Well...Noah & I headed up for a few days of camping, horseback riding & quad-runner riding in the Big Horn Mountains with our friends Absaroka Sam and his wife, Woman Who Can't Keep Track of Her Horses. We mounted up the expedition and headed out at about 7 p.m. Tuesday evening. The plan was to drive to Ten Sleep & then up the mountain to either Deer Haven or Meadowlark campgrounds. As we got closer to Ten Sleep, it grew smokier and smokier. I checked my Droid for wild fire news & discovered there was a huge blaze going down by Casper, but the smoke just didn't seem to be coming from the right direction. When we were stopped by a flagman for some road work, we found out from him that there were two fires burning south of Ten Sleep. Undaunted, we decided to push on. As we drove up the mountain, the smoke just kept getting worse. We finally turned in at Lost Cabin Campground around 11 p.m. with the thought of waiting till morning to see what was up.
When we got up, it was still pretty bad, so we decided to try finding a campground down the other side of the mountain towards Buffalo. We ended up at Hunter campground, and it turned out to be the best choice we could have made. The camp was beautiful with great horse facilities, lots of quad runner trails, and wonderful camp hosts. They even had a leash-free dog policy, so all the dogs could wander around at will, visiting and enjoying the facilities along with everyone else.
By the time we got camp set up, it was about noon. Noah & Woman Who Can't Keep Track of Her Horses saddled up for a ride while Absaroka Sam and I headed out for a quad runner ride with Lucy. The scenery was beautiful, but the trails were a bit rocky (to say the least).
Here I am with my riding buddy, Lucy, posing by a mountain lake we passed on our ride:
Most of the trails we rode were pretty rocky. Here's what most of them were like. It was a good work-out for the old arms & a lot of bouncing up and down on the seat--a little rough on the derriere!
At the end of this particular trail, we came to a beautiful mountain stream. Lucy was a hot & thirsty dog, so she got herself a big drink:
And we sat and relaxed for awhile by the stream. We had a beautiful view:
The next day, Noah & Woman Who Can't Keep Track of Her Horses went for a marathon 8-hour trail ride to Seven Brothers Lake. Here is the one & only photo that Noah took...as I've said before, he isn't much of a photograhers, so I should be happy for what I get!
While they were doing that, Absaroka Sam & I went on a wild 6-hour bike ride over the rockiest quad runner trail I've even been on in my life. But it was FUN! We drove through forests, across rivers, and over some big old logs that had fallen across the trail. We also tried various contraptions to keep Lucy from falling off the bike while we were crawling over the rocks & logs. Here's one we made out of a horse halter & a dog leash. (BTW, it didn't work very well!)
The next day, Noah & I went out for some quad riding together while Absaroka Sam & Woman Who Can't Keep Track of Her Horses went horseback riding together.
Here I am posing on the trail:
And here's Noah whizzing along the trail in front of me:
The trail we took this day was the smoothest I'd ridden all week. We were able to make it quite a ways back to where there were all these weird piles of rock scattered around. I stopped to climb one. The view from on top was pretty awesome!
While I was up top, Noah was doing a little scouting of his own:
We spent our evenings socializing, hanging out in camp, and playing a little guitar music. Here's Lucy & Noah:
(Noah was a little worn out from his 8-hour trail ride!)
And here's Absaroka Sam serenading us (while I listen):
All in all, it was a most wonderful week. We loved Hunter Camp & plan on returning again as soon as we can. If you're ever in the neighborhood, I'd highly recommend the spot myself. The Big Horns are absolutely gorgeous (and mostly grizzly bear- and wolf-free, too!)
Noah & I are off to Oregon, LA & Hawaii this week. We won't be back until early August. Hope you enjoyed this post...check in again after our next jaunt & I'll have lots more news for you all then. Until then, have a great summer.
Sincerely,
Sock Monkey (for Buckskin Lily)
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