Rocky’s Web

Archive for June, 2008

Day 7

A good day at WalMart.  We needed this day of rest and it is recommended by most long distance riders to take a day of rest every 5-7 days for you and your horse.  We got a lot done with restocking our food, etc.  I took the time to print out some more business cards for all of us to pass out.  We are meeting a lot of people and it is good advertisement.  We also did more planning for our upcoming 4 day/3 night trip through the Gila Wilderness.  One of the rangers told us to be aware of “rabid” foxes.  They are seeing quite a few.  They are also looking for a mountain lion that mauled and killed a man just 10 miles north of here.  The ranger also said there are quite a lot of wolves lately looking for food.  I’ve decided not to take the dogs with me through the mountais.  They would make awful good wolf bait!!   Everyone is being their selves.  Kathy is writing and trying to keep us organized.  She did all of our laundry today at the laundrymat.  Larry is organizing his tack and took time to go to his horse trailer (which a man here in Silver City is keeping for him) to get some more equipment.  Paul is anguishing over his daily chats with his “fiance” and assisting with the daily horse chores.  Tomorrow, we will travel up Hwy 15 towards the Gila Clift Dwellings.  We’ll spend the first night 1/2 way there (intersection of Hwy 35) then on to the National Park.  We plan on taking some time to view the sights and enjoy a “hot springs” dip.  Got to go for now, nore later.

Silver City

Day 5 and I won’t mention the mornings anxiety!!  We rode out at about 7:30 enroute to Silver City from our camp just off Highway 90 and Separ Road.  The weather was nice with an overcase untill about noon and a slight breeze.  We had to ride on the right-of-way of the road and at times within 3-5 feet of traffic.  The horses all handled it well.  I want to mention that the support crew (Kathy and Paul) did an excellent job this morning.  Kathy really took charge and was able to obtain water from the local community of Tyrone (we ran out the day before).  We’re finding that water is a precious commodity on this ride.  She also brought us refreshments on the road and later assisted with our arrival into Silver City.  The ride into Silver City had the greatest hills, yet, that we have been on, but they w1ern’t too difficult for the horses.  We rode about 16 miles in the morning, reaching the City about 12:30.  Our average was about 3 miles per hour.  I had already alerted the city police of our arrival and they said to give them a call as we entered the city limits and they would escort us into town.  I did and they had a car escort us about 3 miles through the city.  Thank goodness, there was a bridge that we would have had difficult avoiding traffic on and there was a lot of other traffic through town because of their road construction.  They took us to Walmart (which we had coordinated with earlier) to park in their parking lot.  The police officers were quite hospital and “very” helpful in watching out for us.  We had alerted the local newspaper (that indicated they had an interest in the ride) but they haven’t shown up, yet.  We’re watching the local paper to see if they have any articles on the ride.  We plan on staying here an extra day to rest the horses (actually……..rest ourselves) and will leave on Saturday for the Gila Wilderness (Cliff dwellings, hot springs, etc.).  We’ve had a lot of visitors and are giving rides on our horses to the kids (in the WalMart parking lot!).  We do enjoy visiting with everyone.  We’ll keep your posted (or try). 

Separ Road!!!!

We left Hachita on day 3, still without phone service or internet to contact the outside world.  Larry and I road the next 20 some miles to Interstate 10, where we spent the night.  We did a recon on the next day’s ride (Separ Road) and decided that we would take it in 3 jumps to get to Silver City, NM.  The first day wasn’t bad for the first 11 miles, and we were waiting for Kahty to catch up with us with the water for the horses. We did find 2 watering holes along the way, but water is still an issue with riding this route.  We spent the night in the trees in a creek bottom.  This was the first night spent out on the trail.  It was a good learning experience, since in about 3 days, we will be spending about 4 nights camping before we meet Kathy and Larry, again.  We left the next morning with a cloudy overcast.  It was the best riding weather we’ve had.  It was cool (85 degrees), but not with the sun burning down on you.  We went about 17 miles and ended on Hwy 80, going into Silver City to spend the night.  We’ll go about 17 miles into Silver City, tomorrow.  The newspaper has been alerted and wants to meet us as we go into the Walmart parking lot for our next night’s stay.  The local police have been notified and will act as our escort as we go through town.  We’ll see how it works.  Well…….more from Kathy, later.

p.s.  Separ Road seemed like a 100 mile stretch.  I don’t see how any rider can do it without water support.

Hi Everyone

Hi  everyone, hope that you enjoy reading my writings, mine may be a bit different from Rocky’s. It will be more of a firsthand experience of traveling the West, because I  haven’t done much traveling.  I will say, I am enjoying every minute of it.

We arrived in Antelope Wells on Thursday, June 19^th. The temperatures were close to 102 degrees and the wind was really whipping, about 30 mph. In minutes you were covered with a coating of dust. It was nothing, but cactus, and miles of wide open spaces. Very desolate and barren land. I had done some research on the area prior to the trip, but Paul couldn’t believe  where we were at. We were very fortunate to have a very pleasant Custom Officer, Tim Balderston, let us camp on his property that was about 250 yards from the official border. We had electric and water. The water is the big thing down here, neither horse or human can get enough, as it is dry heat.  He also told us to watch out for snakes, so far I have not seen one, and have no intention of hunting one down for that experience.

On Friday, June 20^th while it was still cool, probably mid 80’s’ Rocky wanted to see how the horses would work. He rode Zena and ponied Pepe. I rode Soldier.  Jazz and Cotton, Rocky’s dogs came along too. It was really funny watching them take off after little desert lizards. Boy, can those little guy’s move.  This also gave Soldier a chance to work while the dogs were along. He handled it well. Did find lots of holes, and though they look like something a prairie dog would make, it was explained to me that those were snake holes. You really have to watch the footing, because the ground looks hard, but there could be a hole underneath.  Rode for an hour, and Rocky seemed pleased with the horses.

Larry Hanson from MN, arrived about 1:45 PM, a little later than expected because of a tire blowout  on the way down from Silver City.  He was with Jerry, a minister from Silver City, who was driving the rig back. CORRECTION:  In a previous entry Rocky wrote that a woman in Silver City was storing the rig, he made an error.  It was this Jerry all along. Larry really wants it printed, so that nobody gets the wrong idea. He came with his 3 horses, Kemo, Dakota, and Cochise.  We all spent the rest of the evening getting settled and acquainted, since we were all relative strangers.

We were visited that evening by Will and Crystal  Gierhart, and their 2 children Keenan and Cheyenne. Will is a manager for the Gray Ranch, which covers 500,000 acres and has 10,000 head of cattle. They live down the road about 8 miles from where we were camped and offered to let us stop at their place to water the horses during the ride. In this area, any water you can find is a valuable asset.  We also chatted about ranching in this kind of area.  That is one thing I will say, is the people are the nicest I have met, always willing to help and answer questions of complete strangers.

ONE IMPORTANT FACT:  There is no internet or phone service, until you are about 60 miles farther North.

JUNE 21, Saturday,  at, 8 am, MT, Rocky and Larry started their ride. As much as they would of liked to have gone through the  gates, there was a cattle guard, and no way around it. Gates were locked, and there was no wire to take down.  Rocky started off riding Zena and ponied Pepe. Larry was riding Kemo, a bay quarter horse type, and leading Cochise a leopard Ap.  The dogs went along  for the first 3 miles and then decided to pack it in and jumped back in the truck with me. The support team was there with water for the horses and cool drinks for the men.  The second stop was outside the gates of the Gierhart place, but we watered from the trailer, rather than make the horses go an extra mile down the drive and back.  The temperature was 92 degrees in the shade of the trailer. Larry switched horses and  added salt to his canteen. You never can get enough water. Highway 81 is a lightly traveled road, you see mostly border patrol agents, shuttle buses, which are vans that bring the legal Mexican’s to the major cities that they wish to visit. Not at tax payer expense, as that was a question that I asked Robert Cherrier, an agent who stopped at our night stop that evening. He stopped because a storm had come through during the afternoon, and caused problems on the road. He wanted to make sure that wasn’t the reason we were camping alongside the road. Other travel was local ranchers or day working cowboys. Everyone waves and are very friendly. Paul and I went on to find a place to camp. Rocky  said he should have had us do one more water stop, as the sun was beating down and it was the clouds moving in for the storm that really helped them.  They were almost out of water themselves at the 20 mile marker. The stretch of road was in the sun the whole way. Larry did some walking along the way, and Rocky switched over to Pepe. Larry switched back to Kemo for the final miles. When the storm started a rancher who was at his gate invited them down to seek shelter and water their horses.  At that end of the road they didn’t get anything but rain. Up where Paul and I were camped, the winds really picked up and there was hail for about 5 minutes. Then the rain came down and covered the field, can see why there are WATCH WATER signs along the road and DUST STORM area.  The heat made the horses extremely tired. The total miles ridden was 26.55, at an average pace of 3.5 mph. 

Another person that they encountered was Border Patrol agent Lee Reyes, who was checking out the hoofprints to see who was riding north. So all of you can be proud that our Border Patrol is doing their job so well. With all the miles that they have to cover, we should give them a pat on the back.

June 22, Sunday was another hot one. Rocky and Larry headed out about 7:45 am. The goal is to get earlier start times and beat the heat of the day. This whole section is all highway and no shade anywhere. Rocky started out on Pepe and ponied Soldier. Larry rode Dakota and ponied Kemo. Both men kept the same horses all day. Today’s trip was 21.3 miles and the average moving speed was 3.4 mph.   They chose to ride along the hardpacked roads that the border patrol use. It runs along the miles of fence, put up by the ranchers.  All along that stretch the fences are nice and tight.  The temperatures were better than yesterday, because there was a slight breeze. Rocky put on sunscreen around noon, and the thermometer on his saddle bag said 90 degrees.  There were more gullies and puddles to drink out of along the way. At the first water stop, emptied Paul’s 80 gallon water tank on the trailer’s roof. We then started getting water out of the camper. Paul moved on to Hachita to find a camping spot. Kathy went up the road about 7 miles to be there for more water.  We also had some conversation with  Border Patrol officer Dusty Smith. Rocky and Larry talked to another one named Dave.  I finally went on to Hachita and Paul and I found a place at the RV Park, but there are no signs, but they did have water and electric.  A kind man showed us where the park was named Ron Brown. The town itself is really hard pressed. The store and restaurant have been closed over a year. The bar is only open once in awhile. We have been high lining the horses between the camper and horse trailer at our stops. There was a roping arena we maybe could of used a ¼ mile away, but wanted to keep the horses close.  Everyone that we met was very pleasant and helpful. Rocky and Larry even exchanged military stories with a vet named Woody, who gave them each a beer.   It was Paul’s 63 birthday.

Will update the days 3 and 4, next time.

Day 1 thru Day 2 (No phone/internet connection)

First, I want to first appologize for not getting anything posted earlier, but we didn’t know that there was no phone or internet service in southern New Mexico!!  We didn’t even get phone service until this Monday (after leaving on Saturday).  I just want all to know that it has already been an experience.  I understand, now, why most people following the CDT from the border tend to delete the first 60 miles.  If you don’t have water for your horses, you really can’t make it.  Hikers can, because they can carry most of the water they need.  The first day, I drank over 1 ½ gallons of water.  The second day (being a little cooler after a rain shower, the day before) I only drank about ½ gallon.  The terrain is nothing but dry land and cactus.  One of the ranchers we met said he overs aw some 200,000 acres and about 10,000 head of cattle.  That is a minimum of 20 acres per cow.  What I saw, it would take over 50 acres per cow because there wasn’t even any grass!!  The first day was very hot on both the riders and the horses untill late afternoon, when a rain and thunderstorm came through.  We didn’t get very wet and missed most of it, but it did cool us off.

The riding route was O.K., since we generally followed a trail the Border Patrol leaves as they drive along beside the fences by the road.  Most of the animal life is nothing but occasional jack rabbits.  We were told to watch for snakes, but we didn’t see any until we went into a ranchers property to get some water from his tank (with his permission) and saw one by one of the buildings on the property. 

Day 2 was easier riding and we could water the horses on water holes and ditches on the road from the heavy rain the day before.  It was also a shorter distance.  The most traffic we saw was the Border Patrol trucks.  They would stop and talk to us quite often and they indicated that their shift managers had passed out the word that we were on the road, doing our ride.  I would guess that the traffic was about one car every hour (of which 90% of those were the Border Patrol pickups).

Kathy will provide more detail, but I wanted to briefly tell of some of my observations.  I do believe that this is going to be the toughest part of the ride

A week to the big day

Well, we are a week away from the start of the ride.  The past few days have been full of activity, trying to get the camper and horse trailer set, so that we are ready to head out of Antlers on Wednesday, June 18, heading towards Antelope Wells, N.M.  The horses, Zena, and Pepe will be getting their new shoes’  put on here in Antlers and Soldier will coming up on Monday, so not to have to worry about stopping on the road.  Mark will be coming up to Oklahoma.  Paul arrived on Wednesday, June 11 and Kathy drove from New York and arrived on Thursday.  We will meet up with Larry on Friday  and move his gear and supplies into the camper and horse trailer.  Finalize the plans for the start, and everyone will get better aquainted, so that everyone can work as a cohesive group to make this ride a success.  The dogs keep watching all the action around the trailer and know something “big” will be happening soon.  You will see posts on almost a daily basis  thoughout the ride, that will be written by either Rocky or Kathy. So keep reading and enjoying.,