If you embark on a long trip, as we have, there are going to be good days and not so good days. If you embark on a short trip, in all likelihood there will just be good days.

Today was a not-so-good day. We’ve really beaten the odds. We’ve been traveling for nearly a month and hadn’t had a not so good day yet. I woke up in pain – I had a thorn embedded in my foot. And my navel was itchy because two days ago I found four ticks in my inny outy. (Coincidently, later that day I found three ticks in Raudi’s navel.) It was also quite hot and windy. So I was a little out of sorts to begin with.

We had decided to move base camp because tomorrow we are to meet up with, and ride with some members of the Back Country Horseman of Wyoming, the organization being affiliated with the Back Country Horsemen of America. We figured it would be fun to ride with them and maybe do some service work. A few days previously, Pete had contacted Corky Stevens, the local president, and he invited us to join them on a day outing. This outing is tomorrow.

We went and checked out his suggested camping area. We didn’t see any place where we might highline, so we decided to return to our previous basecamp, the Encampment Campground. Well, when we got there, we discovered that because it was Memorial Day Weekend, all the sites, including the one that we had previously occupied, had been taken.

We pulled to the side of a vacant spot, and prepared a tailgate lunch. As we were eating, the camp caretaker pulled up and chatted with us, about nothing in particular. We kept the conversation going, in hope that he might suggest a nearby place where we might spend the night. He didn’t offer any, and in fact seemed bemused by our situation. Here we were, with three horses in tow, eating our tailgate lunch.

This made me even more pissy, as did the realization that in scoping out the previous area for a campsite, I’d dropped the cellphone. I told Pete this as we were getting ready to return to the area in which we’d meet up with the other riders – to his credit, he took this in stride and said with great confidence “we’ll find it!”

We returned to the somewhat barren Battle Creek Camping area and walked around, assessing the situation. Pete said that it would be tough, but that he could put up a highline between two roadside trees. It was then that I said that we could just tie the horses to the trailer for the night, which is what we did.

To my recollection, we have only done this once before, many years ago. It’s my least favorite option. But, as I told Pete, even though the horses would be able to move minimally, they would have access to their hay bags and water.

We set up camp, and then Pete went and looked for, and found the cell phone. I was more than relieved. The next order of business was to take the horses on a short outing, up road, which is what we did.

By evening, the wind had died down and it had cooled off some. This raised my sagging spirits some. As I told Pete, “tomorrow will be a better day.”

Next: 178. 6/30/19: Group BCHA Ride