Cowgirl Campout at Red Canyon ~ Part 1

 

Last month a small group of riding friends got together for a fun weekend that my friend Kendra and I had planned back in August. We called it the Manzano Mountains Cowgirl Campout, and we had chosen to get together at Red Canyon Equestrian Campground for our special weekend. We chose Red Canyon because Kendra and I had first ridden the Red Canyon/Crest/Spruce Spring Trail Loop in July. At that time we had ridden the loop counter-clockwise and we thought it would be fun to do the loop clockwise. After our July Red Canyon ride several of our friends said they would love to ride Red Canyon with us, so we decided to plan a fun weekend just for us ladies to enjoy a weekend of camping and riding, all within an hour of our homes.

We got to Red Canyon Equestrian Campground, in the Cibola National Forest, and got our horses set up in the little corrals. My Apache mare settled right in and immediately started eating.  

We had a wonderful campfire to gather around and cook on, but I also set up my portable propane stove outside of my tent trailer (It’s not a good idea to cook inside a tent trailer with bears in the area). Our friends brought their LQ horse trailers, so they were able to do some of their cooking inside if they wanted to.

My dear friend Colleen joined us with two of her horses, an older mare and a young filly. She wasn’t planning to do the all-day Red Canyon ride, but was going to ride her mare on some short trails around the campground ponying her filly to give her some trail experience. She was also looking forward to relaxing at the campsite, joining us for campfire meals and laughter. I was excited that Colleen was joining us as she is the friend was helped me in my horse search and buying Apache 3 years ago. I’m so thankful for my friend Colleen and I was excited to show her how far Apache and I have come since then!

And having my best buddy Kendra there that weekend was the icing on the cake! Oh and I also brought along my Dobbie Girl, although she was just there for the camping fun, and stayed in the horse trailer while we were riding up in the mountains and canyons.

On Saturday morning after breakfast, we saddled up and headed up through the campground to the trail head. I was glad there was still some autumn color to enjoy and it wasn’t cold. We picked the perfect weekend to do an autumn horse camping weekend.

There was a total of 5 of us riding on Saturday.

The route up Red Canyon was a steady climb all the way to the Crest, so we allowed our horses to rest whenever they needed to. The rest breaks gave us all time to talk, laugh and take photos.

The ascent up to the Rock Cave is extremely steep! Some of us dismounted and walked our horses up and others rode up.

Apache and I at the top of the ascent to Rock Cave, on the ledge in front of the cave. 

My friend Melissa on her her gelding, Pal, in front of Rock Cave.

And we continued to climb….and let our hard-working horses rest when they needed to.

As we climbed higher, we saw more beautiful yellow-leafed aspens.

And soon we we entered the Manzano Mountain Wilderness.

Up, Up, Up….

We were all having so much fun together, just us ladies and our wonderful horses. My friend, Randi was all smiles.

After a couple miles we finally climbed out of Red Canyon and could see the canyon down below us.

The views across Red Canyon were gorgeous!

 

Melissa’s two trail dogs took advantage of our rest breaks, too.

Having the trail dogs along for the ride was also helpful in keeping away any bears or mountain lions. 

We entered the Aspen Forest as we neared the Crest. Riding over a carpet of yellow aspen leaves.

Kendra and Randi on the mountainside below the Crest!

Apache mare enjoying a rest in a grassy spot beneath the Aspens.

Reaching this location milestone brought back memories of our July Red Canyon/Crest/Spruce Spring Trail Ride where we took almost the same photo. It looked much greener then and the Aspens were green, too.

We arrived on top of the Manzano Crest! Happy faces!

We all dismounted to enjoy a picnic on an open, grassy saddle along the Crest Trail.

Kendra relaxing and enjoying lunch with her Bailey Boy.

Randi and her sweet mare.

Apache mare enjoying some lunch, too.

I tied up Apache so I could find a tree to go potty and she kept her eye on me the entire time. It was very cute!

Me and my awesome, beautiful, smart trail horse, Apache mare!

 

 

Up next: Cowgirl Campout at Red Canyon ~ Part 2

Sometimes It Pours

 

So, this is how I spent my birthday weekend.

My hubby was working in Phoenix, and my twinlings were on a weekend Boy Scout Backpacking trip up in the Pecos, so it was just Jen and me, and I didn’t want to spend the weekend home alone doing nothing. So, after stumbling on a new blog the week before, while doing some research on the Caja del Rio for this weekend’s ACTHA rides, I read that the AERC Endurance ride were going to be at the same location as our ACTHA ride and was wanting some more volunteers. And well, since I had no plans and I’ve always been curious about the equine sport of Endurance riding, and I can’t imagine time better spent than spending it around horses and good horses folks, I contacted the host of the ride, Anne, and offered up my services. Even though I knew nothing about Endurance, except for what I have read on other blogs, Anne was thrilled to have me come on up to help out.

So, Jen and I packed up our camping gear since we decided we’d spend all day Saturday bumping around Santa Fe doing some Letterboxing and then scoot over to the Caja del Rio around dinnertime on Saturday evening, and then set up camp.

(Our campsite. Photo taken on Sunday morning) 

In the morning we drove Jax and Jem over to the Boy Scout meet-up place and dropped them off, then drove over to the grocery store and gas station to fill the cooler with ice and tank up with gas. And then we were on our way!

We only live less than an hour from Santa Fe and I consider it my second home and am quick to take every opportunity to head up to visit. We have a few friends up there and there are always fun things to do. Jen and I ended up having a great time tooling around Santa Fe looking for Letterboxes. We ended up finding 7 at the end of the day and one of them took us to the best frozen yogurt place I have ever been to. They had 8 different flavors of Frozen Yogurt and more than 50 different toppings all available as self-serve to make your own sundae. Jen reminded me it was my birthday so we should celebrate…and boy howdy! We sure did! I had the Pomegranate-Raspberry and it was so yummy! I wish I could eat that flavor every day! I did put a few toppings on my sundae, including some dark chocolate chips, some coconut, and those very cool fish egg looking bubble things that people put into tea. They pop inside your mouth and fill it with a burst of juicy flavor. Mmm! Jen layered on as many toppings as she could manage, including, sprinkles, chocolate chips, whoppers, chocolate covered marshmallows, fruity pebbles, some more of those bubble popper things, and I don’t even know what else. I’m still amazed that she finished it all. lol! 

Check it out: Frogurt

At the end of the day we managed to make it over to the Caja del Rio and the AERC Endurance Ride Base Camp, introduced ourselves, set up our campsite, got a lesson on how to take equine P&Rs, and then enjoyed a great dinner of hamburgers cooked up by Anne’s husband, followed up with brownies for dessert.

All while being serenaded by two very loud, (albeit cute) obnoxious sounding mules that were very vocal about not getting any attention.

(This little gal is an experienced Endurance Mule. But she was naughty and gave her rider a bit of trouble on Sunday morning, not letting her mount.)

We all headed off to bed pretty early because the 50 mile riders were going to be starting out at 6am and we wanted to be up and ready.

But we had a little snafu.

(This little lady mule is a recent rescue and was brought along just for the experience. She was pretty anxious and couldn’t stand still. She got tangled up a few times and I went over and got her all fixed up and even though she was shy, she let me pet her on her shoulders and face. Her owner said she was surprised this little mule allowed me to touch her because she had been badly abused in her previous situation and is still afraid of humans. So I felt honored.)

Please take note. We’ve owned our current tent for over 15 years. And in all those years, we’ve camped in it at least 4-8 times a year from anywhere between one night to 5 nights. Most of our camping in this tent has been in New Mexico. Keep in mind that we’ve camped in it more than 50 times, and it has never rained during any of those camping trips. Not once.

I seam sealed it and waterproofed it right after we bought it 15 years ago, and we often use the rain fly, especially if we are camping during monsoon season in July and August, but we’ve never been able to test it to see if it’s waterproof.

Do you see where this is going?

(This mule’s number may have been 50, but they were Limited Distance (LD) riders and were riding the 30 Miler. They pulled at the 14 Mile Vet Check, though, because the rider didn’t feel like her mule was “in the game” that day)

Yeah, it rained Saturday night. The kind of rain that folks around here call a Gully Washer. The lightning was cracking, making it bright as daylight in our tent, and the thunder sounded like gigantic boulders were going to roll right over top of us. But Jen and I weren’t fazed. She’s like me in that rain and storms seem to relax us and help us sleep. We fell asleep quickly, even though, my poor Dobbie girl had shimmied down into the bottom of my sleeping bag and was quivering fearfully beside my legs.

(There’s Dobbie the next morning, enjoying the morning sunshine)

 

Well, sometime around 2am, I woke up feeling strangely….wet. For a moment I thought I had wet the bed. Then I reached my hand over to the floor of the tent and felt water. Uh oh.

I pressed my hand down on the floor of the tent and it felt like a squishy water bed. Hmm…who put THAT there?

(This is the next morning, Jen enjoying some hot oatmeal, after watching the Endurance Riders head off for the day. Yeah, that’s my wet sleeping bag hanging on my door trying to dry)

 

I quickly realized I must have made a huge error when placing the tarp underneath the tent. I failed to make sure that all of the tarp was tucked underneath. Ooops!

And you know what else? Tents are made better now than they were 15 years ago. Who’s stupid idea was it to place a seam right down the center of the floor of a tent? gah!

Yeah. So all the water from the lake underneath my tent was seeping up through that seam and my thick, comfy egg crate mattress had soaked up all the water like a sponge and it was leaking into my sleeping bag.

(That’s my egg crate mattress the next morning trying to dry out)

 

Yeah. That’s a great way to be woke up in the middle of the night out in the middle of a rain storm, many miles from home.

Thankfully Jen was sleeping on the opposite side of the tent and wasn’t on top of a stupid seam, so she was dry. Me? Not so much.

She was sleeping soundly, and even my dog was still tucked down at the bottom of my sleeping bag, in the only dry spot, snoring away.

But I had to do something fast before our lake became deeper. So I threw on a poncho and my boots and headed outside and saw that one little corner of tarp peeking out off the side of the tent. Darn. It had created a little aqueduct that funneled water directly underneath the tent.

So, with my daughter and my dog sleeping soundly inside the tent, I started yanking the tarp out from underneath the tent, watching the water gushing out from the sides of it as it slid out. I bundled up the wet muddy tarp and jammed it underneath the back of my GMC. And then I went back inside the tent and realized my sleeping bag was too wet to crawl inside of, so I tried to lay on top of it, but the temps had dropped down to about 40 degrees and it was just too cold. But I did remember that I had a fleece blanket throw inside the GMC and a fleece jacket, too. So, I went back out into the rain, grabbed those and brought them back into the tent. I would have just spent the rest of the night in the GMC, but I didn’t want to leave my daughter (and my dog) out in the tent alone.

Do you all know how short those fleece throws are? Good thing they stretch.

I slept off and on for a couple hours and was grateful for the warmth when Dobbie came up from the bottom of my sleeping bag to sleep underneath the fleece throw with her back against my side.

I didn’t think I’d be happy to hear mules braying at 4:30 in the morning, but I was.

Even though it was still pitch black outside, their crazy heehaw-honking-whinnying, while they watched their owners preparing for their 50 mile rides, gave me something to focus on besides my cold, wet, stiff discomfort.

Go ahead and listen and see if that racket doesn’t make you crack a smile, too.

In fact, I don’t think I’d mind waking up to that crazy sound every morning. Sure provides a bit of humor to the start of your day.

Speaking of the start of the day.

One more Mule Song just for you. This one ended up being a chorus at the very end. Wait for it. It’s worth it.

To Be Continued………….   

  

Heron Lake Camping Trip

 

Our exploration of Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch were only a side dish to the main course of Heron Lake.

We were to meet up with the twinlings’ Boy Scout Troop on Friday afternoon and spend the weekend camping, hiking, swimming, canoeing, and kayaking.

I got lost up near Tierra Amarilla, which is very unlike me, but it’s totally my fault because, while I did glance at the State Park map online, I never once looked at a road map, even though I do have several maps of New Mexico that I keep in my van. The confusion occurred because there are two state parks, El Vado Lake and Heron Lake, in close proximity to one another. In fact there is a 5-mile hiking trail that travels between the two of them, alongside the Chama River. (Which we did a little hiking on, to find a letterbox, during our trip)

In addition, from several points on the road to El Vado Lake, you can even see Heron Lake in the valley below. On the State Park map it looked like the two state parks were along the same road. But in reality they were located on totally different roads.

(A photo of El Vado Lake taken from the Rio Chama Trail)

Looking back I did think it was weird that the first road we drove down only showed signs for El Vado Lake. But we drove the 11 miles all the way down to El Vado Lake and entered the campground anyway. 

I think someone should have placed a sign for Heron Lake, at the turn-off for El Vado Lake, that had an arrow pointing to the next turn-off, so folks would know to go just a mile farther for the turn-off for the road to Heron Lake.

But it worked out in the end and something funny happened along the way, and something amazing, too. We decided to stop by the first campsite we saw with people, and ask if they knew how to get to Heron Lake, and (in my best Gomer Pyle voice) “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!”, it was some friends of my twinling Jax. Actually, it was the family of one of his Ft. Lone Tree Campers that he took care of when he was a counselor a couple weeks ago. So, we had some fun chatting for a few minutes and were made to promise we’d stop by on our way back home on Sunday.

And the cherry on top was while we were driving out of the park, several beautiful Elk crossed the road right in front of us, les than 20 feet away. One of them stopped right in the middle of road and stared at us, but I was too mesmerized to grab my camera for a photo. By the time it registered to find my camera, the Elk had already leapt up the hillside and were in the tree cover. Bummer!

(Relaxing by the lake with my Dobbie Girl)

We discovered that the road to El Vado was twice as long as the road to Heron Lake, and it was more desolate, wild and western, with loads of sage and tumbleweeds, but not much green. The road to Heron Lake was less than 5 miles long and was a joy to drive down, with picturesque farms and fields of green filled with beautiful horses, lining both sides. At one point along the way, we were treated with another surprise when a Doe and her twin fawns came bounding across the road about 50 feet in front of us. I did remember my camera this time, but the little family were moving very quickly across the horse pasture and by the time I could get my camera focused they were already on the opposite side of the field. In retrospect,I should have photographed the herd of horses that all lifted their heads and perked their ears forward, to watch the deer bounding across their pasture. They were pretty funny.

  

We did find it interesting that where we were was so close to Chama(only 12 miles), as well as Southern Colorado(about 30 miles), which are two more places we want to do more letterboxing and exploring…….Another time. sigh.

 

So, even with our letterboxing and exploring in Abiquiu, stopping off to visit Echo Amphitheater (more on that in another post) and getting a little side-tracked at El Vado Lake, we still managed to make it to Heron Lake with plenty of time to pitch our tent, cook some dinner and enjoy a gorgeous sunset.

Of course, I took a few more than just one photo. hehe.

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And I woke up early in the morning, before the sun had risen, and before all the Boy Scouts had opened their eyes, and Dobbie Girl and I went for a walk alongside the lake. We had been told the night before that a mountain lion had been spotted in the campground the previous evening and had killed a deer, so I was on alert for the big cat, as well as any signs of wildlife. And I did find a meandering trail of mountain lion paw prints (Huge! Bigger ‘round than my hand with fingers fully extended), along with deer and Elk hoofprints, and some other small mammal pawprints, but otherwise our walk was pretty uneventful. We walked for the better part of an hour and watched sailboats and partyboats slipping into the lake while the sun rose above the cliffs. It was very relaxing and a great way to start the day.

After breakfast, the Boy Scouts had a Service Project to work on and they all loaded into several cars to work on spreading gravel in several campsites in another section of the park. Besides being a good example, doing Service Projects provides certain perks for the Troop, such as complimentary camping, so the boys are always eager to help out.

(One of our Scout Leader’s tents reminded me of our recent visit to Roswell to see the Aliens. A sort of combination spaceship/teepee design. I like it.)

While they were working, Jen and I hung out beside the lake, her playing in the water and me photographing whatever caught my eye.

(This is our tent….not as exciting as the Alien Spaceship design, but easy to pitch with the built-in poles. Takes less than 3 minutes and I can do it by myself. It’s also roomy enough for 4 adults…..5 if you don’t mind being packed in like sardines…..6 if you like to spoon one another)

For a short time on Saturday morning, the conditions were perfect for some cloud reflections and I was thrilled to be able to catch some images with camera.

The water was smooth, calm and mirror-like, and the clouds were low and perfectly shaped.

The rest of the weekend, the water was choppy or blurry and the sky perfectly clear or the clouds were thready and wispy. Photography is all about being in the right place at the right time and being prepared to shoot.

 

I did play in the water a little bit, too. The water was the perfect temperature and very shallow and clear. And the smooth, flat shale rock, lining the shore were perfect for teaching Jen how to skip stones. We had a few of them skipping 4 and 5 times.  

Dobbie says, “Every dog should get the opportunity to play in a lake”

Remember that Dobbie spent the first two years of her life inside a cage, in a Puppy Mill. All outdoor experiences are new for her. What surprises me most about my dog, is how she takes everything in stride and is always willing to go someplace different and try new things. This was the first time that Dobbie has ever willingly waded into a body of water, so I was very excited and proud of her.

Dobbie says, “Swimming in fun!…And so is the drying-off part, too!”

~~~~~~~~~~

There was also mud bathing, too.

People pay a lot of money for mud treatments.

Jen slathered it on for free.

~~~~~~~~~~

After the boys got back from their Service Project, we all had lunch and then some of the boys loaded up and rode over to the Dam to do some High Diving (from 20-40 feet, depending upon the rock platform they dove from) off the cliffs beside the Dam, while some stayed back at the campsite to go kayaking. Jem was one of those who wanted to High Dive, while Jax and another Scout wanted to kayak.

So, since Jen and Dobbie and I were hanging out at the beach, the photos I have are of Jax, though I wish I could have seen Jem High Diving. He said it was a rush!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile Jax was having a blast kayaking and was out there for several hours, skimming across the lake to a little island in the middle.

 

(That island was about a mile away from the shore and my zoom struggled to focus. Two other Boy Scouts are pulling up their kayak on the left. Jax is on the far right, I think, putting his life vest and oar in the kayak, so the 4 boys could go explore the island)

 

Rowing back to shore.

Up Next: The Day Wasn’t Over……