Pt. Reyes

Logan and I celebrated Thanksgiving and our 9 year wedding anniversary at Pt. Reyes this past weekend. We stayed at the Pt. Reyes Country Inn and Stables with our horses. It is the cutest bed and breakfast. Great breakfast, and the horses got to stay in a good sized paddock. We took Feather and Luigi. It was Luigi's first camping trip, and he was quite the trooper. He learned all about loading and unload from the trailer, wearing a blanket, baby strollers, bikes, elk, people, ocean, waves, sand, big hills, etc. He was quite the trooper. Logan rode him all weekend. Feather was perfect as always and a very good teacher for Luigi. At night, we visited some of the nicest restaurants and ate local, Marin county grown food. One night I had butternut squash and swiss chard lasagna and the next a pizza with Pt Reyes blue cheeze and spinich. For dessert one night I had persimmon sauce on top of cornmeal pound cake and buttermilk ice cream. Yum! That is the best part of Pt. Reyes - the food!!

On Thursday, we rode from Five Brooks to Fir Top via Greenpicker and Bolema trails. There was no one out there on Thanksgiving day.

On Friday we rode from Bear Valley to Arch Rock and the Coast Trail then up Fire Lane to Horse Trail. Busy day - lots of people. Clear weather. This section of trail on the coast trail from Arch Rock to Coast Camp is my favorite trail in the world.

On Saturday we rode from Pierce Point through the Elk Reserve to Tomalas Point. LOTS of people. LOTS of elk. Horses were a bit scared of the elk. More scared about going to the end of the world with the point - ocean everywhere. They felt like they were being trapped. Walked down to McClure's beach. Very pretty! Also visited the old Pierce Dairy.

On Sunday, we rode from Bayview around to Muddy Hallow trail then up Drake's View and rode on the Ridge trail. This was a great ride! We were the only trailer in the staging area, we hardly saw anyone, got great views of the ocean, and plenty of areas to move out in! Highly recommended. There was water and plenty of grass on the trail.

Photos are at: http://www.rosetrace.com/ptreyes08/ptreyes08.html

TRT - Big Meadow

On Sunday, Logan and I loaded the dogs PacMan and Smokey Mocha in the car and headed up to Tahoe. We parked at the Big Meadow trail head on the Tahoe Rim Trail and hiked for about 10 miles to Round Lake and Dardanelle's Lake. We had a lovely afternoon mountain rain shower come in. I really hope we get a lot of rain and snow this winter. The aspen leaves were fading to gold and the bushes were brightening to red. Lots of water in the creeks still, lots of water in the lakes. Lots of people hiking on Sunday, and lots of dogs. I can't wait to ride this section of the TRT with my horse, the footing is fantastic and the trail is so well maintained with lots of lakes and plenty of grass.

Photos: www.rosetrace.com/BigMeadow/BigMeadow.html

Echo Lake

Logan played hookie yesterday from work and we loaded up and took the horses to Echo Lake and the south side of the Desolation Wilderness. We picked up our friend Donna and her Spanish Arabian Venita on the way. We rode out from Echo Lake to Lake Aloha on the Tahoe Rim/ Pacific Crest Trail. The weather was perfect, the horses were perfect, and we had a blast. The leaves are changing colors quickly and we got a few good shots of the granite with the fall colors. This was a techincally challenging trail for the horses. Princess came with Logan, and I rode Feather. Princess is 22 and she handled herself wonderfully. She was very surefooted and even remembered to eat grass and dring plenty of water when it is available. We ended up just doing and out and back trip on the TRT/PCT trail and logged about 17.5 miles. The parking at Echo Lake is tricky for horse trailers. Good thing it was a Tuesday. I am going to try to talk Logan into playing hookie more often!

Photos are here http://www.rosetrace.com/EchoLake/EchoLake.html

Picayune Valley, Granite Chief Wilderness

We took a hike to the Granite Chief Wilderness and hiked through the Picayune Valley. This valley was unbelievably beautiful, quiet, and we think a great place to ride and camp. We took the dogs PacMan, Zelda, and Smokey Mocha (this was his first ever trip to a wilderness). Round trip we walked about 14 miles. The Aspen trees were spectacular and were just starting to have their leaves change gold for autumn. The trail we walked on followed the American River, so there was plenty of water for people and animals. Apparently there are petroglyps out there, but I was not able to find them. Bummer. The trip was an easy drive up past French Meadows Reservior and we parked at the Talbot Campgrounds. They have plenty of trailer parking for horses. Only downside is that it would be hard to make a "loop" ride here, it is basically just an out and back.

Here are the photos of the Granite Chief Wilderness. http://www.rosetrace.com/GraniteChief/GraniteChief.html

Loon Lake

Here are photos of Loon Lake located at the north end of the Desolation Wilderness. http://www.rosetrace.com/Loon08/Loon08.html We took Feather and Luigi. Logan rode Luigi on Luigi's first trail ride away from home. Notice the difficult terrain we choose for our little 4 year old.... We saw a bald eagle fly about 10 feet away from us as we were on the side of a cliff. So if you notice any random sky photos, look for the bald eagle. We rode out to Buck Island Lake, took a siesta, and rode back. Beautiful day, beautiful weather, perfect dog and horses!

Fourth of July Weekend

The Gold Country ride was canceled due to poor air quality. The smoke in the air is horrible. Hard on the horses and dogs, not to mention people. We loaded up Princess and Annie and 2 dogs - Pacman and Zelda, and headed upcountry to Tells Creek and camped for the weekend. The air quality was so much better up there, only Friday morning was it a bit smokey, otherwise, it was clear. We took a ride to Shadow Lake on Friday, then went into the Desolation Wilderness on Saturday up the Red Peak Stock Trail to Lake Number 3, 5, Lost Lake, Barnett Lake, and then down the Two Peaks Trail. Stuart and Gary joined us for that day ride. There were quite a few trees down, we were definitely the first horses up there this year. Thanks to Gary, Stuart, and Logan, horses can now get up into the Wilderness.

Then Sunday, Britt joined us for a ride to the 1942 Air Plane crash. I can't remember what kind of a plan it was, but it had something to do with WWII. And it cashed out in the Wilderness, and still remains there today. Then we rode the Bassi Creek Loop back to camp and headed home. We hated leaving as we were heading into really smokey air at home.

As for boots, Logan rode in the Renegades all weekend with no problems at all. The first day, I rode in Renegades, no problems. Then I used Epics on day 2 and 3. On day 2, I vet wrapped under the Epics to prevent rubbing. This worked okay, but the buckles kept opening up on all of the rough rocks. Then Day 3, I used duct tape under the Epics to prevent rubbing. I liked this better than the vet wrap since it didn't bunch up. But the buckles kept coming up again. If I used the cotter pins, maybe that would help. Or Renegades, they didn't have a problem... and they fit well.

Photos: http://www.rosetrace.com/TellsCreek708/TellsCreek708.html

Tahoe Rim Trail

Logan and I are making our maiden voyage on the Tahoe Rim Trail this weekend. We are doing 2 sections - from Kingsbury North to Spooner and then Brockway to Tahoe City. We are doing these 2 sections because they are not under snow, and they have been cleared of trees. We'll take lots of photos and let you know how it goes. We plan on doing point to point rides, and then calling a taxi at the end to pick up Logan. He will then go get the trailer to meet me and the girls. This should be fun! We will be using 4 hoof boots with gaiters for extra protection on our horse's hooves. PacMan, our Border Collie, is coming too. He will be doing the trail in boots as well. He doesn't like his boots, but hopefully, he'll adjust to them.

Nevada Point Trail - Sunday, 11th

Name: Nevada Point Trail
Footing: dirt, leaf covered, with rocks supporting trail
Hoof Protection: Boots suggested
Condition: narrow, overgrown, strong wall of rocks supporting edge of trail in most sections, switchbacks are gorgeous - some of the nicest I have seen, nothing death-defying, passable via hiking and horseback
Grade: steep canyon - 2000 f00t decent in 3 miles, continuous.
How to Access: In Volcanoville, Donaldson Staging Area to Rubicon Trail to Nevada Point Trail
Number of visitors: A handful every year

Notes: 2 Bridges at the boot - one over Pilot Creek and one over Rubicon. THe one over Rubicon is washed out from the Hell Hole Dam collapse in '92. The one over the mouth of Pilot Creek is easily passable via horse back. There is a good grazing spot and a place to get water for your horse in the Rubicon River by the second washed out bridge. Lots of granite and boulders at the boot. Very old historic mining trail that continues on the other side of the Rubicon River. It would be fantastic to get a good ford crossing in the river for the horses to get across. The ride from Donaldson to the bottom is only about 4.5 miles, but tough. Great Tevis training for canyon practice. I hand walked my horse down, then tailed up about 1/2 of the way, then rode the rest of the way.

Recommended for a horse in good condition with hoof protection used to canyon riding.

Photos: http://www.rosetrace.com/NevadaPoint/NevadaPoint.html

Roanoake Trail - Friday, the 9th

A very historic mining route - this took miners over to Foresthill via Ford's Bar at the American River. This trail connects to the Western States Trail -Cal 2 area - on the other side of the River.
Name: Roanoake Trail
Footing: dirt, leaf covered, with boulders
Hoof Protection: Barefoot okay
Condition: narrow, overgrown, not much rock work to support the trail, switchbacks (10 of them) need some attention, nothing death-defying, passable via hiking and horseback
Grade: steepest canyon I have ever been on - 2000 f00t decent in 1.75 miles
How to Access: From Dru Barner, Bottlehill Road by shooting galary or steel desk
Number of visitors: A handful every year
Notes: Gorgeous beach and grass for your horse once you get down to the bottom. Otter Creek's connection with the American River is right there. If you cross Otter Creek, you can get to the other side of Ford's Bar and let the horse's graze and roll in the sand. There is a crystal mine on the trail and I picked a a gorgeous piece of quartz. Great Tevis training for canyon practice. I hand walked my horse down, then tailed up about 1/3 of the way, then rode the rest of the way.

Recommended for a horse in great condition, very strong on canyons and is sure-footed.

Photos: http://www.rosetrace.com/roanoake/roanoake.html

July Off

I am taking the month of July off to recover physically, travel, and ride my horse on the Tahoe Rim Trail. I am not going to the Parelli Center after all, but I am going to visit other trainers. I hope to come back with lots of new information and start training horses and coaching more. Carolyn Resnick and a few others are on my list to visit. I will make sure that all my customers have rasps, and that they know how to touch up the hooves while I am MIA... Pete Ramey's book is very helpful for this - Making Natural Hoof Care Work for You.

Rubicon to Ralston Footbridge

There is a little know swinging suspension bridge that used to take miners and livestock over the Rubicon River between Volcanoville and the Ralston Ridge.... it is a suspension bridge that looks like it was updated in 1949 roughly. It is on a topo map, if you look really hard at the bottom of Rubicon Trail, there is a footbridge noted without any specific name. So Stuart, Gary, Logan and I set out on a journey to get to it via horseback. In theory, if we can get the horses across the bridge, it opens up the Ralston Ridge to us and a lot more trails. We could get over to the American River on the other side of the ridge and probably end up on the Western States Trail near Deadwood.

So Sunday we started out about noon. Weather looks fine, no need for any extra protection - or so we thought! The 2200' drop in elevation was pretty graduation. We meandered our way down, looking at the wild flowers in bloom, waterfalls, old mines, eating green grass (horses) and fiddleheads (people- thanks to Logan). Quiet, green, enjoyable. Good road with rocks, like one car width logging roads, but rocky. We passed the Nevada Point trail which we will probably try out next week which takes you down to the Rubicon in a different location to an old washed out bridge. With about 900' left in our decent, we got to Buckeye Flat trail that takes you the rest of the way down to the existing swinging bridge. The wide road was washed out and this was our only way down. It was a very narrow, switchback single track trail about 18" wide in some spots, and I don't think horses have been on that in many, many years. Gary and Stuart went down on reconnaissance to look for down trees and branches. They found a bunch, good thing they went first without the horses. Then I led us down the narrow, narrow trail. About 5 minutes later, a huge crash of thunder hit - I am scared to death of THUNDER!! But I just had to focus forward and get us off of the side of the mountain. Which I did, and then it started pouring... and continued to thunder and lightening. We still weren't at the footbridge yet. Still had about 500' left to decend. We got back on to a wider, but still single track trail, and followed it along until we decided to tie up the horses and go down on foot. Good thing we did because the trail was severly washed out in 2 places, and there was a strap of mountain climbing rope to help you over the area. I scooted down on my bottom for most of the journey. Turns out, there is a better trail down there that Gary explored on the way up, and looks good for horses, so we'll go that way next time. Keep in mind it is still raining, a nice, soaking rain. The bridge was gorgeous! Very safe for horses to cross, if they don't mind the feel of it swinging underneath their hooves. As I was crossing it, the skies were still thundering and I just kept thinking - I hope my mom doesn't know I am doing this!!


We tailed up out of the canyon, up the narrow fall off trail, and back onto the logging at which point we took off at a gallop and raced up. Buck and Gary won, followed closely by Annie and Logan, and Stuart and Miller. Feather and I stayed back aways, I think she knew my back way sore yesterday and she was taking care of me.... that, and with all the rain, it was humid, and she may have been overheated a bit.

As far as hoof protection - Feather was barefoot, Annie in front Renegades, Miller in Bares all 4, and Buck in steel. Everyone did fine, but there was a fair amount of rock to be aware of.

We staged out of Donaldson, and we got to admire the work of the trail clearing party the weekend before on the Volcanoville Tie Trail.


To see more photos of our journey, http://rosetrace.com/RubiconRalston/RubiconRalston.html

Stumpy Meadows

Feather, Annie, Logan, myself, Stuart Porter, and Gary McFall took an interesting ride up to the Stumpy Meadows area today and rode mostly on Sierra Pacific and Forest Service land. It was another fast 20 miles. We tried to make a loop, but the snow pack on the north facing slopes kept us from crossing, so it was just a out and back along the south side of Stumpy Meadows and then the ridge line and into Pilot Creek. The trail was amazing - beautiful footing on forest roads that don't get any traffic. We were moving. The GPS said our high speed was 30 miles an hour. Wow. We followed the original Wentworth Springs Road before the dam and the lake were there, and got to cross the original bridge from the 1930s that took cars over Pilot Creek. Lots of snow, the horses loved to play, roll, and eat it. I did the ride barefoot on Feather, Logan used front Renegades, and Stuart used Bares all round. No boot problems. We parked on the side of Wentworth Springs Road because there is not a good staging area, but it was fine, the horses did fine. We got ready quickly, but we ended up having lunch on the side of the road and only saw a handful of cars. We'll have to go back in about 2-3 more weeks once the snow has melted to finish up the loop. The cool thing is that I really got a full tour of the water supply up on the Georgetown Divide - it starts in Pilot Creek, holds in Stumpy Meadows, and from there it enters an irrigation ditch (I got to see this last week out at the Donaldson area) that takes it into Georgetown via Lake Watson, and then into Greenwood Lake, right by my house, and into ALT.

Photos of the day - Click here.

Donaldson Staging Area

I rode out of the Donaldson Staging Area in Volcanoville today with Britt, Stuart, and Gary. Gorgeous parking area in the tall pine trees. We did about 15 fast miles and had a great time. Incredible views both directions - to the East, the Crystal Range, and to the West, the coastal range, Sutter Buttes, and Mt. Diablo. Views to Michigan Bluff, and the Ralston Ridge - Rubicon River and American River. No one was out there, beautiful footing, and even some snow. The drive was easy, and totally worth it. Got to see the irrigation ditch water that comes out of Stumpy Meadows, and some left over explosives from the mining days - as well as old flume pads. Highly recommended! Photos here.