Austin, Nevada

Leaving Fallon, Nevada, we headed east towards Austin. Nevada.  On our way to our next stop, we spent some time at the Bob Scott Summit in the Toyaibe National Forest.  We learned about the trails from this article by The TrailMeister https://horseandrider.com/horseback-trail-riding/trail-riding-in-the-toiyabe-toquima-and-monitor-mountain-ranges-of-nevada-14830.

It was fairly easy to locate the Bob Scott campground which is across the street from the summit overlook.  We parked outside the campground because there is a cattleguard which the horses can't cross.  There is a small pull-out where we could pull the trailer in.  There is a small gate made of barbed wire which you need to open and close in order to access the trails.

Lennox and Mercutio waiting to get saddled up

Mercutio posing for the camera - this is his best side

You can see the small barbed wire gate in the background

This is what the scenery was like on the trails.  Not a lot of trees, but it was only 64 degrees - in Nevada - in mid-June.  There was a nice breeze and that made for a pleasant ride.  The elevation is around 7,000 feet so the air is a little thinner, but a lot cleaner.  The trails were hard pack and sand.  Not too rocky.  

There was still some patches of snow on the mountaintops.

We spent the night at the Paradise Ranch Castle about 30 miles east of the Bob Scott Campground.  

http://www.paradiseranchcastle.com/

This place is a real find.  We set up our portable horse corral for the two horses.  It is only $125 per night and the host - Donna - is fabulous.

Here are the horses in their portable corral with the castle in the background.  The shade area was already set up, we just added our corral to it.  We are using a Corrals-2-Go corral.  The set up was really easy and quick and the horses are secure.

Here is another view of the castle with the mountains in the distance.

The castle is beautifully furnished and decorated.

Donna has put a lot of thought into every room.  

We booked the master bedroom suite with private bath.  The bathroom featured a jacuzzi tub.  The room was huge!  In fact, most of the rooms in the castle are over-sized.  It's a joy just wandering around the castle and exploring. 

Downstairs there is a "dungeon" with a jukebox, pool table and full bar.

Ari figuring out what to play on the jukebox.

The bar is fully stocked.  There are also card tables for playing poker.

The view from the turret.

Ari and I were so happy to stay here.  The horses enjoyed their stay as well.  So, if you are ever in the Austin, Nevada area, be sure to stay here with your horses - but bring a portable corral.

First Stop - Boarding on the Lake in Granite Bay, CA

Our first stop was one of our favorite horse motels..Boarding on the Lake https://www.boardingonthelake.com/ located in Granite Bay, CA.

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.

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/234591

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.

Getting ready for our Next Adventure

It's been several years since our big trip to Wyoming with Laertes and Oberon.  Laertes and Oberon are now retired at the ages of 28 and 29, respectively.  They are living the good life at a retirement barn in Newcastle, CA.  We visit them every month or so and the barn manager provides us with regular updates on how they are doing.

We have two new mounts...

Lennox is a 14 year old Tennessee Walking horse, out of the The Pusher.  He has the classic Pusher markings with the white socks and white blaze.  His previous name was Bulldozer because he really moves out.  Ari has had him about three years now and he has calmed down a great deal.

Mercutio is a 13 year old Tennessee Walking Horse, registered as UC I'm Tough.  His previous barn name was Keno.  We give all our horses names from Shakespeare, so I renamed him Mercutio - who was Romeo's best friend.  Mercutio is more laid back that Lennox and not as confident.  I am hoping as he gains more trail experience he will become less nervous.

Prior to the trip, both horses get checked out by our vet, Bill Seale from Tri-County.  They are pronounced in perfect health and up for the long trip to Colorado and back.

Ari was so excited about his packing job, he asked me to take a picture.  He has got most of our camping gear in.  We still have to add kitchen gear and our camp refrigerator as well as two bale bags filled with hay and alfalfa, but it looks like we will be in good shape.

Last ride before going home

Our final stop before arriving at our home barn is Granite Bay, California - about ten miles north of Sacramento.

That's Granite Bay behind me in the distance.

On the trail

I will be posting a list of all the barns we stayed at on our journey along with contact information.  Prices ranged from $15 to $30 per horse per night.  All of the barns allowed us to leave our trailer on the property at no extra charge.  Some of the barns had showers, kitchenettes, and bathrooms for our use.  Some allowed tent/RV camping.  A few had a cottage or small apartment available for rent if you want to spend the night.

Riding by Lake Washoe

Oberon takes a drink from Lake Washoe near Carson City

Saturday night finds us back in Carson City, Nevada.  The temps are in the high 90s.  We waited until 6 pm to let things cool down before we rode.  We rode through the dunes.  The lake was calm, so we were able to ride next to the water.  Normally, Oberon doesn't like riding right on the beach due to the waves.  Laertes made several stops to drink from the lake.

On the way out of the barn, a large grey mare leaned out of her stall and took a large bite out of my thigh as I rode past.  Ari scolded me for riding too close to a strange horse's stall.  My left thigh is now swollen like a grapefruit and turning lovely shades of blue and purple.  The skin wasn't broken.  Just bruised.  I iced it when we got back to the hotel room and icing it this morning.

For those people who think I am supposed to sue or even complain to the barn manager....most states post a notice that when you enter a barn/stables/area where there are livestock, you do so at your own risk.  Horses bite and kick and we have been hearing from barn managers all along the journey about how bratty their horses are, so I should have been more careful and made a wide berth around any horse I don't know.

Silver Sage Ranch in Fallon

Oberon Pining for Laertes from elisemoss on Vimeo.

For the first time in five days, Laertes is in a stall next to Oberon.  Oberon has full view of Laertes.  He can see Laertes, touch Laertes, and smell Laertes.  It doesn't matter.  He is separated from Laertes and he doesn't like it.

Laertes is Oberon's security blanket.  We call Laertes the Oberon sedative.  When Oberon has Laertes nearby, he is calm and relaxed.  When they are separated, even by a fence, Oberon gets anxious, uptight, and agitated.  So, Oberon paces - back and forth like a tiger - ever vigilant to make sure nothing happens to Laertes.  Laertes might make friends with another horse at the barn.  If Laertes even looks at another horse, Oberon is annoyed.

The motion Oberon is doing with his head is called an "Arab Twist".  He flips his head, like a girl flipping her hair.  It is a characteristic of Arabians - most other breeds don't do this.  He does it when he is upset, agitated or excited.  Some horse owners will actually tie the horses head to prevent them from doing it when they ride because they are annoyed by it.  

Our next barn is in the Washoe Valley and they will be back to sharing a space.

From Winnemucca, Nevada to Fallon, Idaho

On the Bloody Shins Trail

Still on the Bloody Shins Trail

Typical cattle guard

Livestock, meaning horses and cattle, can't cross a cattle guard without their legs getting caught between the bars.  The purpose of cattle guards is to keep livestock out of certain areas.

Before we drove out of Winnemucca, we stopped at the Bloody Shins Trail for a quick ride before the heat got into the triple digits.  The Bloody Shins Trail is on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land.  The trail is not well-known.  It is located at the end of Kluncy Canyon Road off Highland Road.

There is a large gravel parking area which is great for horse trailers.  Plenty of room to turn around.  It is a mixed use area - the trails are used by bikers, hikers, and even ATV people - although ATVs are supposed to keep to the wide roads.

There is a cattle guard at the trail entrance (see photos above).  The trails are extensive and you could easily spend a day on the trails, but the view is pretty much the same regardless of where you are...sagebrush and cactus.  There are rapidly moving lizards and I am sure there are rattle snakes, although I only saw the lizards.  I kept my ears open for rattlers, just in case and we kept to the trails.

We only rode for about 30 minutes - it was in the high 80s when we started the ride and in the high 90s when we ended the ride.  Mostly, we wanted to let the horses stretch their legs a bit before we loaded them into the trailer for the two hour plus ride to Fallon.