Finally, arrived at South T Bar in Canon City

Our best meal so far this trip was at the Lost Cajun in Salida, CO.

http://thelostcajun.com/

I was super impressed that they have this little sample board where guests can try samples of the gumbo, the etoufee, etc. prior to ordering.  Ari gobbled up the samples.

They also serve beignets!  We ordered hush puppies on the side.  They were different from the hush puppies we've had in Virginia and the Carolinas, but still very good.

The chef was extremely interested in how we liked the food and came to check on us more than once.

This place is worthy of a detour if you are ever in the area.

Upon arriving at Rob & Robin's place at the South T-Bar ranch, we promptly discovered we were down a SECOND tire on the trailer.  Rob helped Ari put on our spare tire which is a real tire, not one of those half-ass tires, and even taught him a couple of tricks on how to tighten lug nuts and mount a tire.

So, we have now replaced 50% of the tires on the trailer.  Keep in mind that we took the trailer in in April to be checked and the guy said at the time that the tires were fine.

So, I am going to have to add tire replacements to our traveling budget for future long trips.

The tire had a nail in it, but didn't have enough tread left to make it worth patching.  We ended up replacing it at a Walmart tire center in Pueblo after we left Canon City.

Rob & Robin have a beautiful mountain home at South T Bar ranch.  They have a view of Pike's Peak right from their living room.  Robin has done an amazing job of decorating the guest rooms.  We had the entire basement to ourselves which included a lovely guest room, a kitchenette, and a full bath.

Robin and Rob are both open to hosting horses and their owners.  They are just lovely people.

Here's Robin holding on to the horses while they graze on her grass.

Here's Rob filling up the stock tank with water so we can put up our portable corral.

The horses were in heaven with all the grass to eat and feeling extremely happy.

You can see Pike's Peak in the distance from Rob & Robin's property.

We have owned property at South T Bar for almost 20 years, but this is the first time we have been able to attend a POA (property owner association) meeting.  It was interesting to me.  There were about 60 property owners in attendance.  They started the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.  I can't recall the last time I recited the pledge and was surprised I actually recalled the words.

But, when I recited "with liberty and justice for all" I almost teared up, because right now, we do not live in a country with liberty and justice for all.  We live in a country where people of color are incarcerated at a rate of more than double that of whites.

https://www.openinvest.co/blog/statistics-prison-america/

We live in a country that is imprisoning babies and children who have committed no crime other than the crime of not being white.  Seeking asylum is not a crime.

We live in a country where white supremacists are empowered to enact mass shootings against Muslims, gays, Jews, and African Americans and not be treated as what they are - domestic terrorists.

It could be argued that America has never been a country "with liberty and justice for all".  After all, we have a history of slavery, the genocide of Native Americans, Irish and Catholics need not apply, Japanese internment camps, Jim Crow, etc.  But, at least we aspired to be better.  

Following the POA meeting, we were served fresh pizza from a portable pizza oven.  That was pretty cool.  We basically got pizza to order.

I enjoyed talking to the other property owners and hearing why they purchased on South T-Bar, whether they were full-time residents or part-time, what their plans were, etc. When Ari & I purchased our land, we envisioned a horse community.  We thought most of the property owners would be equestrians.  Turns out we are pretty much the only equestrians on the ranch.  Most of the property owners are interested in hunting.

Riding in South T Bar

After the meeting, Ari and I did a ride around the ranch - something we had dreamed about ever since we bought our property there.  We rode an ATV trail.  The horses struggled a bit due to the high altitude, but both horses put out their best effort.  

I am so impressed with Mercutio.  He has come into his own as a solid trail horse.

After the trail ride, we drove into Canon City.  I wanted to see how much it had changed since our last visit about 12 years ago.

The downtown has added some cool public art.  I had hoped that the downtown would have improved some, but it actually is more run-down.

We had hoped to join some neighbors for a party Saturday night, but by the time we got back to the ranch and located the party people were packing up to return to their homes.

Sunday morning we reluctantly said our good-byes to Rob and Robin.  Before we left the ranch, we stopped at our parcel.  Twelve years ago, we had brought Isaiah to the ranch and we planted a bunch of trees and shrubs.  We wanted to see if any of the plants had survived.  Imagine our surprise to see an entire grove of trees we had planted looking healthy and beautiful.

Tonight the horses are at Bruton Stables in Raton, New Mexico.

https://www.horsemotel.com/A1MobilePages/A3MobileNewMexicoJacksonStables.html

They have traded in the cushy grass on the South T Bar Ranch for dust and dirt, but they are in a nice large enclosure with their food and fresh water.

This fellow checked us in.  I got a real kick out of him.  He is a chatty Texan, wearing boots, spurs, and cowboy hat.  

Tomorrow we hope to ride in Sugarite State Park before heading to our next stop...Santa Fe.

We are heading home.

Riding Soap Creek on the way to Gunnison, Colorado

Colorado is really a beautiful state and we always enjoy visiting here.

This morning we left Montrose and headed to Gunnison.  Along the way, we stopped at the Soap Creek Horse Campground to ride in the West Elk Wilderness part of the Gunnison National Forest.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/gmug/recarea/?recid=33534

There are four horse corrals available for campers.  Frankly, they were all filthy and I wouldn't have put my horse in any of them.  There was a set of pit toilets, but no water that I could see and no picnic tables.  There were fire rings at most of the campsites.

I had considered booking this campsite, but Ari wanted to stay at hotels as much as possible, so we are only tent camping in areas where I couldn't find an alternative.

I'm glad I listened to Ari because this would have been a pretty miserable place to camp.  Although we probably would have opted to use our portable corral.

We rode the Coal Mesa trail through the West Elk Wilderness.  The trail was mostly hard pack and not too rocky or steep.  There were sections that were so narrow, I thought we would have been better off with mules.

Getting the horses ready to ride.  The one advantage of starting at a horse campsite is that there is plenty of space for a horse trailer.

To get to the trail head, you ride down the road towards the non-horse camp. Check out the rock formations on the right.  You take a bridge over Soap Creek to enter into the wilderness area.

We had several water crossings on Soap Creek.  The water was flowing really high and fast with the snow melt.  Lennox was a bit nervous crossing the water, but Mercutio took it like a trooper.  A few times, he stuck his nose in the water to check how deep it really was and when he realized it wasn't that deep, he was fine.

Here's Ari and Lennox approaching another water crossing.  We are riding through Ponderosa pines and wild flowers.

Driving to Gunnison, we passed Blue Mesa Dam.  It was really quite breath-taking.

Tonight the horses are guests of the Lost Miner horse motel. They are getting good grass hay and plenty of space to move around.

https://www.lostminerranch.com/

Ari and I had a nice dinner at The Gunny Sack in downtown Gunnison and then walked around the downtown - where the shops close at 5 pm.

There was a lot of public art, but you really had to look hard to locate it

This statue is called "My Dear, My Deer" and had a price tag on it of $4375.  This is the first public art I have seen with the price listed.

This statue is called "Friends" and is a little girl hugging a kitten with another kitten close by.

Tomorrow we head to the South T-Bar Ranch, where we own our parcel.  We are staying with a neighbor. We are looking forward to experiencing what it is like to live at South T-Bar.

It will help us decide whether or not we want to build on the property.

Riding Devil's Canyon on the way to Montrose, Colorado

Here is Ari on Lennox on our trail ride in Devil's Canyon.

https://www.blm.gov/visit/devils-canyon-trailhead

We parked at the Opal Equestrian parking lot for our ride.  There is a pit toilet there, but no water.  The trail head is across the road from the parking lot.  The trails are located near Fruta, Colorado near Grand Junction.

 

Here I am on Mercutio on the trail.

Check out the mountains in the distance as Ari starts us off.

This is a panoramic picture, so you can look around.

Frankly, the pictures I took don't do the canyon justice.  We did the rim trail where we were riding on the ridge above the canyon.  The trails were narrow and Ari was nervous, so it was hard for me to stop and take pictures.

The weather has changed for us.  Temperatures are now in the mid 80s to low 90s, so it is hot, but there was a light breeze which made our ride bearable.

My horse has been a champ.  He is relaxed and easy-going on the trail.  I have been riding him on a loose rein most of the time.  He gathers brilliantly (means he uses his back properly to carry the rider) and he is managing a nice easy fast walk to keep up with Lennox's extended gait.  Mercutio has difficulty maintaining a Walking gait due to arthritis and stifle issues, but he is adapting to keep up with Lennox.

Lennox, on the other hand, is challenging Ari.  Lennox just wants to move out at his fast gait and take no prisoners.  He means business.  This makes Ari nervous, especially on a narrow trail we don't know.

Both horses wore their Scoot Boots for this ride.  The trail was hard rock in several places, but great trail markers and the trail is well maintained - thanks to the local Back Country Horseman's club.

After the ride, we always check the horses for any injuries.

Lennox had a small sore on the side of his pastern from wear with the Scoot Boot.  I sent off the picture along with an inquiry to the Scoot Boot folks.  They responded back almost immediately!  What great customer service!  

They obviously understand the saying "no feet, no horse".  It's really important to take care of your horse's feet, if you want to be able to ride.

They said the reason for the sore is Ari was tightening the strap too much. The Scoot Boot is meant to have a little play so the boot moves with the horse.  They also recommended we put some foam tape between the strap and the pastern to provide some padding.  Ari admitted that he was, in fact, over-tightening the strap because he was worried the boot would come off.  Now that he knows better, he is happy as he can make the adjustments and be able to continue using the Scoot Boot.

Tonight we are in Montrose, Colorado.  The horses are being hosted by Pahgre Rach, a horse motel.

http://www.pahgreranch.com/

Barb and Beau are the hosts and they obviously love horses and their ranch.  They care a great deal about the horses and take excellent attention to them.  Food and fresh water were waiting in the paddock when we drove in.

Here are Lennox and Mercutio exploring their horse motel room for the night.  They seemed pretty comfortable right from the start.

Tomorrow we head to Gunnison, Colorado.  Getting closer to our property in Canon City - hoping to arrive there on Friday.

From Castle to a Tent to a Resort

Mercutio resting in our portable Corrals 2 Go corral after the long trailer ride.  

From the Sacramento Pass campground near Ely, Nevada, we traveled to the Rose Ranch Resort (http://roseranchresort.com/) near Marysville, UT.  Now, they don't advertise as horse motel, but I was desperate for a place to spend the night so we wouldn't have to spend too much time on the road.  Nathan Marshall, the owner, was willing to put us up for the night and he was extremely kind to do so.

We would have loved to book a cabin, but they were all reserved so we ended up pitching a tent and putting up the portable corral.

Rose Ranch used to be a working guest ranch with horses, but they got rid of the horses in the 2008 recession when people were dumping horses.  The stables are gone.  The Marshalls are the new owners, and they turned it into an RV park where they rent out ATVs to guests.

All the trails that used to be used for guided horse rides are now used by the ATVs, so we were obliged to use a small trail that can't be used by ATVs.

Here I am on the short trail by the creek.  We could hear the sound of water running through the creek by our tent.  The trail was hard pack and sand.

Once again, I got to set up my kitchen and we had a nice shady area on a lawn.  The resort even provided an extension cord, so we could plug in our fridge/freezer.  There was wireless internet, but it was spotty.

I am a little peeved by the use of the word "resort" here.  In my mind, a resort has a place to eat, a small store, a pool, a jacuzzi, maybe tennis courts and a golf course.  The Rose Ranch Resort had none of those things.  There were two unisex bathrooms with showers (single stall -bring your own toilet paper, single shower) and an ice freezer where we could purchase ice.  We were grateful for a place to spend the night and we purchased two bags of ice for our coolers.

The horses were thrilled that we were allowed to locate the corral on a beautiful lawn.

When we departed, this is what was left of the lawn.  You can see where the corral was and where the horses pretty much ate every scrap of grass they could find and were starting to tear up the dirt.  This is after a single night.

Our next stop was at Tasha Equestrian Campground near Richfield, UT.  At this point, we were seven days into our trip and out of hay.  So we stopped in Richfield, hoping to find a feed store with bales of hay or alfalfa.  There are three feed stores in Richfield; which, by the way, is a pretty small town.  There were more feed stores than Starbucks and McDonalds.  None of the feed stores carried bales.  We ended up buying two 50 lbs sacks of alfalfa cubes because horses need to eat.

We had just pulled out of the feed store and were at a light when a local in the car next to us signaled me to roll down my window.  When I did, he advised me that one of the trailer tires had a bulge in it.  I thanked him.  Ari pulled onto a side street and we got out to check the tire.

See the bulge in the tire in the lower right?

Well, we couldn't drive on that.  Yes, we have a spare and the spare is a real tire, not one of those odd ones, but if we are in a town where we can buy a tire, I would rather do that then burn the spare.

I quickly pulled up 'local tire stores' on my cell phone and found a Big O Tires a half a mile from our location.

We pulled into the Big O Tires place and they took care of us right away.  We didn't even have to take the horses out of the trailer.  As you can see from the video, they jacked up the trailer with the horses inside.  We were taken care of in about 15 minutes.  It cost us about $120 for the new tire and the service, plus they checked the air pressure in the remaining tires to make sure they were OK.

Driving to Tasha Equestrian https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/233150, we could still see snow on the mountains and the temperature was in the mid-60s.

We were greeted at the campsite by the hostess who handed us a trail map.  It was fairly easy to locate our campsite because my name was on it.

There were three pipe corrals, so the horses were secure.  The horses were introduced to alfalfa cubes at dinner, which we poured into their grain bins.  Both horses were extremely upset about the menu change.  What is this you are trying to feed us?  Where is the real food?  They dumped their grain bins and stomped all over the alfalfa cubes to show their displeasure.  Lennox urinated all over his dinner, but by breakfast his hunger had made him less choosy.  Breakfast was gobbled down by both horses.

The mosquitoes were out in force, so I put Mercutio's Rastafarian headband on to keep the insects at bay.  Ari talked to one of the other campers who told him that they had been there a week and already gone through two cans of Cutter's insect spray.  Apparently, the snow had only recently thawed, the mosquito larvae had hatched and now there were millions of new-born mosquitoes hungry and lying in wait for any unsuspecting warm-blooded creature.

I set up my kitchen, but it wasn't that usable, because the campsite was on a slope.

We set up our tent OK, but it seemed like the campsites are really intended for RV or LQ use even though this is an equestrian site.  We were the only tent people in that campground.

We had been warned that the trails were rocky so we put scoot boots on both horses.  Lennox wears a Size 8 scoot boot.  Mercutio wears a dainty Size 4.  This is a picture of Mercutio modeling his Scoot Boots.  Both our horses are barefoot.  We prefer keeping our horses barefoot because we believe it is healthier for the horse, but also because we have been out in the middle of nowhere and Oberon has lost a shoe.  When a horse loses a shoe, they are effectively lame.  They can't be ridden.  So, you have to find a farrier to replace the lost shoe before you can ride again.  Scoot Boots are a great compromise because they act like horse shoes, but they can be worn only when you are on a trail which is really rocky.  You don't want to ride barefoot on a really rocky trail because then the horse might pick up a rock in his foot which causes an abscess.  An abscess is kind of like a blister that gets infected.  If the horse gets an abscess, he is usually lame for at least a week while you baby his injured foot back to health.

We also have used Easy Boots on the trail, but I like the Scoot Boots better.  The Easy Boots we used had a clip that bit into the horse's hoof and left a mark.  They also didn't always stay on.

There was a hitching post next to the corrals, so we could get the horses tacked up.

Here I am on the trail with Fish Lake in the background.

Lennox continued his Bulldozer act on this ride.  He did not want to slow down at all.

There Lennox is in the distance, leaving us in the dust.  Mercutio is fine with that because it gives him a chance to eat some of the grass on the side of the trail.

The scenery on the trail was beautiful.  We rode the Pauite Trail and a little bit of the Fish Lake trail.  

But, the mosquitoes, oh, the mosquitoes!  Ari, myself, and both horses were bitten and bitten and bitten.

Ari and I were mostly concerned about Ari because he is seriously allergic to insect bites.  He has had to go to the emergency room more than once due to an insect bite.

So, reluctantly we cut our stay at Tasha Equestrian Campground short. We only did one ride and we left first light the next morning.

Our next stop is Green River, UT.

From a Castle to a Tent - Next Stop Sacramento Pass BLM Campground

I forgot to post a picture of the master suite in the castle, so here it is.  The room was huge and had a really nice bed, TV and sitting area.

Ari fills up our water tanks before we hit the road to our next stop.

Our next stop is the Sacramento Pass BLM horse campground.

https://www.blm.gov/visit/sacramento-pass-recreation-area

This is free camping because it is BLM land.  Technically, BLM land belongs to everybody.  Sites are on a first come, first served basis.

There are two campsites there - one for everybody and one for equestrians.  You drive through and past the non-equestrian site to get to the one for equestrians.  We got there and there was only one campsite left.  All the other campsites were being used by non-equestrians.  

The local Back Country Horseman members have built up this campsite.

There is a really nice corral built by the BCHA.  We put both horses in there for the night and they were pretty happy.  This is a pretty primitive campsite.  There is no water.  There are pit toilets.  You are expected to take the garbage with you and drop it at the trash cans at the first campsite.

We rode in the evening after we got our tent and kitchen set up and then again in the morning.  The trails are not well marked and we kept getting lost off the trail because any time there was a space between the brush we thought it was a trail.  It made for a really frustrating ride.  We would get off the trail, hit a dead end and then have to backtrack to find the trail again.  Adding to the frustration, Lennox has reverted to his Bulldozer ways - where he just wants to move out.  I don't know if it is because the trails were basically wide open or because he was jacked up from spending hours in the trailer.

Here we are in Nevada in the middle of June and temperatures have been in the low 60s.  It was even colder at night.  But the stars, oh my!  The night sky at this campsite is gorgeous.

No internet or cell service at all...I had to wait  until we got to our next stop to post this update.  Tonight we are at the Rose Ranch in Marysville, UT.  More on that tomorrow....