July 13, The Forest East of Pomeroy -- Lovely

Arrived in Pomeroy at 1:30.  Stopped at the Forest Service office & was helped by the very sweet front desk gal, Nikki.  Also met the cutest older couple, Charlie & Bev Heebner, who have been volunteering at the guard station at the Oregon Butte Lookout for the last 8 years, and in the Tucannon area the previous 14 years!  They gave us local trail information as well as for our Idaho crossing coming up, and Nikki showed us a shortcut to Lewiston.
 

 
 We spent a good hour visiting.  The plan was to drive up a 19 mile hill, camp and ride out in the morning.  When we went out to leave, our rig wouldn't start!  Battery was good, fuses good.  Nikki, Charlie and Bev came out to help.  A few minutes later, Dave Waldron, Nikki's Dad, came by at Nikki's request.  He referred us to a local Chevy mechanic shop.  Mechanics Bill Woods and Reed Herres came out to the Forest Service parking lot and determined we had a bad starter.  The new starter they installed didn't work so they thought it was a lemon.  Then Bill accidentally bumped a wire and the car started.  Seems the wire from the battery was corroded where it attached to the starter.  He asked if we wanted him to switch back to the old starter at $75 per hour.  We opted to keep the new starter.....final bill, $328 -- ugh.

By now it's 4:30.  Had been checking Hank in the trailer.  While it was terribly hot and humid, the trailer was cool inside and with the back door open, Hank was comfortable.  Dave suggested we stay at the fairgrounds since it was so late.  The grounds were clean and well kept.  We got Hank settled into a nice outdoor arena, fed and watered, and Judy and I headed back to town to split a hamburger at Donna's Cafe.
                 
                 
                      

 

Back at the fairgrounds, got a nice shower and shampoo.  Feels really good after the stress and heat of the day.  Thunder and lightening storm again tonight, raining a little.  
The sky is beautiful. 
 
               


               

Beautiful sky before the thunder & lightening storm

                        

The next morning Judy and I ran to Pomeroy to gas up while Hank enjoyed his breakfast.  Sas Waldron, Dave's wife, stopped her rig on the road in front of us and came back to introduce herself.  Such nice folks.  At the gas station, tried to re-tie the tarp again, which had torn up from the drive from Walla Walla.  A nice young man offered to help. 

Picked Hank up and headed out to Forest Service Rd. 40.  Beautiful ride today....finally.  Light gravel on dirt base.  We scared up a big buck, which scared Hank.  A little spinning, light on the front end, and backing up, but got him settled and on we went.  A police officer driving around stopped to ask if I'd seen a specific car on the trail.  Apparently they knew a guy had camped in the area the night before who had stolen a car in town today. 
  

Pulled over on Forest Service Rd 40 getting ready to head out to FSRd 42 Jct.

 

Intersection of Rd. 42 was at a Ranger lookout.  Although a pickup was there, didn't see anyone.  About half a mile down, got through a cattle guard, but Judy and I working together could not get the gate closed.  Ran up to the lookout for help, but the truck was gone.  Called Nikki at the Forest Service office on the satellite phone to see if there was cattle up there hoping we could leave the gate open.  Could not.  Hank, who had not broken a sweat this whole trip except sometimes under saddle and cinch, was in a full body sweat stressing about being tied to a tree while we worked the gate.  Get a grip.  Finally a couple and their black Labs were driving by and stopped to help.  It took three of us straining to get the gate closed.  

Tried to be smart about picking a campsite as the evenings thunderstorm was looming.  Made sure we were not the highest point and that Hank was not high-lined between the tallest trees.  Ranger Austin Hess stopped to see if we needed help as we had the rig hood up.  Told him we were just practicing getting the hood up as we had had trouble with that.  Was comforting to know a Ranger makes the rounds occasionally. 

Ranger Austin Hess checking on us during his rounds.

 
A single cow showed up thinking he could share Hank's hay.  No way.  They had about an hour stare down.  I gave Bessy a handful of hay and she finally left.  Went to sleep to thunder and lightening again.
Rode out the next morning with black skies and thunder boomers.   Earliest leave yet, 10:10.  Saddled up ready to go and the skies let loose.  A few minutes earlier, we thought the rain would miss us....NOPE.  Should have put my rain gear and cozy toes (stirrup covers) on.  Did have a rain jacket on.  Hank moved out better today in the storm than ever.  He doesn't mind all these storms, he's heard it all in La Pine.  About a mile down the road, Judy caught up with me.  I went in the trailer, changed my wet jeans, donned my rain pants, put on my cozy toes, and it didn't rain a drop after.  

Today's ride was beautiful.  Five cattle guards---two were open (yea), one was manageable, two were a piece of cake.  My hazard of the day were three ranch horses free ranging.  Hank is skittish when horses come up that are fenced in.  These were not fenced in.  I could just see them running off making Hank crazy.  They just watched us pass, then followed about 100 ft. behind.  I was sure they would run up or past us, so I turned and pulled in behind them.  They trotted on ahead.  Found out Hank does a very pretty parade jig.  He was upset they were so far ahead, got a little squirrelly and came up off his front end a few times.  They stopped at an open covered storage barn, thank goodness, and we went on.
Made camp along side Lick Creek about 3:30 today.  Wanted to stop before Hank was showing fatigue.  I have been conscientious about being aware of Hanks status.  Earlier days he would squirrel around for about 15 seconds before heading out nicely.  Recently he would make it hard to mount by stepping away from whatever mounting aid I was using (rock, trailer, etc.).  One time took 40 minutes to get him to stand!  Once I was on, he walked out nicely again.  He was just being a brat, then seemed to enjoy the ride.  It was about a 5 1/2 hr. day, a lot of down hill.  I thought, good, we can get some rest with lots of time for journaling.  It's 9:55 right now.  I've been working steady except for a 15 minute Isagenix break (dinner, fruits and vegetable nutritional drink) and maybe 10 minutes looking at pictures Judy had downloaded on her computer.  Put the aluminum corral up tonight, Hank's fly sheet and mask on, broke loose the bale of hay that has shifted off the hay rack but was held (for now) by the torn tarp.  Got the hay down, got rid of the moldy portions, re-tied the bale in quarters so was manageable enough to haul on top of the trailer with a lead rope.  Got the tarp secured with tie-downs around it like a belt, bungeed the rest, duct taped Hank's fly sheet which he had now torn badly.  Judy had heard a cattle guard close by when a car went across it, so we walked down the road to check it out.  The right side had a gate, but was fenced along the road on the other side with no way out that we could see, (the next day we did find a gate about 1/8 mile down the road.), so ended up taking the fence apart on the other side.  Took a quick sponge bath.  ZZZzzzzz