Smiley Home

Tonight we are going up to the high camp and spend the night in teepees. Roughing it, sort of. The wranglers said not to take any extra clothes, just a coat and your toothbrush and toothpaste. Sean, our wrangler, looked at Matthew and said “Your girlfriend will appreciate it”. Matthew ran off in terror. It will be interesting to see if he takes his toothbrush.

The ride up the camp is 4 and 1/2 hours long. We will be going to the top of Black Mountain. I thought the we had already been there, but I was wrong. According to Simon, who is leaving today and took the long ride on Tuesday, it is high, steep, and you have to trust your horse.

Lariat got a sore on Tuesday and is no longer ridable. I will be taking Lily out today. The wranglers keep giving me lead mares. Sean says that mares are harder to handle and are great for cattle drives. They do what they are told but protect themselves and the rider first. Matthew has a trail horse who likes to follow. Lily has already attempted to run off once with me on her once. She say a stand of weeds that looked tasty. We got back on track fairly fast. I’ll let you know how the pack trip went tomorrow.

We took off about 9:30AM to Glenwood Springs for a rafting trip. Had a good conversation with Simon from the UK. It is amazing how America is perceived in other countries. The arrogance of our marketing (not government, but business) is amazing when seen from an international viewpoint.

Anyway, we had a picnic lunch in Glenwood Springs. Beautiful town, oriented towards presenting the best of the Rockies. A few of the fires earlier in this decade completely changed the landscape. A large mountain by the whitewater rafting complex used to be covered in aspens. When the fires came through, it burned the mountain in stripes, killing the interconnected root systems of the aspens. Lines of dead aspens are interspersed with slumps from mudslides where the fire destroyed all ground cover and the root systems. Odd-looking.

Great 15-mile trip down the river. The Colorado has a lot of drop at this elevation and moves quickly. What they call an “eddy” we would call a waterfall.

Matthew sat on the prow of the boat for most of the trip and spent a a lot of time with one hand in the air yelling like crazy. The trip leader called it riding the bull. Waves 5-6 feet high would crash over the boat in some rapids. A lot of foam. The adults in the boat were paddling like crazy while the kids had fun.

A little sunburned and tired. We washed clothes, I drank wine, and Matthew spent the evening playing with the dogs, chickens, donkeys, and horses around the ranch. The next morning came early.

I just thought that we had gone to the top of Black Mountain. We are actually on one of the smaller mountains in front of Black Mountain.

I remember looking at that huge mountain behind us and saying to myself “glad that our horses don’t have to go up there”.

Well, we get to take our horses “up there” on Thursday.

Matthew’s horse is Rocket. All of the wrangler’s acted terrified and tentative about putting Matthew on “Rocket”, but he is a fairly placid and slow-moving rocket. Lariat, my horse, is a lead mare for the pack. She snaps at the other horses, but loves people. According to Nowell, the camp owner, she is a solid horse, working to protect both the rider and herself. Unfortunately, she hates to follow and likes to run.

Had a scary ride in the morning. Steep drops, close and thick forest, and scenery as beautiful as you can imagine for Colorado in the summer. Good equipment as well, so no worries about anything breaking.

A picture gallery is available if you want to take a look.

In the afternoon, we had some excitement. Most of the guests chose not to ride; however, Matthew and I, as well as a couple of our intrepid English guests, Leslie Anne and Oliver, decided to take a short ride before dinner. As we were mounting up, it started to rain fat drops. The it started to hail - little BBs. Since it looked like it wouldn’t last long, we were waiting for one last rider. Then lightning hit a hill about 200 yards away. Lariat started skittering around and trying to back up. As a lead mare, she freaked out all of the other horses. We dismounted, ties the horses up, and ran for cover.

The storm lasted for about 45 minutes and we didn’t get to ride in the afternoon.

Nice dinner and a relaxing fire with a Dave the Cowboy poet. Good guitar player.

More later.

Dad and Matthew are at Black Mountain Ranch in Colorado. The air is filled with smoke and the smell of animal dung. It’s the coolest thing ever!

We are at 8942 feet above sea level and our room is on the second floor of a house at the top of the hill. Oxygen is not readily available, so I have already pumped out more sweat at 78 degrees than in a normal, July day in Fort Worth.

Matthew is already “on the same page” as the wranglers and will start feeding and helping with shoeing tomorrow. He wants chaps. Not me.

There are 7 11-12 year-olds here - 3 from England.

We have a meeting tonight to figure out the week.

BTW, alcohol is not free. ;<

More tomorrow.