I drove to Carol's Sunday afternoon and spent the night there, then we packed up and headed for the high country Monday morning. I can't drive that far so Carol did most of the hauling. As we got farther along I thought I felt the truck pulling oddly. In Gunnison we switched drivers and once I was behind the wheel I could more clearly feel the side to side rocking motion. It became more and more pronounced, and by the time we got into Crested Butte Carol and I both could feel the obvious shimmy in the pickup.
We stopped at a True Value hardware store at what looked like the only gas station in town, and asked about a local mechanic. There was a mechanic, but he was closed since it was 5:03pm on a Monday afternoon. I was not going to take the rig up the next pass on a dirt one lane road with it driving that way. Therefore our next question was where could we stay with the four horse gooseneck trailer, one dog, and two horses for the night until the mechanic opened in the morning?
The True Value cashier started talking with a truck driver in the store, and between the two of them they got ahold of Doug, who lived in Crested Butte and happened to have just moved his horses to a different pasture the day before, leaving him with an empty corral he said we could use for the night. The truck driver kindly let us follow him up the road and pointed out Studley Dr., where we turned and met Doug at his corral.
Carol and I thanked him profusely for letting us use his property for the night. We asked how we could repay him, and he mentioned he liked Cabernet. We unpacked the horses and turned Raven and Shambhu loose in the corral, fed them and Miles, and ate some dinner ourselves from Carol's camp stove. Then we turned in for the night sleeping in the gooseneck of my trailer. We could hardly have picked a more beautiful spot to be stranded.
The following morning we woke up with enough time to feed the horses and clean the corral, and then we unhitched the truck from the trailer and went back into the town to the only mechanic. We were there fifteen minutes before they technically opened, but the mechanic said he was absolutely slammed with vehicles and MIGHT be able to take a quick look at my truck late in the day. I thanked him and left my keys with him.
Carol and I walked down the road a ways until we came across another sign for a mechanic. Miles and I walked in the building, up the stairs, across the hall, down the stairs, and out the other side of the building without ever encountering any people or business doors. While I was touring an abandoned building, Carol was visiting with the Adaptive Sports Center office across the street asking them where they took their cars for repairs. They gave us a couple numbers, and one of the mechanics responded by telling me the shimmy sounded dangerous, especially since I was towing, and I ought to bring it right in and he'd take a look at it first thing that morning.
I retrieved my keys from the first location and thanked them again for offering to squeeze me in. We drove to Altitude Auto, where we met Dave. He was wonderful, fitting us in right away. Because it looked fine on the ground, two mechanics drove my truck and couldn't tell what was going on, so they put it up on the lift. Once it was up high enough and the tires were at eye level it became clear that the back right tire was starting to separate, and we were awfully fortunate it didn't blow while on one of the mountain passes.
In another lucky twist of fate, Dave also sold tires, and ordered me new ones to arrive the following day. We asked him what his favorite beverage was, and he said he'd enjoy a six pack of IPA. He then contacted one of his other clients, Heath, who was bringing in his Tacoma to be worked on that day. Heath also had a larger pickup, and offered to haul us, the trailer and the horses the rest of the way up the mountain to our campsite. When we asked him what he liked to drink he said he and his wife don't drink, but it was their anniversary and they would love some chocolates.
While we waited for Heath to finish his morning appointments before he could drive us to the campsite, we perused the town of Crested Butte. I picked up a couple sweatshirts (buy one get one free!), Carol bought some Bigfoot socks, and we had a great breakfast. We also picked up a box of chocolates for Heath and his wife, a bottle of Cabernet for Doug, and a six pack of IPA for Dave. To deliver the wine to Doug we tacked up the horses and rode up the road to his house from the corral, me riding one handed on Raven, with the wine in my other hand. As I'm not a drinker myself it would have been a great photo, but we didn't think to snap a picture at the time.
Heath's friend Jennifer, upon hearing of our plight offered to let us ride in her arena, also near Heath's corral. We didn't end up using it, but appreciated the offer all the same. We did invite Jennifer to ride with us, and she joined us for a long trail ride on Thursday.
Heath incredibly generously hooked up his truck to my trailer and drove us to our campsite. On the way he described the equestrian facility he and his wife are in the process of building. He is working to frame horseback riding as a sport for anyone, and is developing the Crested Butte Horse Park. It was fun to hear about their plans, and I'm excited to go back and visit once it's up and running!
We landed at Horse Ranch Park in a gorgeous valley. We were there at the peak season for the aspen leaves changing colors, and I swear we could see them turning yellow as we sat in our camp chairs.
Later that day our friend Kate arrived with her gelding, Bridger. He has matured so much in the last two years, he's now looking like a grown-up!
One of our big questions during this trip was why a large herd of horses were running loose through the valley while wearing bells around their necks. Eventually Carol and Kate went and asked the human who looked like he was responsible for them what was going on, and he explained he's an outfitter and people rent his horses to pack their kills out of the mountains. The horses mostly stayed on the other side of the valley from us, but they did hustle over to our side once to chase off a moose early one morning.
I ended up seeing the moose through the window of the trailer, since Miles and I slept in that day.
Our first ride was on Wednesday, and we started with the trail which the horse trail guidebook called the easiest. It was significantly steeper than we expected, but the horses did well. Raven has this way about her that she just hauls up the mountain, and that technique combined with her energizer-bunny fitness level made her quite a fast leader. Going down again she pretty much squats and then scoots down the hill with her hocks flexed. She is such an athlete!
Raven did object to the minuscule ditches at the start of the trail, pitching quite a fit to protest crossing them. It was utter nonsense since she jumps ditches on cross-country runs all the time, but she was excited to do her first ride at this place and looking for a way to express her opinion. Later in that ride we were crossing back and forth over the same ditch multiple times, and I made the comment that I guess she forgot ditches were scary that day. I swear she heard me and she then LEAPED over the ditch as she exclaimed, "Oh YEAH! Ditches are the WORST today!"
That night we did hear some gunshots, as there were many hunters there for bow and muzzle season. Miles is very scared of guns, having been shot as a four year old (that's why he's three legged), but he's also smart and just rushes back to the trailer to hide in the sleeping area.
Shambhu and Raven historically have not liked each other - she's sassy and opinionated and he just doesn't want to be bothered with her attitude. But something about a long trailer ride and changing overnight locations can bond horses like no other technique I've seen. Though they started the trip grousing at each other, they finished with grooming each other affectionately.
The following day we did another ride, and Jennifer joined us on this one. She rode her paint mare named Paint. I also had a chance to meet her eight year old OTTB, who she has for sale. She had planned to eventually event him when she bought him as a yearling, and then life got in the way. Now she's looking for the right home, and she also has a dressage saddle for sale. I feel lucky to have met her, and hopefully she'll make the drive down to Wellington to visit us with her gelding for sale and the saddle!
I wore my GoPro for this ride and got some cool videos. I was a little sad when we got back and I realized I hadn't videoed the steepest stuff either up or down, I was too busy riding it to video it. Oh well, at least you can get a feel for the terrain.
We had such an amazing couple of rides, and the horses were so good. Our very last stop was the river near our camp, and Raven sure enjoyed splashing around.
Eventually the time came to go home, as it inevitably does. We packed up camp, loaded the horses and Miles, and headed back to civilization. We talked the whole way home about how we met such amazing people, how lucky we were to have truck trouble where we did, and how grateful we were to have such nice horses.
Even Miles was tired after this adventure. You know it was a big adventure when even the Border Collie is tired.
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