My Friday Report

It's Friday, a week to the day after Char, Lyn, and I loaded Tia and Delight into Lyn's trailer and headed out for Cascade. Actually, by this time last week we were already setting up camp in a beautiful green meadow surrounded by the evergreen trees of East Mountain, adjacent to a sweet little brook! The week since has flown by.

Ride camp was already buzzing with energy upon our arrival, and we were happy to add our enthusiasm to the event. We'd heard from one of the organizers that out-of-towners would doubtless arrive by mid-week but the three of us were surprised at just how many campers, horse trailers, portable corrals, horses, and people we passed as we kept a lookout for a good spot for ourselves. Tom Noll had suggested we camp as far away from the in/out area and vet checks as possible, to protect our horses from the hubbub. More importantly, we needed one good tree from which to attach our highline. We found the requisite tree, sufficiently off the beaten track, and wasted no time figuring out where to position trailer, trucks, tents, etc. for the best effect. Char has already posted some pics of our camp...it turned out pretty well, considering this was our first adventure camping with horses. Tia and Delight settled right in to their weekend abode, enjoying the knee deep grass in which we'd parked them. (There was none left by the time we left on Sunday evening!) We hauled a large water tub over and parked it squarely between them. Hay bags went up on the line, and the girls were set.

Setting up our own camp gear took longer. In fact, everything else throughout the day seemed to take forever! We got a shade shelter up behind the trailer and pulled out some camp chairs. Nice! Tilly the Tent Trailer wasn't as cooperative. I had carefully written out setup instructions which turned out not to be as careful as I'd imagined, and I struggled off and on for quite some time to get the darned thing open and up. My first casualty was a nasty little open blood blister on one finger. It bled like a stuck pig for afew minutes. Next came a serious knock on the head from one of the tent supports that unkindly and unexpectedly bounced back at me. It hurt so bad I had to just stop and put my head down for afew minutes. The ensuing headache lasted through the weekend and I still have a tender spot on my right temple. Seems like there was something else, but I can't remember what. Must have lost a few neurons and short term memory in my collision! Lyn and Char helped a bit by holding some of the supports up while I wrangled with the tent itself. No wonder we gave Tilly away! What a monster! I hope David and the boys appreciate my labor on their behalf....

Char and Lyn eventually drove into Cascade to meet Katy and I stayed put to mind camp and the horses. Did some more organizing and eventually took the girls for a walk...they needed to move and I wanted to see the rest of camp. Turns out there were several pods of campers spread out through the valley, mostly to the east of a brook that had to be forded. Camp headquarters, vetting areas, start/finish, some retailers, and a pod of campers occupied the west side.

It was late afternoon when my comrades returned, sans Katy, at which time Char and I walked our horses over for check-in and pre-ride vet checks. Tia and Delight both passed with flying colors--A's on all measures! Not a bad way to start the weekend! The Friday night dinner was catered by Qdoba and was yummy. Ride meeting was informative and we got our morning instructions. It seems that bed time came too late, as we tried to get our gear ready for an early Saturday morning wake-up call. Meanwhile, Katy arrived from Stanley.

Char and Katy had no sooner hit the sack in their large tent and Lyn and I bunked down in Tilly when the wind picked up and a few threatening clouds began rumbling at us. At the first sound of raindrops tapping on Tilly, I jumped out of my sleeping bag, out of Tilly, and began throwing some of my morning gear into the back of the open horse trailer. In the process, in the dark, I missed my step up into the trailer and succeeded instead to smash a toe into the back of the trailer. Oh yeah, that was the third thing! Another moment to drop everything, put my head down, curse under my breath, and try not to make too much noise groaning from the pain. Back to bed in time for the wind to start in on Char's tent. The long and short of that was Lyn ending up in the back of her pickup truck, Char and Katy in Tilly with me, and Char's tent balled up and thrown into the back of the trailer. We were all definitely exhausted by then. By 5:30 Lyn was out heating water for coffee! Short, eventful night. I just hoped our Saturday morning ride would go smoothly!