I had resigned myself that I wasn't going to be able to do this bucket list ride at Hell Canyon. Then, Ari went out to feed the horses the morning we were planning to leave. He met another camper who had rented the campground's stock trailer and was planning to ride Hell Canyon. They had a couple of empty slots in the trailer and offered to give us a lift to the trailhead and let us ride with the group.
By trailering in and out to the trailhead, that took a good 14 miles off what is a 21 mile ride. That put the ride down to about 7 miles, which is totally doable.
The trailhead hadn't gotten any bigger, but there weren't too many cars in the lot and Bob, our trail leader, was able to turn the trailer around for an easy departure.
This is the start of the trail.
There are a couple of water crossings on the trail. They are pretty easy.
Ari loved the ride and said it shouldn't be called Hell Canyon Trail, but Paradise Canyon Trail. It is quite beautiful.
There are several rock formations along the lower canyon trail.
Paul, one of the campground owners, told me this trail is not for green horses or for green riders. It is not an easy ride.
The group wanted to avoid the upper canyon trail - which is very narrow, so instead of riding along the side of the canyon - steep and narrow trail - they opted to ride over the hill bushwhacking to the other side.
My horse gets really excited when there is no trail. He starts to lope and gets out of control. I ended up dismounting and started walking him to be safer, but the temperature was in the mid-90s and we are at high altitude. It didn't take long for me to start to feel heat exhaustion.
Ari got me back in the saddle and led my horse and his horse.
There was a brief period when Ari and I were on our own away from the rest of the group to allow my horse to settle down. Ari got back in the saddle. I was in the saddle and feeling better. We started looking for the trail, figuring we would meet up with the group at the trailer.
What we didn't know was that the group was worried about us and looking for us.
What the group didn't know or realize was that we ride Tennessee Walkers and they were mostly on quarter horses, so while we may have started a quarter mile behind them, we were now a couple of miles ahead of them.
We ended up riding back to meet them, so they wouldn't be concerned.
On our way back to the trailhead, we saw this flock of wild mountain goats crossing the highway.
We were a group of seven riders and everyone was super nice.
Bob, the trail leader, was riding a four year old mare he is trying to train. The mare did pretty well. She spooked a couple of times at a big rock (the same rock coming and going) and she had problems staying on the goat trail - the upper canyon trail. She slipped a few times and lost her footing and Bob nearly fell off. Bob ended up dismounting and walking her to be safe.
Another rider was on a big draft cross and she dismounted and walked the narrow goat trail as well in order to stay safe.
We rode about three hours total. I was still feeling ill when we got back to the campground, so we opted to stay an extra night at the campground to allow me time to recover from the heat exhaustion. My heart rate was still elevated and I was feeling faint and nauseous for a good four hours after we got back.
One of the other riders told me she also felt some heat exhaustion even though she had stayed on her horse with no problems.
This was a good group to ride with because they were very considerate of the other riders in the group and they didn't take any unnecessary risks. Nobody was trying to show off how great they were or pulling any stupid stunts.
I am so happy to be able to check this ride off my bucket list and feel really blessed that the group allowed us to join them on the ride.
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