Post Visit Guest Post by Auntie Pat Cooper

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr

“Meet me at Iron Gate!  You will need a four wheel drive truck, or the like, to get there!  I’ll be coming over the mountains from the other direction.”  And Sea wasn’t kidding!  We, her Auntie Pat and Uncle Lee, knew this would be an adventure, driving up into the Pecos Wilderness, and it was.  Having no means of communication since that phone call, we were trusting that indeed we would meet….


In order to reach the Iron Gate Campground, after leaving a narrow paved road, driving a four wheel drive pick-up, loaded with a bale of hay, bottles of drinking H20, fuel, and a picnic, we headed up through gorgeous quaking aspens, tall ponderosa pines, grassy meadows, wild flowers, with views of vast green mountains, and a log cabin tucked here and there.  Only hitch was that it took an hour to go 4 1/2 miles ….dodging holes, rocks, and gullies formed from rushing rain water! Great fun!


It was one exciting moment when we came to the end and spotted a couple of horses grazing, and there she was!!!…  wearing a bright yellow jacket, bronzed skin and a great big smile!  Big hugs and great relief!  We BOTH made it!


What a great reunion we had…. with much to catch up on.  With a looming rain storm over head, we were very glad to have the extended cab truck to hop into for our picnic.  So, as Fine Horn and Jesse James grazed outside, Sea devoured a tray of fresh fruit we had brought up, some cheese and crackers,  chips, sprite, and best of all, some homemade dark chocolates, given to us by friends.


We heard the tale of Sea and the ponies climbing up the steep terrain, a couple of days prior…. so steep that the strap around Fine Horn’s chest broke with the the weight of the load sliding back as she climbed! ..But “necessity is the mother of invention!” and Sea created a “strap” out of her bandanna, which solved that problem, at least for a little while! Sea’s conclusion: two really tough ponies!… and kind of a frightening day.


Now just how does she do it?… I guess that was our big question.  With her trusty MSR tent and water-proof packs, solar-powered equipment, love and provision for her ponies, great water-proof maps… one topographical one recently found by a stream, day by day planning, incredible determination, love of the wilderness, the prayers of many, and numerous helpful congenial folks along the way… this brave one keeps going.
After lunch we hopped out of the truck to take a peek at the maps and have a “look about”.  As we soon found out, the ponies didn’t take long to have a “look about” for themselves; finding the apples we had brought up and some carrots, too!  Nosy little guys!  They were just like kids, right into everything that was on the picnic table!


Looking at the various maps, we could see where Sea had come from, and where she was heading to in the next few days….over a high, circuitous, carefully mapped out route.  All we can say is “wowsers!!”  Fourteen miles up and over 11,000 foot mountains!  Which is where she is at today, as I write.
It was a privilege to join my niece for this short time.  On she goes!  We hope that this was an encouragement and a lift for Sea.  It certainly was for us!

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The Long Rider’s Guild

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr

I am so excited and proud to be able to announce that I’ve been accepted into the Long Rider’s Guild!  If you’ve never heard of this organization you can find out more at: thelongridersguild.com – but basically it’s a fellowship of people who have ridden over 1000 miles in one stretch and who are committed to taking care of their horses/mules first and foremost.  This is an incredible honor and I’m still a bit giddy!

One of my major inspirations for this Journey was a book I read last summer entitled The Last of the Saddle Tramps by Mesannie Wilkins.  Mesannie lived in a little town called Minot in Maine and in the early 1950’s she was 63 years old.  She had no family, her farm was being repossessed and her doctor told her that she had a year or two to live if she lived quietly.  Her mom had always wanted to go to California and never made it so Mesannie decided that, with nothing to lose, she was going to live that dream.  She put in one last crop of cucumbers, got a contract with the pickle company, sold the crop, bought an old summer camp horse named Tarzan, loaded up all her gear and her dog and left Maine in November.  Two years later she arrived in California having had an amazing Journey across the United States – and she lived another 20 years after that!  Her book will soon be available here on the Free Range Rodeo website if you’re interested and would like to read it – it’s a great story!

I’d just made the decision to ride up to Minot, Maine to visit her home town and pay my respects when I rode into Abiquiu, New Mexico.  A pick-up stopped by the side of the road and a man leaned out and asked where I was headed.  “Maine!”
“No kidding!?  I’m a Mainer myself.  Where in Maine?”
“A little town called Minot.  One of my heros came from there.”  I replied.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!  That’s my home town.”
Turns out he’s been to her homestead and hunted the mountain there (he calls her “Jackass Annie”) and his dad had actually met her.

That meeting led to a place to stay for a few days and an invitation to the birthday party of another Long Rider, Walter Nelson.  Walter and his friend Doug Preston followed Coronado’s Trail from the Arizona/Mexico border up and into New Mexico quite a few years ago – which led to Doug’s book Cities of Gold which is now in my saddle bag and will be my reading material as I cross the Pecos Wilderness.  It was really fun to meet a couple of fellow Long Riders and hear their stories.

Tomorrow I will be heading out into the Pecos Wilderness for the next stage of my Journey.  This will be the last official “wilderness” portion of the ride and I’m excited – and a little trepiditious!  Portions of the trail are above tree line and due to the recent wild fires some sections of the trail will be challenging (possibly even blocked) due to dead falls and blow downs.  The graze is reputed to be excellent, the scenery gorgeous and I’ve filed a “flight plan” with the Espanola Ranger Station – who have been incredibly friendly and supportive of the Journey and helpful with route planning.

A farrier came out today and checked the ponies hooves.  They’re both in great shape – Finehorn hasn’t needed so much as a rasp in 6 months and her feet are close to perfect.  Jesse James is perfect behind and I got a few pointers about keeping his front feet a little bit more in balance – but I wasn’t too far off and I learned quite a bit – so that’s really good news.  The ponies have traveled across all of New Mexico thus far barefoot.  I still have the Renegade hoof boots along in case we need them, but Kirt Landers (who invented them) was correct when he said that they’d last a long time because we would need them less and less.  We’re still on our first set of boots and I just replaced the velcro straps for the first time!  (Each set comes with spare straps since that’s the first part to go.)

And now it is almost midnight and morning will dawn early.  Time to get some rest.  I’ve got a mail drop planned for Montezuma, NM on 24. August and you should be hearing from me again about that time.  If I can get word out between now and then my sister Jenna will post it on the “daily update” page.

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I didn’t disappear forever…

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr

but I’m getting ready to disappear again for awhile!

I’m sitting in a lovely old (1800’s) Adobe house just outside of Abiquiu, NM trying to get caught up on “office chores” after a lovely week in the Santa Fe National Forest.  (Although it certainly didn’t start out as a lovely week!)  I’m learning that first impressions aren’t necessarily accurate in New Mexico.  As I crossed the border from Arizona, this is the first thing I saw:When I walked into the Jemez Pueblo Ranger Station to buy a map of the Santa Fe National Forest and get information about trails and water availability what I heard was basically: “Welcome to the National Forest.  Stay on the Roads.  What do you mean you don’t have a vehicle?  Horses aren’t allowed anywhere near Any of the hot springs.  You should have gotten a trailer ride over to the far side of Santa Fe.”  The hiking trails had been largely taken off of the new map to try and keep the ATV people from driving on them and messing them up and there were none of the old maps available.  I felt like an unwanted anachronism and a bit of a nuisance.  The ranger was unhappy that I didn’t have a GPS because the rescue squad used GPS coordinates to rescue people and how would I be able to provide them?  I could get no information about water sources beyond the very immediate area (“that’s not our district”).   I pointed out that if i could get accurate information about water and trails I probably wouldn’t need to be rescued.  Never mind that there’s no cell ‘phone service in most of the forest – so how was I going to call with the coordinates in any case?  I left the office feeling frustrated and worried.

The first night we camped along a nice creek in a stony parking lot with more broken glass than graze.  The canyon walls were steep.  What had I gotten us into?  In the morning I packed up early and we headed up a narrow rocky road, staying well to the edge and alert as we were frequently passed by cars and ATVs and SUVs and pick-up trucks pulling large campers.  Most of them slowed down when they saw the ponies but this wasn’t my idea of a good time.  We came to cattle guards and I got off to open and close gates.  At one of these stops I lost my cell ‘phone and had to go back 1/2 a mile to find it.  Finally we got to some opener areas with bits of meadow beside the creek but it felt like people were camped with their machines just about everywhere.  They were friendly and the kids were excited to pet the ponies – but I was feeling seriously out of place.   At least the vehicles were all on one side of the creek.  I found a trail on the other side of the creek – and passed a neatly placed toilet seat on legs, with a fancy toilet paper holder.  The campers were using it like an outhouse, with no bucket underneath, only 5’ from the creek where I was planning to get my drinking water.  Ugh!
  

We’d only made 7 miles of progress when I found a wide grassy meadow and chose the most secluded spot I could find to pitch camp.  The ponies were hungry and I had no idea what lay ahead.  This would work.  Better to err on the side of caution.  It wasn’t a quiet night, and the next morning we set out to see what else the forest had to offer.  I had it in mind to find the San Antonio hot springs, even though they were in a “day use only” area.  I wanted to find a water source that wasn’t contaminated by human feces.  I really wanted to get away from the ATVs and hoards of people.  The ranger from the day before came by and was more encouraging, filling up my water bottles and saying that she’d checked out the blog.  She asked about my intended route.  I lied.

I came to the entrance to the road up to the hot springs.  Cattle Guard.  There was a sign “Don’t Block the Gate” and an SUV blocking the gate.  There was a metal fence post placed so that the gate only swung one way.  I spent 10 furious minutes getting rid of that impediment so that I could squeeze the ponies through and access the road.  I started up – and up – and up.  The cell ‘phone worked briefly and I called my dad and my aunt.  An SUV full of Texans came by and handed me a Taco Bell burrito.  Then a woman in a truck stopped and handed me a very helpful hand drawn map from the ranger.  It showed a road that had been taken off of the Forest Service map (but still existed on my DeLorme Atlas map ;-)!)  It also provided plausible deniability in terms of access to the place I hoped to camp.  Things were looking up.  I deliberately rode right past the entrance to the hot springs and headed up canyon.  We’d covered 17 miles of rocky roads and the ponies were ready for a rest.

The ride was worth it!  I untacked the ponies and they immediately started grazing.  Jesse stood with all four feet in the cold water of the creek and ate the clover that grew on the banks.  I pitched camp next to a fire ring at the edge of the forest and got myself organized just before dark.  I heard a whistle and a couple I’d met earlier were hiking up the canyon on their way back from the Hot Springs.  They stopped to chat and wound up camping nearby.  One was an organic farmer and the other worked on wetlands restoration – it was lovely sharing the commons and a campfire with like-minded companions under the stars, listening to the sounds of the night.
  

In the morning I was awakened by a strange noise.  I peeked out of my tent to see a very large bull slowly grazing his way down to the creek, followed by a second, then a third.  They passed within 5′ of my tent and ignored me completely.  Once they’d gone by I got up and let Jesse off of the tether rope – Finehorn’s turn.  The cows came by with their calves after breakfast and then I headed up to the San Antonio hot springs.  Ahhhhhhh!  Blessings on the Commons.  Sunday it poured rain all day and I finished the book I was reading (Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson – highly recommended) while the ponies rested and ate their fill.  Monday morning we were ready to ride on in search of new adventures…

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A Sea Sighting

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr

This morning I found an e-mail waiting for me from Terry in Abiquiu, NM. Sea stopped by Terry’s ice cream shop yesterday. He helped her find a place to camp last night and suggested a friend she could stay with tonight, 8 miles down the road in Medenales. He also sent me some great pictures.

Cell phone service is spotty and wi-fi connections are rare. If you don’t hear from Sea she’s most likely doing o.k. and meeting wonderful people along the way.

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The Valley of Graze

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr


Fifteen years ago I discovered my most beautiful canyon in the world.  I hope you have your own version! 😉  There’s a photograph upstairs at my folk’s house taken on my first visit; I am standing in the ford of the wee Tularosa river with Ranger, my orange and white Aussie dog with whom I was traveling at the time in a 24′ Winnebago.  It’s scary sometimes going back to a place that I have loved deeply because nouns do change with time and so often things have gotten developed or shut down or otherwise messed up (by my standards) and 15 years is a long time!  AND Gryph was coming for a visit, the ponies were in dire need of a rest and I didn’t have a plan B – nothing like a little pressure!

The canyon didn’t disappoint – if anything it was Better than my memories and dreams.  The plan had been 5 days and then Gryph would return to Boulder and the ponies and I would return to the trail.  Well – Gryph made it back to Boulder safely, but Finehorn sprained her pastern on the way out that day – and the best plan I had was a trailer ride back to the Canyon where we were in a good situation to rest for a bit while she healed.  So, I’ve been blessed with 15 days in my earthly paradise – swinging between euphoria and stress!
       

How to describe the beauty of “my” canyon?  The peace and grace and sense of safety in that haven – waking up at dawn to the sound of Jesse James whickering from his tether – going to him and slipping off his halter – Finehorn coming to say good morning and get her face itched before the two of them canter happily off to their “day pasture” where they range free, content with the creek and the graze and the creatures sharing the world.  Evenings when I walk a half mile to retrieve them; one time passing 3 elk mamas with their fawns, one still wearing its baby spots.  Another dusk there was a bobcat hunting at the edge of the field caught my eye, or the ringtail cat who frequents one of the 5 gigantic cottonwoods that have conquered time and floods and grown unique and majestic.
    

The amazement as the “purple explosion flowers”  suddenly shot up, many growing as tall as I (sometimes I feel that very few things other than trees and buildings are as tall as I am) and started to sprout beans!  The soft random blooming of the velvety mullein.  The bull snakes and beetles and butterflies – and looking up from my hammock one afternoon to see a peccary on the “lawn” across the creek.  The sound of the creek in the night as I sleep in my hammock, slung between two juniper trees with their identical foliage and very different barks.  The part of “in love” that’s like loving Ice Cream (which doesn’t do a whole bunch for the ice cream) and the part that has to do with paying minute and specific attention to the beloved – be it human or horse or meadow – and the territorial and protective feelings that come with that.  “MY Canyon!”

It’s a 2 1/2 mile hike up to the ridge where the cell ‘phone starts to function.  Even in paradise there’s pragma that needs to be dealt with – at the very least the occasional call out to my sister to let her know that I’m not dead yet so nobody calls the rangers in to search for me.  One afternoon as I was walking back down it started to Pour – cold rain and intense wind and I’d been sick in my guts the day before and wasn’t feeling my strongest best.  A pick-up truck heading the other direction stopped and offered me a ride.  Grateful, I got in the back seat with two boys and a pit bull.  Riding back down the canyon one of the boys opened his hand to show me the rattle from the 8 year old snake they’d just killed – and I just felt so shocked!  I hadn’t seen any rattlesnakes during the previous two weeks and it just seemed like such a betrayal somehow.  Here are humans coming into the snake’s territory and killing it simply for existing on “their” planet.  What to even say?  So I thanked them for the ride and for the gatorade and water and crawled back into my tent to get dry and warm and wait out the storm.
  

Day by day as my food supplies dwindled the ponies got rounder and Finehorn got sounder.  The battery ran out on my Steripen water purifier and I was having trouble with the solar recharger box so I started to boil my drinking and cooking water.  I was almost out of denatured alcohol for my cook stove so had even more reason to be grateful that the fire ban had been lifted.  The handle of my cookpot burned off, not being designed for use in a campfire.  The yellow bandana melted when I used it as a pot holder – revealing its true nature as a petroleum product.  There was plenty of drift wood left behind by last year’s floods and I went through my belongings again, finding more things I can live without (reducing Finehorn’s load) and burning paper that had outlived its usefulness.
  

Yesterday it was time to find out if Finehorn was as fit and hale and hearty as she was pretending to be.  I woke up early and turned them loose to graze.  I took my time over mocha and porridge, breaking camp and loading the packs.  I fetched the ponies and curried off the mud.  They seemed happy and ready to travel.  We surprised a big rattler a few miles up the canyon.  He warned us that we were a little close and we backed off and went around – no harm, no foul (tho we were all a bit more vividly awake for a while!)  We sheltered under a juniper when a 10 minute rain storm blew through and Mr.James found plenty of his favorite prickly trail snack.  We made it the 11 miles out to Cruzville in 4 1/2 hours and landed in a safe and welcoming haven, 8 hooves strong!

The water situation for over 200 miles ahead is pretty bleak.  I’ve been talking to people, trying to sort a route north or east and not coming up with anything that’s viable without some form of vehicular support.  The current plan is to catch a ride (sans ponies) 100+ miles down to Silver City tomorrow to pick up denatured alcohol for the camp stove and some Steripen batteries.  Wednesday is a bit up in the air, and then on Thursday we’re most likely taking a trailer ride up through Quemado to pick up some mail and then on to San Ysidro.  I am torn about the trailering.  Obviously it’s not the first time.  I’m not a purist and there are times that the health and safety of the herd takes priority over idealistic visions of the Journey.  Finehorn did really well on the 11 mile trek yesterday.  Does that mean she’s ready for a 24 mile stretch between water holes on Thursday?  Frankly, I don’t want to risk that if there’s an alternative.  By my readings of the maps, from San Ysidro we should be able to do shorter days for awhile until she’s solid again.  The water situation looks a bit more viable up in that area and from all accounts it’s beautiful.  My lovely canyon is unconcerned – she knows the landscapes of my dreams.
  

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This is where I live today!

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr


“this cabin, and the piped box spring behind it weren’t on my map.  i stayed two days here, including my birthday – sharing space with an incredibly brash mama chipmunk who ran in and ‘tagged’ my head every time i laid me down to rest”

The past 3 weeks have been among the most wonderful of the Journey thus far.  The ponies are in good form and doing well.  I have been riding through country that makes my heart sing with its beauty and grandeur.  Starting out from Northern California last October, one of my biggest fears was of riding in the rain.  After 8 months of deserts and drought I am finding that the rain in this 9th month is a blessing and really not all that much of a problem (tho’ i’m sure that “too much of a good thing” could eventually apply to the rain as well!)  Gryph just took off to return to Boulder after a week’s visit which delighted us all – Saint Finehorn, Mr. James and I will miss her even as we bless her on her Way.  The ponies are currently at the Reserve, NM fairgrounds waiting for me to finish my “office chores”at the coffeeshop – and then we’re heading back up the canyon and onward.
  
“one day as i was riding, i saw a storm rapidly approaching – as i came around a bend this wee abandoned sheep-herder shack appeared.  it came fully equipt with a fenced in pasture with a spring for the ponies.  got them unloaded and turned out just in time.  lovely night listening to the rain and left with dry gear in the morning… ”

There is so much to show and tell that I scarcely know where to begin.  I’ve seen not only elk and antelope and coyotes and wild turkeys and chipmunks and squirrels and mule deer and hawks and crawdads and frogs and a wide variety of lizards and an Enormous great blue heron, I’ve also been lucky enough to see a Mexican grey wolf, a ring-tail cat and 4 peccaries!  I was introduced to my first “water dog” (an algae colored salamander stage with dragon “ears” that comes to the surface and grabs an air bubble so it can breathe under water!  And then there were the Vinegaroons!  My camera hasn’t been quite so lucky as I have with the wild animals.   Sometimes I was just too caught in the moment to even think about a photograph until the spell was broken.  Other times, by the time I had the camera in hand and pointed in the right direction it was too late!  For quite some time I thought that the reason I wasn’t seeing much wildlife was because of the ponies, but it turns out that Vehicles are the limiting factor.  It’s hard to find places where Vehicles aren’t allowed to roam, but as soon as I started riding in those places I found the wildlife roaming as well.  I wonder if all the people driving around in the National Forests have any idea what they’re missing in terms of sounds and smells and actual encounters!
  
“early morning in a meadow in the mount baldy wilderness – i woke to Jesse’s alert that we had a visitor (elk) – second photo was taken half an hour later as the ponies filled up on good graze to carry them through the day”


As I’ve ridden through the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest I’ve had a glorious series of camps.  I’ve tented in remote meadows and thrown down my bedroll in abandoned bunkhouses, I’ve slept between soft sheets in comfortable houses and slung my hammock between trees beside a stream that burbled just on the edges of audible.  I’ve reveled in my solitude and enjoyed the company of wonderful people.  I’ve been thinking a lot about expectations and gratitude.  It’s so easy to grow used to things and start to take them for granted; maybe even to assume that they’re a “right”.  It’s nice to be invited in to a climate controlled house and offered a shower and a home cooked meal.  But if I thought that I “needed” that to be comfortable I’d have missed the sight of elk grazing in the morning mist; I’d have missed the night I heard wild wolves singing for the first time in my life; I’d have missed the sound of rain pounding my tent as I curled up inside, safe and dry.

  
“after 10 days in a row of riding, often over challenging terrain, the ponies weren’t the only ones in need of a rest.”


The ponies are thriving on the available forage.  I’ve started letting them off of their tethers in the afternoons and thus far they’ve not abandoned me.  At night, assuming we’re in a safe space, I’ll tether one of them and let the other roam free.
  
“that creature on the right?  that’s a vinegaroon!  they’re in the arachnid family – and that particular specimen is close to 4″ long – the good news is that they don’t eat people… ”

“Gryph and Finehorn – Reunion”

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Brief Update

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr

   
I am sitting on a porch in Alpine, AZ.  Yesterday I attended the 14th annual Worm Races with 3 firemen!  I have so much to write and share – many photos to post – adventures to relate.  Meanwhile it’s past time to pack up the ponies and ride on to Luna, NM – so that I’ll be at the Post Office and General Store tomorrow to pick up my mail (a week late!)  I have no idea if there will be internet access in Luna – I’m really hoping so since I’ve got a day’s worth of catching up to do and then I’m heading into another stretch of wilderness!  This past stretch has been one of the best stages of the Journey thus far – incredible beauty and a deepening bond with the ponies.  Meanwhile – can anybody tell me what this plant is?  There seem to be 3 versions that are similar but not the same…
   

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New Friends

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr

On Sea’s first day heading into the wilderness she met some new friends and ran into an old friend who took these pictures

And here’s a picture of Sea’s new straw hat.

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Next town: Alpine

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr


I camped last night at Bill’s Lake, a beautiful well-fed pond and small RV park.  The bull frogs serenaded me all night long.  It was lovely.  This morning I woke up and was determined to make an early start.  I got up and put water to boil on my wee camp stove and removed the fly from my tent.  Very quickly I realized that I wasn’t going to be taking down the rest of it any time soon.  It seems that the dragonflies like the Mutha Hubba as much as I do!  Quite of few of their pre-dragonfly selves had crawled up onto the mosquito net part of the tent in the night and as the sun was warming the day the adult dragonflies were slowly and carefully emerging from their dry, wingless shells.  It was an amazing thing to be able to watch – and only put me back by an hour and a quarter!

Today we rode for almost 6 hours down the shoulder of a big paved road with plenty of traffic.  Jesse James was remarkably calm about the trucks and motorcycles – the mental break seems to have helped him as much as the physical break helped Finehorn.  Even so – riding along the side of a busy road in the heat and wind isn’t any of our favorite sort of day.  By the time we followed L to the camp she’d scouted (which is lovely and on a creek that’s actually got moving water in it!) we were all a bit grumpy and out of sorts.  L’s brilliant picnic sorted most of that – the ponies had plenty of green grass to munch on and roll in and I enjoyed raspberry chipotle chicken and gourmet potato salad.  I got camp set up quickly when the sky started to spit and there was even time to tidy up my haircut a bit.

Tomorrow morning the ponies and I are heading out into the wilderness again.  We’ve got 8 days of riding between us and civilization and in terms of how much food we can carry there’s not a lot of leeway.  I’ve got a big fancy forest service map of the area we’re riding through (courtesy of B) and I swear it’s big enough to use as a blanket (and waterproof!) The women at the Ranger Station in Lakeside were above and beyond helpful – helping me to plot out a route that goes from known water source to known water source and stays away from areas that are closed due to recent or impending fires.  I’m as prepared as I know how to be – but it’s a big deal taking two ponies across 8 days of dry wilderness, gaining well over 3000′ of altitude and not knowing the terrain.  This is not an ecosystem that I’m familiar with – and apart from things I’ve been warned about like bears and mountain lions and dry springs and non-existant lakes (and the monsoon season starting, which can lead to flash floods, and lightning… )  I don’t know what I don’t know about the area I’m riding into – Solo.  This is sobering!

I’m hoping to be in Luna in time to pick up my mail on Friday-  6.July.  I’ll be 47 by the time I emerge from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest and enter New Mexico!  What a strange thought.  One other bit of news – I traded in my red felt hat with the feathers for a big floppy brimmed straw hat which L put a giant sunflower on and brought to me.  The red felt was cooking my brain!  Sorry I don’t have any photos of the new hat yet – that’s something to look forward to when I emerge from the wilderness!  I’m so grateful to have had 3 days of rest (and lots of water and fruit) with the Llamas and the Peacocks before heading into this stretch.  Really having to watch my hydration in the hot winds – I’ve upped my carrying capacity to 1 1/2 gallons and my Steripen Adventurer is charged and ready for the trail.  Tonight it’s raining on my tent, I’m snug and dry and counting the seconds between the lightning and the thunder – it’s getting farther away now and the sound of raindrops is soothing and comforting after so many months of dry.
  

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You never know what’s coming for you!

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Sea G Rhydr


Last Tuesday in the very early morning I was woken from a peaceful sleep by the sound of galloping hooves.  I was out of my tent and into my shoes before I was conscious – Jesse was running up and down the fence and around the yard, all flags flying, snorting and blowing and intently focussed on Something down the wash to the south.  I went towards him and Finehorn came trotting over to me, wrapped her neck around me and pressed close.  The sun was not yet up (it was before 5am) and although there was enough light to see, I couldn’t determine what was upsetting the ponies.  After about 5 minutes of this Jesse came over and I put my hand on his neck to find his muscles tense and literally trembling.  We all looked together, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, until finally things calmed down and the ponies returned to their grazing.  The best guess is a bear or a mountain lion coming by to check out camp – and since whatever it was didn’t return, that morning or the next – Mr.James had been big and fierce enough to make his point – my Hero!

We were camped in a lovely spot.  The ponies and I had everything we needed and quite a few of our “wants” covered as well.  I had wonderful neighbors a few miles up the road who knew where I was camped and were keeping a friendly eye on me.  A young elk had come by the water trough the day before.  Hummingbirds hovered, checking out my bright yellow dry bags and colorful laundry.  I was catching up on my journal Tuesday afternoon, sitting in my tent under the shady pavillion, enjoying the peace and beauty of my surroundings, when a dust devil sprang up right behind me, twisted and whirled across the yard, picked up several Large barn sections that were neatly stacked not far from my camp and tossed them over the fence and across the field – then sudden stillness and silence – spooky!  (and it all happened so Fast – maybe a minute total!)
  

Since being back on the trail I have been reminded over and over again how much I am at the mercy of things over which I have no control.  It’s easy to feel threatened by that – vulnerable and insecure.  But let’s go back to the sentence just before – “at the Mercy”.  Being vulnerable isn’t always such a bad thing!  On Thursday the 14th, as I was setting up camp in a fortuitously fenced-in area (to keep Finehorn safe from the Mustangs!) and realizing that all of the available water was contaminated by cow pies I looked up to the SW and saw a big plume of smoke rising and spreading – oh No – Not Again!!!  A few minutes later I heard dogs barking joyfully and the voices of women.  I walked quickly in their direction, calling out so that they would know I was a female and not a threat, and one of them stopped to talk.  L was so gracious and reassuring, offering to send somebody in to warn me if the Poco Fire looked to be an imminent threat and giving me a bottle of water to get me through the night.  She returned in the morning with news of the fire, a gallon of water, fresh fruits and veggies and a warm heart.  We strolled around the meadow, talking and sharing, enjoying the morning and getting to know one another.  What an amazing blessing, brought about by my vulnerability to (and fear of) the forest fire – and the seriously disgusting water – without which I probably wouldn’t have “bothered” the nice women out walking their dogs.
   

In the past two weeks I’ve been reminded that I cannot rely on my maps.  The drought is serious and the monsoons are late and lakes that look large and unmistakeable on paper simply do not exist in reality.  (On the other hand, I’ve found enough water to keep us going in tiny creeks that the maps show as dry – go figure.)  I’ve been stopped by large areas of blow down (impassable mazes of fallen down trees from the Rodeo-Chediski Fire of 10 years ago – at 468,638 acres it stands as the largest in AZ history) and in finding an alternate route I met DB, who not only welcomed me in like family, she told me about the wonderful haven that started this post And she called ahead to her daughter M and arranged a stay for us a bit further up the trail.  What a wonderful family – and I never would have met them on my “original” route.
  

Due to the extreme fire hazard conditions, whole sections of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest are currently closed and off-limits.  Tomorrow morning (Monday) I will call the Forest Service in the hope that they can tell me where I Am allowed to travel – and where along that route I’m likely to find water.  My next “destination” is Luna, NM – 100 miles from where I am today.  I was hoping to be there by my birthday on 2.July to pick up a package from my folks and a new solar charging device that some friends in Florida are sending.  Right now I think the likelihood of arriving in Luna “on time” is remote – and I’m not fussed about it.  Even with all the detours and drought, I’m back on the Journey and once again finding it a great Joy.
  

I want to write more soon about Vulnerability and Security – but right now it looks like a storm might be blowing in.  I’m inside a beautiful house which is not only full of art, it IS art, staying with a couple who rescue not only llamas and cats but also this strange thirsty woman (with two thirsty horses) in need of a bath on her coast-to-coast trail ride.  I’m about to be interviewed for The Maverick Magazine and before that happens I want to get outside to feel the wind and see what the ponies sense about the incoming weather.  Manana!

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