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| Pacific Crest Trail Ride August 28 - September 6, 2004 |
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| Out first step in preparing for a long ride along the PCT was to do a test ride, to work out the bugs of our packing system. We rode out to some timberland near our barn and camped overnight, then rode back a different way the next morning. After this, we decided on some new things to try and got ready for the big ride. We kept a journal of our ride and things that happened along the way, some of which we will put on this site, but for now it is packed in storage and will be awhile before we get it out. The journal has our miles in it, and the specific places we stopped at, so that will have to be filled in later on, for now I left it blank. |
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| Day 1: Saturday August 28, My dad took us up to HooDoo area along Highway 20 and dropped off at a little trailhead rest area on Santiam Pass Saturday evening August 28. We camped out here for the night, and funny enough my dad almost did too. He was on his way out of town to Montana the next day, so was trying to keep this drop off short and sweet, well, it didn't really work out that way. We had attended a rabbit show earlier that day, a good day of showing, and he came to meet us at the show. We finally got up the mountain pretty late, and by the time we were done unloading all of our equipment, the horses, and the dog from the truck we pretty much had killed the battery. After waiting for quite some time for a tow guy to show up, we finally decided to try it again and it started right up. Then of course the guy showed up.. but anyway, dad was on his way, and we were setting up to camp for the night. It was a pretty quiet night. | |||||||||||||||||
| Day 2: Sunday August 29, We woke up and got packed to go. The horses, dog, and us were fresh and full of energy. We were surprised to see several groups of hikers along the way starting at the parking area and continuing all day along the trail. We had expected to be out in the middle of nowhere, which usually seems to mean no people. We stopped here and there for pictures, watering the animals, lunch, and breaks. Our first big 'adventure' was a knife edge switchback trail on the back side of Three Fingered Jack. Well it wasn't that it really is a scary place, but seeing as how most of our riding has always been in the coast range, logging roads, the beach, and some of the forested hills along the valley in Oregon, it was a bit intimidating at first. Needless to say, all water bottles, cameras, and everything we may have had out got put away, so we could white knuckle it down this scary looking spot. So all the pictures we have of the trip were of everything except the steep spots where we needed to put away the distractions. As it was, we went down the switchback with the horses heads cocked to the side watching the shale rolling down to the bottom of the mountain and wishing that this part would hurry and be over. Well, we weren't that lucky. We got down to the last switchback where the trail went along the hill for a ways, but was still straight up and down on either side with loose shale rock, and there happened to be a trail working crew. A bunch of college people our age, from all over the US were there on a volunteer program to improve the trails. We stopped and talked with them for a bit, which was fine as long as the horses were standing still. They had all stopped to have lunch under a tree that was about 20 feet down from the trail. They tossed a stick for Tanzi a few times, but when she had trouble getting along the wall of a slope, they stopped. We continued on after awhile, enjoying some really beautiful scenery and loving the fact that we were out in such a nice place far away from regular life. We ended the day about an hour before dark, camping in a little meadow with a puddle of a little lake to water the horses at, just past Rock Pile Lake. It cooled off quick and shortly after getting the horses set up for the night we crawled into the tent. Tanzi ended up coming in too about halfway through the night when it got too cold for her outside and I felt her shaking, she was using a blanket to sleep on, which we brought in, and she warmed up some. We were quite surprised to find that a night in the middle of the mountains didn't sound free of city noises either, it seemed as though we were under an airport, with planes flying over at all hours. After a not so restful night worrying that every noise was our horses possibly stranding us out in the middle of the mountains, we were ready for another day. We had ridden about __ miles for the day. | |||||||||||||||||
| Day 3: Monday August 30, from our campsite to | |||||||||||||||||
| Day 4: Tuesday August 31, from camp to Ollalie Lake gaurd station and horse camp | |||||||||||||||||
| Day 5: Wednesday September 1, was supposed to be our day off, but we started out at noon to Graham Horse Camp | |||||||||||||||||
| Day 6: Thursday September 2, from Graham horse camp to ______ | |||||||||||||||||
| Day 7: Friday September 3, ____ to Riley Horse Camp | |||||||||||||||||
| Day 8: Saturday September 4, take a break day, hung out in camp, drove into town | |||||||||||||||||
| Day 9: Sunday September 5, Took a short ride up to Zig Zag Falls | |||||||||||||||||
| PCT Home DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5 DAY 6 DAY 7 DAY 8 DAY 9 THE HORSES SECRET MACOLA HORSE SALE BREYERS FURRY FRIENDS RABBITRY |
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| Last updated August 22, 2007 | |||||||||||||||||
| Updates and finishing coming SOON!! UNDER CONSTRUCTION | |||||||||||||||||