A Sad Day

Duster died on this day.  Scott and I were going to help a neighbor move some cows.  Duster seemed perfectly normal when I was saddling him up at our ranch, but when I pulled him out of the trailer at the pasture out in the sage brush where we were going to start from, he was acting strange.  He kept trying to stretch out and pee and then acted like he wanted to lay down.  We called our vet, and I quickly put Duster back in the trailer and raced for town.  I met the vet and he examined Duster and started treating him for colic.  He gave him shots to relax his muscles and for the pain, and then tubed him with oil to try and get his digestive system to start working again.  Duster was in pain and wanted to lie down and roll, but we kept him walking so that he wouldn't twist his intestines or stomach.  Duster continued to get worse and bloated up and then died a few hours later.  I would like to thank Dr. Lanny Weddle for doing all that he could and for my friends that helped me keep Duster walking before he died.  


Duster was a wonderful horse and we shared many exciting adventures together.  I wish that we could have had at least a few more years of trail rides, but it wasn't meant to be.  

Clear Lake Loop

The trailhead for Kelly Lake and Clear Lake trails at the end of CR 41 in the State Forest State Park.  I was not going to Clear Lake, but doing a long outer loop of the Clear Lake trail north and west, a distance of approximately 10 miles.  

Horse corrals at the trailhead

A lot of the pine trees are dead because of the beetle kill, but the aspens are still beautiful.

Copper at an old broken Clear Lake sign.  The bottom part says 4 miles.  The pink stuff on his face is called Swat and acts as a bug repellant.

It was so hot.  A  couple miles from here on the way back, I took my cotton shirt off and dunked it in an icy mountain stream.  It was a shock putting it back on, but it sure felt good to be cold.  A few more miles down the trail and it had completely dried out.

Notes:  I saw a cow elk down in the willows when I was headed north and a bull moose on the upper logging road when I was headed back.  There is a section of the trail, when I was headed north that is completely covered by downed timber, but I followed a faint path around it and was able to pick up the trail again.  There is also a fence with no gate blocking the trail.  Follow the fence around that section and you'll pick up the trail again.

Illinois River TH to Jack Park TH

Illinois River Trailhead - Routt National Forest

We ran into a small doe coming down the trail.  She spooked Duster and he turned around and tried to retreat.

A fork in the trail.  We were going left to Jack Park.

Jack Park

Indian Paintbrush

  

I was up on a log so this is a birds-eye view of Duster

At the Jack Park Trailhead

  

End of the trail.  This was about 3 miles and then we turned around and went back.  On the way back, I met one hiker coming up the at the junction of the Illinois River Trail and the Jack Park Trail.  He was from Grand County.

Note to self:  recon the 758 road to the Jack Park Trailhead.  Ride up old logging road possibly to Baker Pass.

Medicine Bow Rail Trail

In Wyoming there is a trail called the Medicine Box Rail Trail.  It runs for 21 miles in an old and now unused train bed where the track that has been pulled up.  Every year I ride a piece or two of it.  This year was the section from Woods Creek to Lincoln Gulch a distance of 3 miles, turn around, and 3 miles back.  The ride was very pretty with a lot of interesting things to see including a small cluster of cabins and houses called Fox Park.  

I believe that this old abandoned building is where the trains would load up with more coal to power the locomotives.  It is on private property so I couldn't get very close.

No more trains no more.

I don't know why I like fence lines so much, but I think they are cool.

Zoe & Bear

Bear wasn't cooperating so he wasn't in the next picture.

 

FSR 501

This trail is behind Mountain Home in Wyoming.

I'm not sure why Zoe is hiding.

There is a lot of logging going on because of the beetle kill trees.