Sunday, March 21, 2010

Dude, Where's my Forest?


What a great horse weekend in Oregon! We had the "NW Horse Expo" along with the "Mustang Challenge" down in Albany. On Saturday, we had the famous "Canby Tack Sale," the biggest tack swap meet in the country. We also managed to squeeze in one heck of a ride.

The only bad news in all this...they are cutting our trees! Well, not our trees, BLM trees, but they felt like "our" trees. We headed towards a trail with a decent water crossing and found our route was no longer. All the trees were down. If you watch the video clip, even the horses looked stunned. We knew they were planning on cutting portions of the forest soon. It was sad to see our routes decimated. We're never afraid to blaze a new trail, so my riding companions searched for any possible way of getting through but the trees were stacked too high. We found a way around it by going back out on the road. We rode long enough for me to be sore the next day. Sucks getting old. Anyway, the expo was tons of fun, even if I was hobbling around on Sunday. I will post some highlights and some disappointments later this week.

10 comments:

allhorsestuff said...

Oh crap...it's starting...I found a new place to park closer to 211 on Unger and went yesterday..no cutting on the 6 miles I rode..but...the tell tale red ribbons + "Boundary markers" tells me soon, soon~ Sorry it came your direction...but we'll just have to blaze more routes huh!
Kac

jane augenstein said...

Great photos and video but sad your trees are coming down. Looks like it was a great place to ride.
Me and Gilly are pretty much road riders right now.

Grey Horse Matters said...

That's such a shame about the trees. I hope they leave some trails to ride for you all out there.

Great videos and pictures.

Stephanie - Siouxzeegirl Designs said...

too bad about losing your trees! Other than that it sounds like you had a great weekend!

Drillrider said...

Yeah----same thing happened to me when I lived up by Merwin Lake in Washington. It was so great while it lasted and then they cut trees. The guy said "well we put in some new logging roads". Those were not what I liked, I liked all the nice wide trails the 4-wheeler people had blazed and they were no longer there......gone along with the extinct do-do birds..(sigh)..

I missed the Expo this year because we did our taxes and had a nasty surprise.....we OWE!

Jean said...

Oh my, looks like a huge version of my backyard after the storm.

Are they going to clear some trails afterward or is it a lost cause?

Always sad to see the trees go.

Drillrider said...

My experience was that "some" of it was cleaned up and then you had to make an alternate trail through the debris. I'm certain they will get all the big logs out! Hopefully, there will be route through after the logs are removed.

The picture of the rider standing on her horse for a better look........Cracks me up!

Rising Rainbow said...

Sometime I really hope to make that Expo in Albany. Seems like I remember too early and too late to get there.

Sorry about the trees and the trails that went with them.

Kathleen @ ForgingAhead said...

Very sad! I like the photo of you(?) standing in the saddle though - nice balance!

Val said...

We used to have a beautiful ride in E Texas in the piney woods; it was traumatic to ride through after large portions were clear-cut - looked like a moonscape. I feel for ya.