Quandary Peak - the start

I don't know how this happens. I do SO well...and then this. It's been almost a full week since I blogged.

Ok, so I'm going back to last Wednesday and Thursday.

A few weeks ago, I put up a sign-up sheet for us to hike a 14er (a 14er is a peak in Colorado that is at least 14,000 feet high). I was supposed to orchestrate the whole thing, since this was my idea. Originally, we were going to climb Longs Peak, which is the closest to us, but also a hard one. And also a 14 mile round trip hike.

The last time I traveled 14 miles by foot was the half-marathon (and that's only 13.1 miles, but at that point, what's another mile?) I did in February. Granted, I ran it, but I had trained, I was at sea-level, and it was almost completely flat, except for the bridge.

I decided that 14 miles was a bit much considering the first 7 miles is ALL uphill and the second 7 miles is ALL downhill. Not to mention that at 14,000 feet there is only 60% of the oxygen at sea level. So I found a 6 mile roundtrip mountain. South of Breckenridge. 3 hours away.

So here's the plan I created for us:

1. Duff and I will leave the ranch around 5:30 or 6. We'll go into Ft. Collins to the library to pick up some books on 14ers and then to Wal-Mart to get water and food for the trip.
2. We'll drive to Quandary Peak, find a place to camp, and set up. The others will get there and will get there and we'll sleep.
3. We'll leave around 6 am to get a start on the mountain before the afternoon storms roll in and we're left above tree line without any protection from lightning.
4. We should be back down around noon (6 hours of hiking) and back to the ranch by supper time.

Here's how it actually played out. (Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men...)

1. Duff got back from his ride around 6:30. He still had to get all camping gear gathered up in his truck. I didn't have time to do this because I was on maintenance all day and didn't really take any breaks. While he did that, I packed my stuff as well as got all the hiking stuff we needed and made sure Cookie got everything we needed as far as food was concerned.

Duff and I left the ranch at 8 pm. With just enough time to pick up the books I *thankfully* put on reserve. We went to Wal-Mart and left Ft. Collins at 10 with 2 and a half hours left to drive.

2.

Well here's the thing. As I mentioned last week, Gordon, usually comes on Thursday, but he had mentioned wanting to go with us and we only had a few horses that needed him. So, I called to let him know we didn't need him and that we were going to be in his part of the state. (Yes, Gordon drives 2.5 hours to us every week!)

While he didn't want to join the hike (it was a bit last minute), he said we should stop by. Except it was 10pm before we left. As luck would have it, Gordon works for a guy on Wednesdays and is out late. He ended up being 5 minutes behind us by the time we got to Denver. He invited us to stay at his house that night rather than camping on the side of the road.

All 6 of us. Without asking his wife first.

I don't think she was too happy when she was awoken from a dead sleep at midnight, "Honey, some of my friends are staying here tonight."

3.

Since Duff and I got there at midnight and waited until 1 am for the others to get there (they had to stay for music night with Lars and Amy -- oh my gosh! I was going to put a link to my post about them...but I've never posted about them!!! I'll hopefully get on that soon!), we decided to start a little later. We had only an hour to drive, so we got up at 6 am.

Except everyone took a long time to get ready. Not the 15 minutes I expected.

And we got bad internet directions. By we, I mean I.

We took Hwy 285 South instead of getting on I-70 West to Hwy 9. And it probably only took us an extra half hour, but still, we got to the mountain at 9 am. A pretty late start for any 14er regardless of length.

By the time we were ready, it was 9:30 am.

Stay tuned for the pictures installment and the actual hike.

wrangler sarah

Looks like you're going to get a lot of meet 'n greets here. Wrangler Sarah left yesterday and Georgia leaves at the end of this week. Man, I swear! I don't know how the summer went so fast!

Wrangler Sarah came to visit me in Florida before we ever made our way to Colorado. She had just graduated college and was traveling around the country before she started work this summer.

We showed up to work on the same day, which made it nice to know someone when I got here, since all the winter wranglers were here and I was the only new person.

We spent some great nights warming ourselves in the hot tub.

As her name suggests, she was a wrangler here and after all the winter staff left, Wrangler Sarah was the only seasoned veteran. She had worked here for two years a couple of years ago.

And you can't mention Wrangler Sarah without mentioning her dog, Irie. They pretty much went everywhere together.

If you look closely, Irie is laying on Wrangler Sarah's foot as she knits.

Wrangler Sarah, Roo, and Katie always did a pretty cool 3-part harmony on Seven Bridges Road, which you might be able to find on youtube. And she even ended up getting a weekly gig up at the Potbelly, which was pretty cool...and some nice extra cash in her pocket!

I guess she's staying in the area for now...and maybe even hiking a 14er with us this week, so hopefully we'll still see her again!

shoeing

Thursday (I told you it was a long week!) Gordon was here as usual.

Gordon is our farrier. (pssst! It means he puts shoes on our horses.) And don't mind the crazy Hawaiian shirt. He was just putting that on for lunch; he likes to give Cookie a reason to make fun of him.

Although, I don't usually see the side of Gordon I just showed you.

This is my usual view. I hold horses while he bends over.

Except the roles were reversed this week, because I had asked Gordon a couple of weeks ago, if he would teach me to pull and tack on shoes.

But I think this might have been a gratuitous shot, don't you?

Anyhow, back to the actual shoeing of horses...

Unfortunately, most of my horses are kind of bad when it comes to standing still for the farrier. And I apologize, Gordon. We pick their hooves daily, but some are just punks...or they're afraid of you. (I swear, there are some who just KNOW a farrier when they see one and they fuh-REAK!)

But Skip, now Skip is another story. He is probably the best horse we own. He goes sooooo slow when he has beginners on his back. But when he has a wrangler on him, he is super responsive and even fast!

And he stands still. Forever. (And believe me, when you're not a seasoned professional, It. Takes. For. Ever.)

Thank you, Skip.

So Gordon showed me how to pull a shoe.

I had to rasp (file) down the nails on the outside, so I didn't rip the hoof when I pulled out the shoe.

Then you just pull on one side, then the other, starting at the heel and working your way towards the toe. And with one final pop, it comes off!

Gordon did the leveling, shoe-shaping, and placement.

We even hot-fitted one shoe. Basically, Gordon sticks it in his little mobile forge and gets it red-hot and shapes it.

While it's still hot, he (or I, in this case) puts it on the hoof which basically burns out any unevenness he created in rasping.

But it really, really stinks. Imagine a singed fingernail or hair...times 50.

I finished it by hammering it the rest of the way on and rasping it into shape.

Here's one where you can see the hammer moving so you know I really was doing it. Gordon kept telling me to look at him and smile, but I told him people would think I was just holding different tools and having my picture taken. So this is my "proof" picture.

If for some reason, I decide to take up being a farrier. Here are some things I can look forward to.

1) Having this look on my face (although I think he was just wiping sweat away).

2) A sweet, sweet Certified Farrier belt buckle

3) A farrier belly -- this was a requirement Gordon pointed out, I'm not picking on him!

4) And a cool bracelet...except Gordon made me one for my birthday so I can check that off my list. (See pictures above)

All I'm saying is, if I didn't have respect for farriers before (which I did), I definitely do now! It was hard enough to work on Skip, who stands still, not to mention our horses who lean, wiggle, and even kick. So thanks for all your hard work!

PS - I think I promised back in April that I would show you the process of horseshoeing from the day I hung out with Justin...maybe some day I'll actually get that posted............