Cal is the manager. He is really welcoming and helpful.
The horses were settled in to nice shady stalls.
Cal feeds and mucks the stalls - $30 per horse per night.
One of the reasons this is a favorite place for us to stop with our horses is the trail ride around Folsom Lake. We can ride to the trails from the barn.
Ari getting ready for our trail ride at Folsom Lake
On the trail...you can see the lake peeking behind him.
The trails are hard pack, not rocky, and easy to negotiate.
We spotted these turkey buzzards on the trail. This is pure American West. All that was missing was Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
Folsom Lake is quite beautiful. You can ride on the sand dunes and into the water. Ari was able to get Lennox to splash into the lake, but my horse kept his feet dry.
Boarding on the Lake is boasting a new addition - this three week old foal named Legacy.
The second night of our trip was spent at Skillman Horse Camp in the Tahoe National Forest.
I learned about this campsite from the HCTAA facebook group. It was easy to find our campsite because my name was on it. The campsite is $15 per night.
There were two corrals at the campsite. The previous camper had failed to clean out the corrals. Instead of mucking them out, he dumped hay on top of the manure. Needless to say, it was a huge mess. There is a special place in hell for these people. This is how horses pick up parasites - because they try to eat hay mixed with manure. We spent a good hour cleaning out the corrals before we could put the horses in.
My office mate, Gayle Deal, sold me this kitchen set up and it is fabulous. It folds up to the size of a folded card table and lets me lay out all my kitchen gear so I don't have to hunt for items. If you are a camper, I highly recommend it.
The campsite doesn't have a reliable water source. I expected this and we had two 45 gallon water tanks installed into our trailer. We ended up using about half one of the tanks on the horses, cooking and cleaning during our stay.
I also bought some solar panels and battery pack to power our fridge/freezer, but the charging was extremely slow - even in 90 degree heat. Ari is skeptical about whether this was a worthwhile purchase, so we shall see how it does as we get farther into desert areas.
The campsite had a firepit and a picnic table as well as a porta-potty.
We rode the Hallelujah to Pioneer trail from the campsite. The trails are well maintained, mostly sand and hard pack, no big elevation changes, not too steep, a little narrow in spaces, but overall a good ride.
Both horses did well on the trails and are adapting to life on the road
Tonight we are in Fallon, Nevada. The horses are staying at the Clark Ranch Horse Motel. The owner is selling the ranch, so not sure how long she will remain in business or if the new owners will continue it.
Like Cal, she feeds and cleans the stalls, but only charges $20 per night per horse. There aren't any local trails, so this is just a layover until we can ride tomorrow.
She has tarp hanging in the back of the stalls. The tarps act as a wind break, but it causes the tarp to flap. If you have a horse that spooks at tarps or windy noises, this would be a good place to stay to de-sensitize them. Lennox is totally cool with it. My horse flinches every time the tarp makes a noise and he is staying in the corner as far away from the tarp as possible.
Tomorrow is Paradise Ranch Castle in Austin, Nevada.
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