I'm Dreaming of Summer Vacation!

In the dead of winter (okay, so officially it's the last day of fall), I start thinking about where I want to ride next year. Oh, we’ll hit all our local haunts and hopefully a few new ones within an easy drive. But I keep reminding myself we only have two more summers before McCain flies the coop. Can I twist his arm into doing one more “big trip” with the horses this coming summer? He has mentioned how much he loved riding in the Black Hills and I would love to go back there. More importantly, can the truck take that trip again?

On days like this, I open up the picture files and remember that trip. (The good stuff, not the truck breaking down stuff...) I’d love to be like Samantha on Bewitched. Wiggle my nose and be back there again…. On our good horses, with our sons and our friends. All of us in awe as our horses took us places we would never have gone otherwise. Most noteably, Harney Peak.

Soaking up the views on the way to Harney Peak.

Getting Closer...

Stopping for a short rest.

And we continue on...

Finally there!

And what goes up, must come down.

Watering Windy along the way.

These pictures bring back memories. Yeah, we had challenges that trip, but they were all mechanical. The rides themselves were good. Great memories! The skies were blue, the weather was mild and our horses didn't let us down. To hell with Disney World, I'd go back to South Dakota in a heartbeat. Or maybe Colorado.... or Wyoming....

Day 6

Awoke to hail beating against the trailer about 2:20 AM! The picnic table was covered with hail; almost looked like snow cover. Saw Rich out trying to get the hail off his awning. And thought of the horses in their outdoor stalls being pelted by marble sized hail. What did we get them into?

The sun was shining brightly when we got up. The hail from the awning still on the ground as we made a traditional breakfast of bacon and eggs. Started to tear down camp hoping that the truck part would be in by noon and we would be on our way by late afternoon. John noticed the trailer had a flat tire – what else could go wrong? Rich and Cheryl of Deerfield Lake Resort were kind enough to allow us to stay until we got the final truck prognosis.

John morning quest was to put epoxy on Windy’s shoe to where the hoof had chipped to help secure the shoe and reset Butter’s. He started by pulling them out of the wet corral and tying them to the hitching post and drying them off. John is becoming quite good at this farrier stuff. Both the horses were reshod and ready to go.

Ginger wasn’t herself this morning; she wasn’t eating her hay and just generally seemed a little (for lack of better word) “pissed off”. I think she was tired of being cold and wet every night and the hail was the final straw. Cheryl told me to let her graze over by their shed, so I brought her out and she quickly cleaned up the area. It put her back in a better state of mind, I think.



Kathy, Rich and I saddled up and headed for Hat Mountain. We were told this is the second highest peak to Harney! It was a gorgeous ride up through the pine and aspen trees. Also a lot of the area has been logged. The horses slowly climbed the 6800 feet to Hat Mountain. The sky was bluer than blue – the clouds made for awesome pictures.





When we reached the top, we took our obligatory pictures and took in the view from all directions. Paradise.


Upon return to camp, John was back, no part to be had. Load up and head out on a wing and a prayer. We departed Deerfield Lake Resort and started our climb up the first hill at 12 mph in 4WD low. And we made it. At one point, John told the kids to settle down; be quiet because we just “never know when the truck will blow!” Case was very quiet for a long while & then at one point told me he said a decade of the rosary. I asked why and he said he was scared of the truck exploding! He too the “blow” literally! Poor guy!

After driving for quite a while in yet another major thunderstorm, we arrived safe and sound at Ft. Robinson at about 10:30 PM MT on Thursday, June 20. Ginger proudly walked into Barn 106 and was bedded down in her stall that guaranteed her no rain, no hail and no cold. I could almost sense her satisfaction.

Day 5

After I wrote yesterday’s blog, John and the kids returned from fishing. When Case opened the trailer door, he got zapped with electricity! I thought he was exaggerating and just perhaps pinched himself, but shortly thereafter, McCain turned on the tack room light from the outside of the trailer and got zapped, too! What the heck!? To get us through the very cold night, we switched the lights to battery and plugged the space heater directly into the electrical site. Add trailer wiring to our list of woes.

We awoke to rain and hail beating on the trailer. Hoping the afternoon would clear up, we went into Hill City to take Hi-Ho to the repair shop, ate breakfast in town and picked up hay. A part needs to be ordered, so we brought it back. By noon, the sun had come up and we saddled and headed over to Deerfield Lake.

Today was by far the warmest day; probably in the low eighties. All the extra jackets and raingear stayed tied to our saddles. Windy’s repaired rear shoe held up for the entire ride even though this would have been one ride that we could probably have done barefoot for the most part. Unfortunately, right before the end of the ride, Butter lost a front shoe. We were making a climb, and we assume she overreached and pulled it off. We found the shoe as soon as it happened. Dog gone it!

As I mentioned the trails was pretty moderate terrain wise. The horses settled in nicely for what was to be a twelve-mile ride. Ginger had her uppity moments. I wish she and John could find a way to come to terms with those times. Both are pretty bull headed! We rode in some forest area and then along the lake for some magnificent views. The sky was an awesome blue with plenty of clouds.



We stopped high upon a peak to break for snack. There were boats below us that kept the horses’ attention. I think I got some really cool pictures of my herd looking toward the lake, head and ears held high. At one time, Windy saw a herd of cattle. She watched them for a while and then started trotting in their direction. I quickly caught Blue and Butter so she wouldn’t have “partners in crime”. When she realized she was on her own, she came trotting back up the hill.

We rode hills high above the lake and then down in the fields surrounding with plenty of water crossings. The pine trees provided a beautiful backdrop for the trail. We saw a lone elk eating in the sunshine. She noticed us, but was undisturbed.

One area of the trail was closed due to nesting season for eagles. We had to detour around. Took a picture of what I thought was an eagle in flight, but still not sure. We’re told they are plentiful in this area.


Rode back in after five hours. Horses still had plenty of energy to move quickly that last stretch into the campground. The owners of the campsite met us at the stable area, anxious to hear how our ride went. Once again, Blue garnered the most attention. Sheryl said we could most definitely leave him with her! He is a good boy and was a perfect partner for McCain today.

Groomed the horses & put them back in their stalls with hay and water. Returned to the trailer for Colorado Pork chops which were cooking in the crock-pot all day (hooked directly to the electrical post!)

Tomorrow we take the truck back to the shop for the part. Hoping to get a few hours ride while repairs are being done. Guess I’ll earn more Cabela’s points on the Cabela’s card as no doubt repairs won’t come cheap! Will probably be at Ft. Rob in late afternoon at best.

Day 4

The good, the bad and the ugly….

A mixed day. After eight hours on the trail yesterday, we were looking forward to a shorter ride to Mt. Rushmore today. To make a long story short, we had only planned to ride TO Mt. Rushmore, have one of our trucks waiting for us in the overflow parking lot & then head out to our next destination, Deerfield Lake. However, we found out the parking lot we planned to park in was closed, so we would have another 8-hour day. We decided to load up early and head to Deerfield to ride.

The good. Woke up to a gorgeous, sunny day. Warm temps, no humidity. Fed horses and then tore down camp. Drove over to “the heads”; took pictures where we have taken them the two times we have visited before. It will be fun to see how the kids have grown since the last time we were here.

The bad. As we were loading up horses, noticed Windy was losing a rear shoe. (Have I mentioned how much I hate shoeing horses?) Decided there were enough nails in it to hold until we get to the next camp. Headed out for our 30-minute drive.

The ugly. As we left Hill City, we started to climb some monster hills. The Hi-Ho’s temp gauge started creeping up, but would return to normal on the decent. The last hill – 2 miles from our destination – seemed to take forever. The temperature gauge hit an all-time high with smoke coming out of the hood. We could only pull over. Kathy & Rich said they would go unhook and come back for us. But there was no way we could unhook the trailer on the incline that we were on. I was ready to saddle Blue, Ginger & Butter and ride them in; figured with less weight, we had a better chance of getting in. John added water and the temps started to drop. Decided to try to make the top without overheating & if we did, we were home free. We were. Coasted into camp at about 1:00, not sure if we will ever be able to leave!

Settled the horses in and had lunch. Kathy, Rich, McCain and I decided to explore the area while John worked on the truck and Windy’s shoe. What a sport that husband of mine is! I held Windy while John did a repair job on her shoe. Then saddled Butter and McCain took Blue and we headed out to the trails around Deerfield Lake. Beautiful trails, lots of pine trees. The trails weren’t well marked; never did find the one we were looking for, but found another one and we weren’t picky. Very easy riding and you could ride a barefoot horse here pretty easy. The owner said there are elk, deer and mountain lion (oh, my!) in the region. The only wildlife we saw was whitetail deer. Kathy steered me around a snake, thank heavens! There was a running creek along the trail; the sound of nature at its best.

Butter was pretty full of herself! Surprised she had any energy at all after an eight-hour ride yesterday! Such a different ride than Windy and she definitely made me work for it.

About an hour out, the sky started to turn dark and there was thunder in the distance. A few raindrops started coming down and we decided we had better head back. The rain started coming a little steadier, so we moved into a trot and Kathy and Rich into a fox trot behind us. Before long, we were on a nice surfaced lake road and moved into a fast-extended trot, which Kathy told me later, they had to canter occasionally to keep up. McCain and I quickly opened and closed the three gates we had come through. At the last gate, Kathy and Rich told us to ride on ahead and they would catch up, so we kept our trot going all the way into camp. I really don’t think I have ever trotted that long, but it felt good. Butter has a trot you can sit no matter what speed. I noticed McCain was trying to post with Blue. Wasn’t doing a bad job at it, but did say he had a side ache. Would have liked to have moved into a lope, but wasn’t sure how far we had to go and knew they could keep pace at a trot. Rich’s GPS said we did over 5 miles, so we figured we trotted close to two of those 5.

Blue is getting a lot of attention this trip. Many people have commented about the “big black horse” and surprised to find he is 100% quarter horse! I love watching McCain and Blue, together again! What a team. I can’t believe I almost didn’t bring Blue. Of all of our horses, he is just made for stuff like this!

Made it back to our trailer and sat under the awning as it rained and then spit out pea sized hail. There seems to be a theme here. But as I sit here now, the sky couldn’t be bluer. The boys and John are fishing in Deerfield Lake and I am enjoying the peace and quiet of the vacation.

I am still in a sweatshirt and coat. I wish I had brought more sweatshirts. I am trying to remember if we were here in June or July last time. I’m thinking late June and it wasn’t this chilly. I’m not complaining… prefer these cooler temps to heat and humidity!

Tomorrow, we are planning a longer ride around the lake. There are about 75 miles of trail, so we can eat on the ride. If Windy’s shoe doesn’t hold, we will pull off the backs and call it good. I can take the milder trails at Ft. Rob or ride Blue if I need to.

The campground here, Deerfield Lake Resort, is nice. Small grassy campsites with full hookups. Once again, I am surprised we are using them for heat instead of A/C! This place is privately owned and small; the wife is a horse person. There are only 2 other horse people camping. the rest are RV or tent campers here for a family reunion. The owner was very helpful, working with John on the truck repairs and letting him use his garage.

Prognosis of Hi-Ho? Who knows. We have an appointment at a repair shop in the morning. John is hopeful that minor repairs will get us out of South Dakota. Once we hit the flatlands, he is sure we can make it home. Hi-Ho is only used for recreational purposes – pulling a trailer. He has to do his job and I can’t afford a replacement recreational vehicle. So another tank of gas & back on the road again! (Name that song!).

Day 3

Alls well that ends well.

At this moment, I am in my flannel pants and sweatshirt sitting in the trailer instead of around the campfire. Its 10:00 PM and darn chilly outside yet! The kids just came back from running around with the other RV park kids and have reluctantly settled in for the night.

The rains let up after about a ½ hour. Our horses were chilled; visibly shaking. We didn’t bring stable blankets and wouldn’t have had any water proof ones anyway. We took our sweat scrapers and got the water off them. Hand grazed them while the sun started to come out. I was sure glad I had the fleece riding breeches I had packed on impulse!


We saddled up about 2 hours later than planned, but nothing that would set us back for the day. A group from Iowa was also saddling. Probably close to a dozen or more horses at this stable area. One of the KOA employees came down with a skid loader to work on cleaning the manure dump. Truly, I didn’t even notice he was there; kind of immune to the noise of a loader as we use one. As John & I were walking Windy & Ginger back to the pens after saddling, so we could fetch Blue & Butter, that skid loader started banging the bucket on the top of a huge roll-off. Ginger spun to see what was above her. Windy literally started bucking on the lead! The first thing that crossed my mind was she was bucking at the rear cinch; took a moment to realize it was that skid loader bucket. The poor KOA guy had a dozen horse people yelling at him to “shut it down, shut it down”. Seemed like all of our horses had quite a moment over that!


Today’s destination was Harney Peak. The maps were kind of confusing; one said 8.8 miles while another one said 6 miles. So it was anyone’s guess. I set my GPS so I could watch the mileage & elevation. The terrain was rough; very rocky and a lot of places the horses literally had to step up. The horses (and kids) handled it very well. I was in awe of the beauty. The smells. The lack of litter. Either people truly respect this land or the Forest Service has a heck of a maintenance budget!


Our first stop was in some rock formations like none we had ever seen. You walked thru a tunnel into a little cove area. The horses stood quietly and rested as we explored this little canyon; took a lot of pictures. We figured we were probably 1/3 of the way to Harney.

The trail took us along the outer side of the mountain with views to die for! A few times the kids would dismount and go look “over the edge”. The horses welcomed these breaks from the climbs. The trails were well designed with plenty of switchbacks to lessen the severity of the climb, but it was work none-the-less. We didn’t push them; took plenty of breaks and rested when needed.


About 4 hours later and 5.3 miles traveled, we arrived at Harney Peak. They provide tie-offs for the horses & then our walk to the top begins! Made me appreciate the work the horses did to get us to this point. The views from the top were incredible; “breathtaking” is cliché, but fitting. We had our lunch while there; gave the horses about a 45-minute break & then started our descent down a different trail. It was longer, but considered “moderate” on the map compared to the “difficult” one we just got off of. At first there were some very steep stair steps the horses had to jump down with both feet. My stomach was a little nervous on the first few and then Windy found her rhythm and we made it down without incident. Where the first trail was rocky and steep, this one followed a creek; the switchbacks were a lot of rock slabs, but also some less rocky trails as well.


About 5 miles into the return trip, Windy was getting irritable with the rest of the herd. We had fallen in 4th for most of the ride; sometimes bringing up the rear. Very respectful in her place. But now, my little mare was getting cranky. A couple times I caught her trying to bite Butter’s tail or giving “the look” to whatever horse was behind us. We moved out into the front & she quickly picked up a 3.8 mph pace. I think she was just tired of being in the group & wanted to stretch a bit. I could relate; my mother hat was slipping in about the 6th hour, too.

We made it back to camp just as the string horses were being returned to pasture, so we got to follow the herd. The GPS showed 7.7 miles return trip. We’d been on the trail for 8 hours.

Never once did I take off my jacket. And under it I had a sweatshirt and t-shirt on. Many times I put on my riding gloves and ear band. John was cussing that he didn’t bring his “Elmer Fudd” wool cap. But you know, I would rather have the temps as they were today than hot and humid. It was a lot easier on the horses and on us.

Ginger had a superficial cut on the pastern & Blue had a gall sore under his front leg. It wasn’t under the cinch but where his leg made contact with the cinch when he stepped. I doctored him up tonight and will keep it medicated the rest of the trip.

Tomorrow we leave for Deerfield Lake Resort. The weather promises to be….. well, anyone’s guess! Wish us luck!

Day 2

We arrived at our campground in South Dakota in mid-afternoon. The trip was hard on ol’ “Hi-Ho Silver” aka our truck. With four horses and a ½ dozen bales of hay – not to mention living items for 9 days, pulling those hills took all of the power the one-ton has and more. Just as we thought we needed to pull over as the temperature gauge was maxing out, we started to descend. And although we put new brakes on the trailer, we are starting to hear some noise from the rear brakes on Hi-Ho.

The first two days we are staying at the Palmer Gulch Stables associated with the Mt. Rushmore KOA. We chose this location because of its close proximity to the trails heads going to Harney Peak and Mt. Rushmore; two places we planned to ride. Its an RV park at its best and unlike any horse camp we have ever stayed. Our horse trailers are in-line with huge $100,000 motor homes with slide-outs and satellite dishes.

We are at the end of the park and the horse stables are right across the way. Our horses have a large pen that they share; Rich and Kathy opted for individual corrals for their horses as they don’t house well together. Next to the corrals is the pasture for the Palmer Gulch rental string. When their 50 head were returned to pasture after the day yesterday, our horses were sure big eyed watching them come running through to the pasture!

The kids are in paradise as this RV USA has a ton of things for them to do. There is swimming, volleyball, hot tubbing, biking and a trampoline along with other kids to play with. We had them help clean out the trailer after unloading the horses & then they were off, periodically checking in before making another run to some other place. There is wireless internet here, but I can’t get a connection. I was able to connect to Sprint long enough to publish to the blog yesterday, but lost the connection before I could read emails. My Alltel phone has “no service”. Odd with this being such a tourist area that there is no service.

It was very chilly here last night. I had my ear band on and a coat as we ate supper. When we made reservations in a full service campsite, we were sure we would be running our air conditioner, but instead, ran a space heater all night. Weird weather indeed! We didn’t bring blankets for the horses; John said they were shivering this morning.

As I was making coffee this morning, I saw the trail string horses being taken to the stable. There were probably 50 of them lead by one wrangler and another wrangler bringing up the tail.
We didn’t ride after arrival; we have two big days planned; so spent the time setting up camp. It gave the horses a nice break after the long ride here and the long rides planned in upcoming days. Today we plan to ride 18 miles round trip today. We are at 5,000 elevation right now and plan to ride to over 7,000 later today. If the weather cooperates.

With leads me to the bad news. South Dakota has a Big Fat Lying Weatherman, too! Today was to be 70 degrees and sunny with a 20% chance of rain. It is not yet 7:00 AM and the sky is dark and rumbling of thunder. I’m holding out hope that it is passing by, but without internet or radar, I just can’t tell. We’ll tune into Rich weather radio in a few minutes. And as I am typing, the rains have begun. Banging down hard on the trailer. Oh, &$*(#&$()! Now there is hail with severe lightning. I can’t call Kathy’s trailer because there is no blasted cell service. So no clue what the weather today holds. Nothing but shear frustration at this moment….

Day 1

There was no cell coverage at the Outriders Trail Head south of Chadron. No Alltel, no Sprint, no bars to be had. And I didn’t miss it…

We left home at 8:47 AM Saturday morning. Headed down Hwy. 92 toward St. Paul. Detoured a mile north of 92 at Hwy 30, due to surface damage, but just took us 2 miles out of the way. No biggy. Met our traveling companions, Rich & Kathy Newberg, in St. Paul. Fueled up and back on the road. Had 90 items listed on a piece of paper for an “I Spy” game. A little friendly competition between the Newberg truck & ours. At last count, they are still in the lead.

About 9 hours and $235 of fuel later, we reached Chadron at about 4:30 local time. Our best mileage was 7.62 MPG and worse was 6.44 MPG. That I am sure is a result of following some morons through the hill country that could not hold their speed or let us pass. But I digress….



The Outriders Trail Head is managed by the National Forest Service & is located just north of Chadron State Park. It is free to overnight, offering some well-constructed corrals and running water for the horses. We unloaded the horses and set up cots for the kids. John and the boys hiked up the hills. Had a light dinner when they returned. Jerry Schumacher, formerly of the Forest Service & who has been active with the recent Forest Service letter drive, stopped by to visit for about an hour. Watched the moon rise, the night cooled & we hit the sack about 10:30 PM listening to a distant peacock crow (do they crow or sing?)


The night was crisp. We were wondering if we shouldn’t have brought a space heater although without power, it wouldn’t have helped us this particular night. Once out in the sun, the day we warmed up. Pretty sure the temps were in the low 70’s and no humidty. We saddled up and rode the trails above the camp to the Black Hills lookout point. If Ft Rob trails are anything like this – which is in the same vicinity, I am glad I opted to shoe the horses. The views from above were as incredible as I remembered them; off to the east you could see the damage to the trees caused by the fires of 2006.



We ride out on the narrow ridge trail that we rode when we were here in 2004. It was just as scary now as it was then. At one point case was climbing nothing but rock that was reminiscent of “Cougar Rock” on the Tevis ride. At that point, we decided not to move on (see Kathy, I’m not telling any stories!) and it was a hairy moment watching Butterscotch get her footing on “the rock” and pivot to come back down.

Enjoyed a two hour ride and broke up camp. Since this was our first camping trip of the season, we learned quickly last night the things we forgot. Just finished our Wal-Mart shopping and have just crossed the state line in to South Dakota.