In which the Renegade Rendezvous was lots of work and lots of fun
This year we spent NINE DAYS in camp...which is the highlight of my whole year so far.
Let me share some typical camp activities with you.
I'm usually the first person awake in camp, mostly because I don't like to talk in the mornings before I've had a cup of tea and spent an hour or two feeding and walking the animals or reading my book. It always amazes me that I, who resist waking before 8am at home, am usually up and dressed by 6:30am in camp.
I feed the horses, then feed and walk the dogs. There's a lovely meadow trail that the dogs like to explore every morning, tracking down the overnight comings-and-goings of various rodents and forest creatures.
Luna always stays close to me, but Mimsy will wander far ahead with her nose full of snufflings and snorkings.Maddy doesn't usually emerge from her pupal stage without a lot of poking and threats of cold water and tickling. When Jill got to camp later in the week, I would wake her up and let her do the poking and threatening for me.
Breakfast is often communal, a good opportunity for ride manager Gail to tell us all about the tasks that need to be done during the day. We use the time between bites of french toast or breakfast burritos to figure out how we will divide up to get everything accomplished.
The camper overhang is a convenient assembling place on rainy mornings. On other mornings, we gather around tables in the sunshine to get directions from Gail about the trails we need to fix.
I've learned over the years that it's best to take notes when Gail describes a trail using hand gestures. She envisions the entire route in her head, because she has spent nearly 20 years on these trails. For people like me, who only visit here once or twice a year, trying to find "the big pine tree surrounded by the little pine tree on the right side of the trail" is made easier by taking down lots of detailed directions.
It's not an exact system, but it works pretty well for us.
Assembling trail ribbons is a never-ending task. This year our trail marking was not only hampered by elk who like to eat the ribbons (weird, I know--plastic???)
but also by people in Jeeps who repeatedly tore down the ribbons and scratched out the chalk marks. That's just plain mean. Most years the Jeepers are pretty nice people, but not this year. The forest ranger told me that they'd been having problems with them all season, and she didn't know what had changed.
Ryan didn't know I was recording it at the time, tee hee. Um, maybe don't listen to this one at work. It's not exactly inappropriate...but, well, you know.
I guess you'd call me a day tripper (or a wienie). How do you call for room service?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pix, Aarene.
It's sure nice when you've got to work hard that it's in such a beautiful place, with such good company!
ReplyDeletePoor Ryan! Must be a tough job hoisting up inexperienced horse-riding Cougars all day....by their butt cheeks no less. haha!
ReplyDeleteGreat pics! The horses covered in ribbons look so festive, like they're ready for a parade.
Looks like hard work, but lo0ts of fun, too. Very satisfying!
I'm considering getting involved with my local chapter of Back Country Horsemen this year. They do a lot of those trail maintenance working camp-outs.
~Lisa