With great reluctance, we said farewell to Eric and Elaine. They were excellent hosts and we very much enjoyed our stay.
Elaine filled up a grocery bag with fresh veggies from her garden, eggs from her chickens, and other snacks for the road. I am embarrassed to confess the snack were eaten by the time we arrived at our campground.
We set up the horses on a high line while we were breaking down the corral.
Both Eric and Elaine enjoyed the novelty of having horses in their backyard for a few days. I expect in about a month the area where we set up the corral will be lush with new green growth.
Our next stop was Silver Lake County Park in Maple Falls, Washington. We stayed at Red Mountain Horse Camp - which has been taken over by non-equestrians. It was noisy and crowded, and the people in the campsite next to us were having a high school graduation party with lots of guests. We were not happy campers.
We set up a corral next to our LQ. There was water and electrical hook-up which is nice.
We rode out of the campsite on a meadow trail.
We tried the Red Mountain trail, but it was very steep, lots of downed logs, and pretty unusable.
We tried Black Mountain Trail and it was a bit better, but very muddy and a bit overgrown in vegetation.
Around 8 pm, a ranger knocked on our LQ door and advised us that horses are not allowed in the campground. Keep in mind the name of the campsite is Red Mountain Horse Camp. This is supposed to be a campsite for equestrians.
The very nice ranger explained that 25 years ago, yes, this was an equestrian campground with extensive trails for horses, but now due to new housing in the area, the trails are mostly gone.
Since the trails went away, horse people aren't as interested in the park, so now most of the campsites are booked by non-equestrians. She said we needed to move the horses to the "stables". W had ridden by the stables earlier and thought they had been used by a concessionaire who offered guided trail rides.
We basically explained why we wouldn't bed down the horses in the existing stables and offered to move our corrals next to the stables and leave the campsite the next morning first thing. She agreed to that compromise.
These are the stables were campers are expected to keep their horses.
The spaces are not enclosed. You basically tie the horse into a parking space. They can't turn around or lie down.
There are feeding troughs, but no water trough, so if you want your horse to have water, you have to fill a small pail that will fit in the trough.
We put the horses in the stables while we packed the corral into the LQ.
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