Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I’m back safely from my trip to Adobe Valley to track, see, and photograph Wild Mustangs!
It was a fantastic trip. We stayed in two camps; a lower one the first night then we rode for 6 hours up to the upper camp in the high country.
Here’s a look at the kitchen and some of the other photographers. We were assembling for a walk out to the herd of Wild Mustangs that were in a huge meadow a mile and half from camp. The kitchen/hangout is on the far right under the tarp like tent. Penny our cook had quite a camp kitchen set up. The paddock the horses and mules were in are just to the right of that out of the frame.
Happily, I can report there wasn’t a hot dog, or hamburger to be found on the menu!
The food was awesome. I wanted to bring Penny home.
We had BBQ chicken, corn puddin, and fresh fruits, Stuffed Pork Chops, fresh mixed salad, homemade applesauce gravy, and summer squash sauté just right, and steak, baked beans, corn, and anything left over from the night before was set out to be eaten.
Breakfasts were hearty and kept us going until our lunch stop along the trail.
We had sausage and egg comme Mcmuffins, steel cut oatmeal with all sorts of topping choices; raisins, brown sugar, syrup, nuts, fresh strawberries, and bacon, and French toast.
Snacks and lunches we made and packed for the ride each morning. We had turkey, or ham, or roast beef and assorted cheeses, chips, nuts, cookies, and fruit.
Snacks were nuts, dried and fresh fruit, chips, dips, OH, and desserts! Fresh baked berry pie, carrot cake, and oh, I forgot what we had the last night already! I should have wrote it down. Penny made the cake in a dutch oven on the grill, actually most the meals were made via her huge Dutch Ovens.
We didn’t go hungry!
I’ll show you some of the camp. My tent, and others. That cabin is deserted. A rancher lived there once. They told us it’s about 150 yrs. old. The horse paddock was made of stone fencing instead of wood. That’s one way to clear the rocks.
Cowboy/Wrangler Patrick setting up my tent. The pack company provided tents, the cook, wranglers, horses, and tack. We had to bring our own sleeping bag, and sleeping pad that was weighed in as part of our 40 pound dunnage limit. 
Do you want to see the Privy? Inside there is a box with a lid. Open the lid to find a hole cutout. It was just a hole dug out of the dirt under that box. It wasn’t bad. I don’t see a ziplock bag with toilet paper clipped to the tarp so someone is using it at the time I took this image. That was the signal. 😊😊
In the upper camp we had two of these privies, and two showers with hot water!
My trusty steed Tip. He’s a 25 year old Gelding. They told me he’s a mutt. A mix of Draft, and Thoroughbred? He’s a gentle, and easy going horse. Up in the rocky lava strewn hillsides I would get a bit tense;especially going down. I tighten up his reins a lot, but he’d ask for me more, and I gave him the slack on the condition that he kept me on his back, and didn’t fall. He stumbled a few times, but he has four legs, and rebounded quickly. I learned to trust him pretty fast. He kept me on his back every ride.
We didn’t find any Wild Mustangs in the high country, but it was fun to explore and ride despite that. We rode all the way into Nevada!
I took a pair of He-Man’s cycling shorts with a nice gel pad, and lots of butt butter. My butt was fine, my thighs, and knees on the other hand not so much. Riding up and down mountains on horseback is a workout! My thighs are still sore. I hate sage brush! We were riding single track trails between the brush and too often my stirrups or toe would get caught in it and it would pull my leg backwards. My knees are so bruised.
That is my only complaint about the trip. The bush is brutal! Nevertheless, if Ken will have me I’m doing this trip again next year.
Okay, I know you want to see some wild horses. Here’s one of my favorite images. Taken just as the sun was going down.
Aren’t they beautiful? There were several foals, but only 3 Yearlings. The mortality rate is awful. Not many foals will survive because of the mountain lions. 😢
I have tons of images to share so I’ll be sharing for awhile. I hope you don’t get bored!
I’ll be catching up with your blogs!
Happy Wednesday!
Nikon D810 w/ 200-500mm, 20mm f/1.8G. and iPhone 7Plus
more to come…
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