple of years ago we upgraded the blinds from the day/night shades to MCD roller blinds and shades.

The only reason this outfit is for sale is the fact that our needs have changed. Those who follow our blog know that we now have a place in Arizona, and spend a great deal of time traveling and trailriding with our horses, so the motorhome just was not getting used enough. Although we still get it out and about frequently in the summers here in Canada, it is just to nice to take into the back country where we do most of our riding.

Therefore some lucky person is going to be able to get the deal of a lifetime. We are looking to move it to a new home on a pretty short timeframe, so it won't be here long.

Here she is doing what she does best, enjoying time away from the crowds with her solar array making quiet power.

I will just put a bunch of shots here, keeping in mind that these were taken while we were fulltiming. This is an especially clean rig and we have taken good care of it. It just had a complete service and the generator has about 15 hours since its last service. Only about 23,000 miles on the clock also.

Bedroom

Drivers side

Ready to roll with a full-size pickup in tow

From the bedroom looking up the hall past the bathroom

Front looking back to the mid-ship TV

Passenger side

Once again in the desert enjoying the quiet

Back to the Beginning

Way back in August 2001, yep, just before the world changed, Brenda and I got married out in one of our favourite places on the planet. The Yaha Tinda ranch is a little piece of heaven about an hour and half west of our place here at Dogpound North.

Here we are back at the spot and I think the horses are checking for footprints from our wedding.

And the actual day

Long time readers will have seen this landscape many times as we have made a pilgrimage back to this spot on at least one occasion every year since.

I stumbled on this video, now these guys are probably not heading for Nashville but the pictures are beautiful and we too are forever Yaha Tinda Bound.

This year because of the floods we decided rather than camp right on the ranch we would stay at the Eagle Creek campground right on the east ranch boundary and ride in. We found a beautiful spot there right along the Red Deer River and enjoyed 5 beautiful days roaming the ranch and surrounding countryside.

The view downstream

And a look upstream

And here is a panorama of the view from our campfire

The first day we just took a ride over to the Bighorn camp to see how the repairs from the flood were coming along, a lot of changes there this year.

For those who have been here before this is the centre site down by the river, Bighorn creek has made it a creek bottom property now.

Once we checked out the camp we headed up to the spot we got married at then on up to Eagle Lookout for a look around the countryside.

Upriver from Eagle Lookout

For those who have been here, Dave and Sherry, you will notice the big swing to the north the river has made in the meadows east of the Bighorn Camp. The circle that was carved into the grass by folks "round penning" their horses is gone, probably somewhere out where you can see the gravel bar now.

Day two we just took a short ride up to Eagle Lake and although I didn't get a good photo, the water level is so high that the trail around the south side of the lake is under water, a couple of feet at least. We went in on the trail on the north side of the meadows from Eagle Creek and when we came out the same way we discovered a new trail heading off a little more northerly than the other. We have dubbed this the "Knee Knocker" cause the fellow who pioneered it must have been riding a pretty skinny horse as ours were just able to fit between a lot of the trees. We needed to exercise extreme caution to make sure Brenda's bad knees were intact when we got through those spots. It eventually came out on the old seismic line that headed NE from Walker's old camp and although we headed up there the next day we couldn't find a way across to the Poplar Bluff trail without some major bushwhacking. And with those aforementioned bad knees that is not in the cards.

Day Three we headed over the Hump out of Eagle Camp and did a little exploration east of Eagle Creek before heading around the Poplar Bluff, High Trail in our camp, trail. This is one of our favourite rides and the vista's are stunning.

And this from our lunch stop for the day

The view above is one of my favourites on the planet. It is always hard to leave this spot, no matter what the weather or season.

Day Four we just headed up river through the meadows checking out the changes along the riverbed up to the top crossing to Hidden Falls. I think a fellow could find his way across there but you would have to make your way through a lot of driftwood to do it. From there we headed north bushwhacking our way through what Brenda calls the soft trees, Pine and Spruce, and hit the meadows right about where the old telegraph line went through. We followed the meadow back down and stumbled on a new elk trap just as we got to the big meadow southwest of the ranch. For a lot of our readers some of this will mean nothing but for some others I am hoping I am painting a picture that brings you back to the ranch.

And this brings us to today, another beautiful day, but one we knew had to come. We had to pack up and head home today. Our rig needs some attention from our friends at Allandale Industries, and we have to drop it off tomorrow morning early to get those things looked after. God willing and the creeks don't rise we will be back on the trails soon, after a little resupply stop and some repairs.

For the Google Earth fans amongst our readers here is a view of our tracks on this trip.

Light Blue or Cyan is Day 1, Dark Blue for Day 2, Red is Day 3, and Magenta is Day 4.

This was our sunset view last night from our campfire

Up Sh%&% Creek

Well actually it was the Sheep River and we took our horses along with us. Down west of Turner Valley here in Alberta there is an Equestrian Campground called Sandy McNabb. Over the years we have spent a few great days there and for some years early in the Millenium we would be there for Thanksgiving. It is paved all the way out so we can take the Motorhome and the bumper pull. Since we were there last they have rebuilt the stable/tie stalls and run power to every site. As well as a new dump station just across the road.

Site #18 a favorite of ours

because unlike most of the sites you can actually see the tie stalls from #18.

The Sheep River was one of the Alberta rivers that was wreaking havoc on the downstream residents during the June floods and there was evidence of it's exuberance even up here in the hills.

A lot of rubble and trees moved around and left high and dry above the river

 The weather for the most part was pretty cooperative except for one day when it was showering off and on all day. I took the horses for a short ride that day.

The first day we took a spin up the Death Valley trail until it connected with the Windy Point trail and we took that back down to the Sheep River and followed it back into camp.

Some meadows along the Death Valley trail

And these fellows were up above us on the Windy Point trail. Not sure whether that is their shepherd or what on the skyline

And here is an overlook right where the Windy Point and Sheep trails intersect.

A view from a ledge along the Sheep River. Lots of flowers out there.

 Another day we headed back out on the Foran Grade trail which climbs a ridge that has pretty nice views of the front range of the Rockies on most days, but on this day they were obscured by clouds hanging on the peaks.

That grassy slope is where we spotted the Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep on an earlier day

The mountains with cloud covered peaks
 

As well as mountains you get a pretty good view of the Calgary downtown skyline from here although it is probably at least 35 miles away the way the raven fly's. Actually raven's kinda wander their way across the landscape. Rumour has it that bees fly in a straight line but that would be a little long to haul a big load of honey making ingredients across the countryside, so let's just say Google calls it 34 miles.

Calgary skyline from the Foran Grade trail

Another benefit, well maybe a benefit, is that from up here you can check your phone messages and Brenda was able to update her Facebook Fans

It's always nice to let folks see what we are seeing.

Once we got down off the Grade we headed down to cross the Sheep River and the rain from the day before had muddied it up a little so it was nice to see another group crossing to give us an idea that all was well on the regular crossing. Many of the traditional crossings were changed, for the worse, by the floods this year.

Wink and Brenda crossing here

The crossing here was pretty good but the crossing where we came back over to the north side of the river was a little deeper. Water was kind of halfway up Wink's body on that crossing, so maybe our friend Bill, and Fred from down there at Benson would be getting a little wet, and because we were not so sure about that crossing I was paying attention to business and not gawking around taking pictures.

This ride was a test of sorts for Willow also, she has been on light duty since she hurt herself last November on the Beaver Creek ride in Arizona so I was interested to see if she could take the rough country. She seemed fine so she has probably earned herself a spot in the trailer heading south in the fall.

That said Wink threw a hissy fit on our last day there and while we were saddling up she kicked the stuffing out of Willow and got in a couple of solid hits that left Willow a little sore so rather than leave them in a tie stall overnight we loaded up and headed for Dogpound North where she would be able to move around and keep any swelling at bay. Now a week or so later she seems fine and the cuts and scrapes are all healing.

On another front the home reno's here at Dogpound North are getting close to being done, just a little work on the grout and some painting and all will be well again. Oh yeah, two bathrooms later we also got the gas range installed that started all this renovation stuff. Seems like it sure would have been cheaper just to use a Coleman stove than all this but Brenda will be happy.

We have passed the halfway mark on our time here in Alberta and I am working on a project so that we are able to monitor what is happening back here at Dogpound North while we are enjoying the company of our friends in the desert this winter. I call that fair warning Arizona, we are coming back!