all mundane or boring. The uphills were now downhill and the downhills were now uphills.
The road ride portion – we took in the distant rolling hills, which were dotted with aspens and pine trees. Ryder again had a wonderful time, looking for marmots.
We missed our turn back to the campground and rode a considerable ways past it. We eventually retraced our steps and found the now downhill trail. We ate lunch in the same place we ate lunch before, at the base of a canyon, in an aspen grove. Here we had a view of the steep hill we came down and would now be going up. Daunting. I decided that because it looked slippery, that I’d walk it.
Interesting – we are strong advocates of leave no trace practices. But I was reminded upon returning to this lunch spot that leaving no trace is near impossible. A tuft of Raudi’s tail hair clung to a branch, an orange peel lay next to the trail, and off to the side of the trail, was a pile of horse poop.
We climbed the hill, me on foot, only to discover that a huge herd of cows was on the far side. They were to the side of, and on the trail. It was by now fairly warm, and they had no intention of moving. Most were black – all had slobbery noses and manure caked to their rear ends. The babies, being babies, were cute – one in particular was particularly good looking. She had a white face with black patches around her eyes. It was not the first nor the last time that I remarked to Pete that I wished we had a larger trailer, so that I could take her home with us.
We came to the final rise – Pete breathed a sigh of relief in seeing our trailer. I latched and unlatched the final gate (all told I opened and closed five cattle guard gates today). The last one was the toughest. The wood gate was rotty and the barbwire strands were all tangled. You’d think that the BLM would check on the gates and repair them if necessary. I called what I was dealing with Third World Fencing.
We reclaimed our previous campsite, the one with the river landing across the way, and on unpacked.It felt like we were doing the same things we’d done previously, but this time, in reverse.
Next: 173. 6/24/19: Encampment Cows |