Charlie Horse's 2017 Picture Thread

[Nanno]

Looks like great fun was had by all! We might have to visit your town for "Peach Days" some year. Fresh peaches are my absolute FAVORITE, and I do love a good demolition derby.

[Charlie Horse]

Back in the Salt Lake area, at least in my experience, the first day that snow reached the ground was around October 10th.  I'm 2000 feet higher here and today was the day.   I took a couple pictures around 7:00 AM.  


   

   

[Charlie Horse]

I havent been able to hike much for the last couple months because my new German Shep puppy, Luna, has been too young.  I've been itching to go visit Horn Silver Wash, just to the east of town, and today I finally put aside my chores and did the trip.  A 3 hour day-hike with 30 minutes of driving to go 12 miles.  The dirt roads are smooth and nice but my tires are almost bald and there is a bad bushing on one of my front A-arms so I took it slow and easy in the old Lexus RX300 with 2 goats and a dog on board.


   
On foot at last.  In the car the stupid goats were fighting for no reason.  Both wanted their head next to mine as we drove.


   
The landscape in the San Rafael is often quite the mix and match, but wow.


   
After an hour of walking on Sand Ridge Loop Road, we found a nice pond.  This was Luna's first encounter with deep water.


   
In the distance I could see some of the big boulders shining like they were polished.  I had to go investigate.  The rock seems like a conglomerate, yet has areas of this wood-like crystal.  Thats what was shining at me. 


   
We climbed the giant mound that the rocks were a part of and had a look around.


   
We turned around at this point and went off-road hoping to follow some dry washes and meet up with Horn Silver Wash.


   
The washes are all full of amazing rocks if you're a rock hound.  This area has lots of glassy stuff in reds and oranges and yellows.  Pink crystal sheets, black obsidian type stuff, green rocks with black shells, and of course the purple and white sandstones.  This is just a random picture of the ground.

[Charlie Horse]

   
Shelby GT's glamor shot.


   
Goats are never really friends.   Thats why they're so amazed that humans are kind to them.


   
Luna wants shade so much she's willing to rest below a truck sized balancing rock.


   
Luna has been growing exponentially.  I expect that at this rate she will outweigh the planet Earth in 12 months.


   
The color here is amazing.  You have to be careful not to disturb the rocks... every little rock sits atop a little pedestal.  But the color....


   
Here we are walking along on pure white dirt.   Staying in washes keeps us from leaving tracks.


   
Just another balancing rock.  I should probably be more wary of them from now on...


   
Half a mile ahead is the car.  Shelby stood off 30 feet and refused to be caught.  Did he want to stay?
No.  He's just being stubborn about getting in the car again.  The solution is to just drive away. 
He comes running and begs to be loaded up once he sees the car moving off.  Its funny but annoying.

That wraps up the trip.  It was easy going and I only wish I had room for a few more goats.  Someday I'll get the van I've been saving up for.  Until then its going to be a 2 goat limit, but I think I'll try to get a few more exploration trips in before winter.

[Nanno]

SO cool! I LOVE the colors! Phil and I are going to have to come over there and visit you one of these days.

[Taffy]

Otta's and I are already planning a trip to visit the San Rafael Swell and Charlie Horse in 2019 when both of them will be retired. Eldon wants his wife, Debbi, to see the Swell. I could spend weeks enjoying the sights. It's such a unique area! I'm thinking September again. The weather was perfect! How about a mini Rendy?!?

[IdahoNancy]

Shelby's got the legs but the horned goat has beautiful color. I use treats to get a goat into the trailer if they are reluctant. This year I had dried banana chips, it was a change from peanuts and it worked wonders.

[Charlie Horse]

This morning when I was looking out across the valley, I thought I saw Luna chasing deer.  The thing is, though, she never leaves the yard.  Grabbed the binoculars and it was a huge coyote.  It wasn't chasing the deer-- They were chasing it!  About 5 does were trying to chase it down and they seemed angry.  It got away into the trees in the river bottom.  So cool to see but of course I'm going to be double-checking my security fencing.

Being Thanksgiving, I decided to take the 5 boys and Luna on a grand hike.  I left the girls behind since they're in heat and they can act like jerks and do embarrassing things.  Since the canal is dry, we took a shortcut and were in the hills in no time. 

   
Luna sure has grown, hasn't she?  She teases the goats too much trying to get them to play.


   
Barry Goatalo considers the jump.


   
All 5 packers.


   
I decided to more than double the usual hike.  We went up a new, faint bike trail where we could see the San Rafael out on the horizon.


   
There's a 4wheeler trail coming down where one mistake would dump you off of a huge cliff into the reservoir.  They've emptied it to do some improvements.


   
Vincent VanGoat is wearing an empty setup that I won in the Rendy's auction.  This time of year its nice to have a hunter orange goat along.  Normally I like to be more incognito.  Notice that I painted the wood saddle gloss black.  I had some epoxy primer and a black polyurethane I use for welding projects.  Seemed to me a neon orange setup would look nice with a black saddle.  Turned out well!


   
I decided to get back to the road via one of the plateaus.  They tend to be finger-like but this one is Y shaped, with one branch having a nice road leading down the cliffs.  When I got to the crossroads, a deer spotted us and seemed rather displeased.  We weren't even that close but it was too close for him.  He bounced along the cliff edge and vanished over a hump.  I thought to myself... "Nah, he's not gunna....." and then I see this deer plunging off of a 30 foot cliff, tumbling end over end.  Nice launch.  He hit the slope below, which luckily was smooth dirt and rolled a ways, then stopped in a heap.  I watched... a few seconds later a head pops up and looks around.  He got up and stood for a bit then wandered off without any sign of inury. 


   
He shall hence be known as  "Geronimo".

[Nanno]

Wow, Barry has grown a LOT since you got him!

I'm amazed that you saw a deer take that incredible plunge. I'm so glad he walked away from it. More than I can say for Cuzco when he took a similar plunge! (Of course, Cuzco also landed full-stop on a highway.)

[Charlie Horse]