Chat
Friday's cold snap broke sometime before dawn on Saturday. We woke up to a beautiful, warm fall day with bright blue skies and no wind. Robert and Connie were up first but had a delay as Butterscotch's shoulder pain had worsened during the night. He laid down three times on the way to me and Phil's campsite so they unloaded him and took him back to spend the day resting with Dwite and his three goats who remained in camp.
Phil and I loaded the food and water onto Finn and gave Scout the first aid and survival kits. Sputnik wore a pack because he would have felt slighted without one, but I left it empty because he was footsore after hiking in Nemo the previous week. Sputnik unfortunately suffers from crooked leg joints and flat-footedness due to a total lack of angle in his pasterns. His poor conformation has been catching up to him these last couple of years so we have to be careful. Still, I love his attitude. He keeps up with us for the most part and he never complains even when his limp becomes obvious near the end of the day. He loves to hike, and more than that he loves to feel useful. So even if I don't load the panniers, Sputnik still gets to wear his saddle.
Dean and Dani opted to carry their own gear and let their goats, Hunter and Georgey, hike unburdened. Their boys had not had enough conditioning to do a long hike with weight. It turned out later that they had made a very wise decision!
We dropped into the valley and spread out along the trail. Phil was our fearless leader for most of the hike so our boys also led the way. I found that if I walked behind Phil and my goats walked behind me, they tended to lag a bit. Connie had to bump them with her hiking poles to keep them striding along. She did a good job keeping my herd moving!
The area has no marked trails. Slim Buttes is open for grazing so there are innumerable cattle trails all over the formation. This can make navigation a bit tricky. Luckily the area is small enough it would not be possible to become truly lost. We headed left in order to navigate the site in a clockwise direction. We soon left the valley floor and climbed up into a beautiful, open pine forest filled with dappled sunlight and fall colors. Through this we often caught glimpses of the unique white rock formations rising up beyond the trees.
The formation is not high so before lunchtime we crested the top and hiked back down into the valley. Unfortunately this was also where we left the shade behind. However, the valley was cut by many ravines filled with willow and cottonwood trees. These provided some much-needed relief from the sun but they also meant climbing down and then back up some fairly steep banks.
We found a place in one of these ravines with enough fallen logs to accommodate a picnic lunch. At this point I remarked that the hike had been both longer and more difficult than anticipated, but also a whole lot more interesting. I believe all of us were stunned by the unique beauty of this place. I was also thinking that the hike was well over halfway done and the walk back after lunch would prove fairly easy.
We got going again and from looking across the plain it seemed like our hike back to camp would be straightforward. There was precious little shade but it looked nice and flat. We would simply need to curve around the ridge to our right and we'd be back in camp!
Unfortunately the reality was not so straightforward. The ravine crossings, although pretty in their fall colors, made for some intense workouts in the afternoon heat.
Phil and I loaded the food and water onto Finn and gave Scout the first aid and survival kits. Sputnik wore a pack because he would have felt slighted without one, but I left it empty because he was footsore after hiking in Nemo the previous week. Sputnik unfortunately suffers from crooked leg joints and flat-footedness due to a total lack of angle in his pasterns. His poor conformation has been catching up to him these last couple of years so we have to be careful. Still, I love his attitude. He keeps up with us for the most part and he never complains even when his limp becomes obvious near the end of the day. He loves to hike, and more than that he loves to feel useful. So even if I don't load the panniers, Sputnik still gets to wear his saddle.
Dean and Dani opted to carry their own gear and let their goats, Hunter and Georgey, hike unburdened. Their boys had not had enough conditioning to do a long hike with weight. It turned out later that they had made a very wise decision!
We dropped into the valley and spread out along the trail. Phil was our fearless leader for most of the hike so our boys also led the way. I found that if I walked behind Phil and my goats walked behind me, they tended to lag a bit. Connie had to bump them with her hiking poles to keep them striding along. She did a good job keeping my herd moving!
The area has no marked trails. Slim Buttes is open for grazing so there are innumerable cattle trails all over the formation. This can make navigation a bit tricky. Luckily the area is small enough it would not be possible to become truly lost. We headed left in order to navigate the site in a clockwise direction. We soon left the valley floor and climbed up into a beautiful, open pine forest filled with dappled sunlight and fall colors. Through this we often caught glimpses of the unique white rock formations rising up beyond the trees.
The formation is not high so before lunchtime we crested the top and hiked back down into the valley. Unfortunately this was also where we left the shade behind. However, the valley was cut by many ravines filled with willow and cottonwood trees. These provided some much-needed relief from the sun but they also meant climbing down and then back up some fairly steep banks.
We found a place in one of these ravines with enough fallen logs to accommodate a picnic lunch. At this point I remarked that the hike had been both longer and more difficult than anticipated, but also a whole lot more interesting. I believe all of us were stunned by the unique beauty of this place. I was also thinking that the hike was well over halfway done and the walk back after lunch would prove fairly easy.
We got going again and from looking across the plain it seemed like our hike back to camp would be straightforward. There was precious little shade but it looked nice and flat. We would simply need to curve around the ridge to our right and we'd be back in camp!
Unfortunately the reality was not so straightforward. The ravine crossings, although pretty in their fall colors, made for some intense workouts in the afternoon heat.