Desert Camping

More than one of our readers has reminded me that it has been over 2 weeks since our last post. So sorry....I have lots of excuses, camping is one of them, Internet connections being bad, and the fact that I spent 3 days cleaning out a huge old ranch house down at lower clover.....you'll have to decide if you can get over the silence. :-)

Camping in the desert was a nice variation to the summer, but definitely had its downside. We loaded up on a Monday morning and headed up to the campsite with two trucks and two horse trailers, one full of horses, the other with our gear and supplies. Our "camp" was about a 1 1/2 hour drive from the ranch. We set up temporary horse corals, a 12 x 18 wall tent, our own personal tent for Brian and I to sleep in, and a 10 X 10 pop up to give us some shade during the day. I think it only took about 3 hours to have camp totally set up, then we spent the rest of the

afternoon doing a little exploring.

Brian and I went on the quad and rode about 9 miles up a very bumpy single "track" dirt road. The road went up a beautiful valley and we saw quite a bit of wildlife (chucker, sage grouse, snakes, and mule deer, as well as the normal varmints we see every day). We rode the dirt road

all the way to the top end of the ranch and checked the gate that separates our ranch from the next one over. The round trip took about 3 hours, and on the way we came across 3 more quads coming down from the mountain with some folks who had been "quad camping" up there. Since this was on BLM land that the ranch leases for grazing rights, it was not unusual to see others up there. In fact, there are several hot springs on the ranch that often get visitors from town.

Once we got back to camp, Jake was there waiting. Jake, the other guy camping with us, had gone on horse back to check some other fences and gates. He found 5 open gates, and unfortunately it meant that many of our cows were in the wrong place.

Shortly after we got dinner started, the weather began its attack. At first there were just a few gusts of wind, but within about 2 minutes of the wind starting, it became strong enough to completely lift our pop up of the ground and catch it in the wind. We watched as it blew about 60 feet off the ground and vigorously whipped around a few times before landing at least 100 yards up the valley. The frame of it was completely destroyed in the process. It was brand new, purchased just for camping, and its shelf life had expired! It was definitely not "buckaroo proof".

Unfortunately, the wall tent (which was also new) did not come with stakes, so it was blowing like crazy, and our little light weight dome tent was no match for the wind either. All 3 of us started working on getting the stakes from our tent and putting them on the wall tent and taking our tent down before it blew away with our clothes and sleeping bags inside. About then, it started to rain.

Eventually, it all worked out. While Brian and I did our best to stabilize the wall tent, Jake made several trips on the quad to the creek, collecting large rocks to set around the edges of the wall tent because even the stakes weren't going to hold it for long. It was a cozy night, all 3 of us and our two dogs hanging out in the wall tent waiting for night fall.

The next day Brian and Jake left early on horseback to go ride fences, and I hung out at the camp with the dogs and the extra horses. Mid morning I took the dogs for a walk for about an hour and came back to 20 cows eating the alfalfa we had brought up to feed the horses. Luckily, Sue is already sharpening her skills, and as soon as I told her to "get em up!" she chased the cows over the hill and into the next valley. That day was very hot, and without the shade of our pop-up (and it was too hot to sit in the wall tent) I ended up with quite the sunburn.....but I did read 2 books!

The rest of camping was pretty uneventful. After 3 days of heat and dust, combined with spraying Off! on my legs every 3 hours, I was soooo ready for a shower. We figured out a makeshift shower set up, and decided we had enough water to spare, so all three of us got cleaned up and felt like new again!

I received great compliments on my cooking (what college kid wouldn't be thrilled to have someone cooking for him?), and we learned a few things to prepare for the "big" camping trip that will happen in September. It looks like it will be about 3 weeks in the mountains, but lucky me, I'll have to come back to the ranch every few days during the day to stock up on food, water, and ice....I think I'll make time for a shower too!

(this last picture is Jake)