Soooo, the three of us, Suzie, Vickie and I , were supposed to go to Catalina State Park yesterday. IT is about 1 1/2 hours drive. I picked up Vickie at 8:00, and we were to meet Suzie at another location at 8:15. All is well. We meet Suzie and start our "mini-caravan" towards Tucson. About 1/2 mile in Suzie realizes that she forgot her trailer keys. So, we wait for her to go back and get them at a Wal-MArt parking lot. She gets back, and we start off again. Again, Suzie pulls over. Her friend who lives close to where we were headed, calls to say, it is POURING rain with mixed snow and sleet. We were prepared for a little rain. Snow and sleet?? You're joking, right? We decide to try this ride again next week. We observe that it is sunny and nice here in the valley, so, we decide to detour, and head up to the Salt River to ride. Santana had never seen water, this would be good for him. Now I am leading the caravan, as I know the way. I decided to try a new area that I had heard about but never ridden called "Coon's Bluff." I knew there were trails that went to the river, but that was about all I knew. We saddled up and took off. I marked the trailer on my GPS and was careful to pay attention to my GPS as none of knew where we were going, or, possibly, how to get back! There were many cattle and wild horse trails in this area. WE tried to follow them, but, this was a really thick treee area with lots of low prickly, thorny branches. I could barely get by on Punkalicious, and he is only 14.1H. Suzie's Tommy is 17H. Get the picture?? So, off we went, bushwhacking our way through, trying to find a real trail to the river. We never did find that trail. Vicky's horse Dakota stepped on a rein and broke it. But, me with my trusty fishing vest, I had cable ties (zip ties) in a pocket and we made a great repair in about 5 seconds! We forged our way through, and eventually, we found the river. Getting down to it was another adventure. Keep in mind EVERYTHING in this desert has nasty thorns and prickers, and you cant just push through the thick vegitation. Eventually, we fpound a way into the water. We had to get off and lead them down as the branches were just too low to try and ride through. Santana walked carefully overt hte slick, moss covered river rock into the water. He put his head down and drank. And Drank. And drank. That water must have tasted really good, like Kool-Aid, or something, because it wasn't hot out, he hadn't worked very hard on this ride, and yet he LOVED that water. Aftr a few minutes, I decided to mount up and see if he would walk around with me on his back in the river. Of course he did, just fine too, I might add. He was a little concerned that he couldn't see where he was putting his feet, and that where he was putting his feet was on big, round, slick rocks, not good footing. So he was careful, but not scared. He never tripped or took one mis-step. I was a very proud momma. After playing in the water for a few minutes, we headed back to the trailer.
Once at the trailer, we tied up the horses and had ourselves a little snack. WE had various junk food (which is allowed as free calories after any bushwhacking expedition) and a ham and cheese roll with sesame crackers. While munching, Tommy alerts us to danger. Sure enough, a band of wild horses was moving through, on their way on doubt, to the water. We were able to get some amazing pictures. I have some posted here, enjoy!
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