It was really difficult leaving what I called the Oasis Campground. I told Pete that I could easily have stayed there indefinitely. He speculated that maybe someday in the future we might come back and stay there and do a couple of day trips. I said that this sounded good to me. Even the horses seemed reluctant to leave – I had to get off and walk Tyra a ways before she agreed to pick up the pace.
The trail itself was fairly safe - -there were no ledges. Problem was, as Alex indicated, it was maintained by an adjacent Forest Service office, which meant that it had not been maintained. Deadfall crisscrossed the trail for several miles. We could step over and go around most of the downed trees, |
Heading up yet another pass |
but not all of them. This was soon our routine. We came to a log too difficult to bypass. We both then got off our horses and I held them – this was because tying them to deadfall was a dangerous proposition.
We finally arrived at the junction between the trail we were on, and another, secondary trail. Pete again handed me Raudi and Tyra and tied Hrimmi to a tree. He then traipsed off through the deadfall, in search of the campsite that Alex had recommended to him. In his absence, a tree fell and lodge itself over another. The tree rested just a few inches above Hrimmi’s back. I yelled for Pete for I feared that if Hrimmi moved, the tree might come down on her back. He came running, and together we removed it. Pete then said that it was possible to camp on the far side of the grove, but that our taking the horses through it would be dangerous.
I then took matters into my own hands. I told Pete that I would go look for a campsite, my thinking was that there might be one farther down the trail we were travelling on. He said sure, and so I left him to care for the animals. I found it 20 minutes later – that is, the campsite that I thought that Alex had been referring to. It was in a flat expanse, across a creek where there was an established fire pit. The only downfall was the deadfall trees – we’d be camping within proximately to a half dozen of them. I ran back and told Pete (with considerable excitement in my voice) that I’d found a near ideal site. We saddled up and rode to it. My finding met with Pete’s approval. Highlining, in this instance this made this site less than ideal, for there only two live trees in this area and they were far apart. But Pete, undaunted, did his Robinson Crusoe thing and rigged up an acceptable restraint system.
We did not go far on this particular day because of logistics. We wanted to spend one day going over Observation Pass, and another going over Elbow Pass. The reasoning was that this would be easiest for the horses. So, for the second day in a row, we set up camp early. The afternoon was so relaxed that I remarked to Pete that I could get used to setting up camp early in the day, to which he agreed wholeheartedly.
Next: 209. 7/30/19: Observation Pass |