We made it to the top!

 

Horses were so glad to see the top and this easy mile of pavement into town.  We were able to water them at a stream right in town then tie up in an empty lot walking distance to the Cookie Shack.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Greg, Margie's husband.  He got talked into driving up here with a bale of hay to help us feed the horses.  He's a super great guy!

 
This is Margie's sweet baby Gypsey.  Very glad to see her Mom but kinda mad at her at first for leaving for a couple of days.

 
Darn, this store was closed so we didn't get to load up on chocolate.  I knew I would need chocolate and a  lot of it to make it back down that mountain.  Sheesh.

 Our ponies, first time ever:  Too tired to eat.

 Yeah, the cookie cabin is open and we went in and ordered a pizza.  People were staring at our crazy outfits but we didn't care.

 

 
See how happy we were waiting for pizza!

 
Still sleeping....We had to wake them up to get going.  I felt bad about that.

 

 

Heading back down

 

 

Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

Still more pack trip

 

 

 

Morning 1 at the camp.  Horses getting brushed and fed.

People drinking coffee and trying to get fed.

 This is the WORST food ever, freeze-dried Huevos Rancheros.  Yes it looks like throw up and no we didn't eat it.

 This is how you get fresh drinking water from an icky stream.  A water filter operated by a handy pump into Bobe's 1 gallon canteen and all our water bottles.  It was really good water if you didn't think about where it came from.

 Making the 5 mile trek from the cabin to the top to SummerHaven.  It was very steep and the first 3.1 miles took us 2-1/2 hours stopping to let the horses rest about every 5 minutes.

Getting up there now!

 This is the observatory

 Sad to see the fire's devastation.

 Tomorrow we will make it to the top.

More Pack Trip

 

So I have been told that there aren't any pictures of the 2nd half of the first day. It was pointed out that it looks like we go from Charleau Gap Road and then BING we are at the cabin. The reason for this is because when you get to the end of the Road we turned left into a wash filled with rocks and boulders and Al says "OK you guys have to find the trail" since we were in front. It was all we could do to pick our way through there, Terry in the lead using all his hound-dog sense to find the way. We did find the way eventually even with the millions of cow trails going off in every direction. After we left the first watering spot, about 1 hour into the trip we went 6 more hours looking for the first water spot. If there was not water at a certain point we would have had to turn around and go back. We had some mighty thirsty ponies when we finally found water. We continued up to the hikers cabin around 4pm after stopping one more time for water.

 

 

 

 

 Got camp set up and dinner cooking

 Yum, steaks on the fire!

 

 The horses are picketed just below the cabin

 

 Kitchen inside cabin stocked with lots of cookery and some food for emergency use

 Margies bed, that white cover is some kind of really loud plastic that crinkles like crazy when a person rolls around on it.  Al slept on the floor with his head in the doorway. Ouch

My bed on left, that yellow thing, Terry slept on floor next to me. Ouch.  His bed was atop of some nailed down tin that made a god-awful noise everytime he rolled over, not kidding just ask Margie.  Now if this cabin was in Michigan it would have had a serious gross-out factor because it would smell musty but not in AZ.  This cabin was clean and smelled just like a spring day! It was very class with it's stained glass window and crystal chandalier that you can't see.

 Good Morning Margie!

 Bobe isn't looking too happy

Al up and out already.

Stay tuned for more...

Day one of Mt. Lemmon Pack trip

 

We left out Thursday morning at 6:30am in the dark. I didn't sleep too good worrying about the alarm not going off in time at 4am. I am not a morning person so that is an ungodly hour for me but we were well prepared for an early start. All we had to do was push the button on the coffee pot, feed the horses a lot of breakfast and saddle up. Our packs were fully packed and we had a trial run the day before to see how it all gets tied on. Here are the first few pictures of heading out.

 

 

 Terry and Al

 Al (classic scowl on his face, not just because it is early), Zero and Closeau (sp) the awesome pack horse and Margie and Ryan.

Sunrise over the mountain.  A sight rarely seen by my eyes.  I enjoyed it every minute this day though even though I was freezing in my T-shirt, long sleeve shirt, winter carhart coat and silk scarf and gloves.  As soon as that sun gets over the top of the mountain it warms up nicely.  Terry and I each had about 15 lbs in each side of the rear packs plus our bedrolls.

 
We started out riding in the Canada Del Oro (pronouned CANYADA )or the CDO. It is a wash, or riverbed for you northerners. I have been told that in the summer it has a lot of water in it but I have never seen it anyway but totally DRY! See that low saddle between the peaks? That is about the half way point of this first day's ride. It is about a 9 hour ride. NOT KIDDING.   Check out the sun just kissing the left edge of the mountain top.  We saw a huge WABBIT around here, a Jack rabbit.  Also saw a bunch of cows grazing in here and Phinn was scared of them until he figured out they were  Grass-Eating COWS, not horse-eating COWS.  Oh boy...we are going up the mountain that will probably be sporting a lot of COWS everywhere...  Please God don't let us fall of the edge!

 

 
From the CDO we turned onto the Charleau Gap Road which is a Jeep trail that we ride for quite a while today.   Getting closer to the saddle now.  Still about a 2 hour ride to get there.  Distance is hard to judge here because it is so BIG.  Finally has warmed up some.

 
Still climing.  We stop a lot to let the horses rest, I mean a lot, like every 5 minutes.

 Doesn't Phinn have cute ears?

You can hardly see any horse under Bobe with all his stuff tied on.  This little horse is the toughest horse on the planet.

 This is the view from the saddle looking back where we rode from at Dorly's.

On the other side of the saddle, riding down and coming around the back of the mountain.

Still on the Charleau Gap Road

Finally made it to the first destination.  This is a hikers camp provided for anyone's use and supplied by some kind soul.  There is no road to here.  We left at 6:30am and arrived here around 4pm.  At one point a little ways from here we lost the trail because of so many DARNED COWS and their many COW trails that are everywhere but go nowhere.  We were pretty pooped by the time we arrived, set up camp, picketed the horses and got a fire going.  Stay tuned for more tomorrow!