OR wilderness report & field testing, long

[KarenBrat1@aol.com]

A friend and I (hi Rough!) just spent two weeks (8 actual riding days) in
Eagle Cap, Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson Wilderness areas in Oregon, riding
nearly 150 miles.  Eagle Cap is gorgeous but extremely rugged and rocky, very
hard on the horses. We went in at East Eagle trailhead on the south side and
rode in to camp at Hidden Lake, a somewhat hard to find area as there is no
trail from the creek for at least 100 yds up the mountain, but we did find it.
A very steep trail more suited to mountain goats than horses, but worth it...
three pristine lakes in a big bowl of valley surrounded by the 8000-9000+'
Eagle Cap peaks.  We hiked up to what's known as "Metamucil Hill", the highest
peak at the north edge of that valley at 8335'.  The last 100' or so required
some scrambling on all fours!  At the tip top is a cairn of rocks covering an
empty Metamucil container in a ziploc, into which hikers who make it there
have been stuffing little notes since the 60s!  Pretty kewl.  The view from
there is breathtaking, into 3 deep valleys.

Next day we rode an approximately 20 mile loop from Hidden Lake over Frazier
Pass to Minam Lake, from there over Carper Pass to the Lakes Basin (gorgeous),
and then Horton pass to the return access for camp.  Anyone considering going,
I'd really recommend NOT going over Horton with horses.  The south side of the
pass is incredibly rocky, and I don't mean gravel, we're talkin' softball to
humungous boulder size.  Many parts of the trail are expanses of solid rock or
the tumbled leftovers from glaciers, and we got off and led the steeds,
praying they wouldn't stick their legs between rocks and snap them off!  My
pony boy stepped on a big rock plate which tilted up, and when he stepped back
it came down on his other hoof!  He stood calmly waiting for me to extricate
him, thank goodness.

Day 3 we decided we'd had enough of Eagle Cap, all the horses were bearing
assorted cuts from the rocks and their 4-week-old shoes looked like potato
chips!  We were still 3 or 4 miles from the trailers when Rough's beloved,
irreplaceable horse "C.B." colicked, and it was a fight to keep him going and
not fling himself down and off the steep trail in his pain.  All we had at the
trailer was Bute which we gave him plus kept him walking while Rough's husband
went a mile further to a place with a phone, and called a vet.  Luckily for
all of us, C.B. gradually got better, as the vet was 1-1/2 hours away.  All he
could do was give him Banamine, even sedated, C.B. fought violently against
the tube and the vet could not get it down him to give oil.  He left us more
Banamine just in case, with instructions to not feed him til the next day.
After the drugs wore off, C.B. felt fine and ravenous and was very offended
that we were starving him while the other horses ate!  We are sure he impacted
from feeding packer pellets, though they had free access to water;
thereafter, we doused their feed with so much water they had to nearly swim
for their dinners!

We travelled back west and spent the night in Sisters Cow Camp, which is a
great place for horsecamping in the NE part of Three Sisters Wilderness.  A
big fenced area divided into two log corrals and a barbed wire one, with a big
automatic-filling stock tank at their junction.  Plenty of room for lots of
rigs, but if a lot of horses come in you must tie the horses to the fences
instead of leaving them loose in the pens.  There is a one-holer outhouse, but
no people water unless you have a purifier to filter the stock tank water.  

We then went on to Rough's place in the Willamette valley and spent a couple
days waiting for a farrier, who got halfway through one horse and his
clinchers broke!  Arghh!  Back up to Sisters and made desperate calls, finally
sweet-talked one fellow into coming out even though he is booked three weeks
in advance... we told him, we smile real big, and we'll feed you!  He did a
terrific job on our steeds, and off we went.  On the way up the day before, we
had stopped in Mt. Jefferson Wilderness and did a 20+ mile loop, halfway
through which I plowed part of the Pacific Crest Trail with my face and
assorted other body parts from full gallop.  We had two spare horses loose
with us, and my packhorse Teddy Bear had fallen behind eating, then charged up
behind us.  This horse is built like a tank, and he goes through things rather
than around them.  The brush and young trees were very thick and it sounded
like a DRAGON was crashing out of the woods!  Our horses snorted and bolted,
my saddle slipped, and KAPOW, I ate it :-D   Thank goodness for my Croakies
glasses hobble, and Troxel helmet; I just ended up with a thoroughly scraped
cheek and shoulder, whopping bruises on arms and knees, and a couple days
later a black eye.

Our next goal was to ride the 44-mile loop from Pole Creek around all the
Three Sisters mountains, and we did it!  Got a late start at 12:30, camped on
the trail halfway around around, and completed at 12:30 the next day.  The
Three Sisters Wilderness is an awesomely gorgeous place to ride in.  Most of
the trailheads have plenty of parking and turning around space, there's lots
of water on most of the trails in streams and lakes, and many areas on the
trails have grass for the horses.  Some areas are limited access, and require
a permit in advance from the ranger station. 

Another 20+ mile loop we did was up to Jefferson Park, a huge highcountry
meadow area filled with lakes in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness.  We also rode
part of the Santiam Wagon Road, and did an uninteresting loop out of Box
Canyon (west side Three Sisters W).  Box Canyon does have a nice horse camp, a
long driveway circling back to the main road, with lots of angled spaces long
enough for big trailers, and each space has its own two box-stall-sized
corrals.  Water is in an automatically fed trough near the trailhead.
Outhouses but no people water.  The road going in to Box Canyon past Cougar
Reservoir is very twisty and slow.   I had hoped to ride at Rebel, also on the
west side, as my parents were posted at Rebel and Box Canyon around 1950 for
trail work and fire watch, but there is nowhere to park a trailer in or near
the Rebel trailhead.

The weather was fantastic our whole trip, bordering on too hot, sunny all the
time with excellent photo conditions.  Rough shot 38 rolls of film!!  It was
so warm that even some of the high lakes were swimmably cool/cold instead of
freeze-your-cookies-off.  It did frost at night at Hidden Lake and dipped into
the mid-30s at Sisters.

Throughout the trip, I wore Carousel tights, rode my endurance Sports Saddle
with a Skito Equalizer pad, Hi-Tech Trail caged stirrups, and Carousel pommel
and cantle bags, and I love everything!  I had just bought a Mountainsmith
Swift lumbar pack which worked great too... it fits very closely (
designed for climbers I think) and has straps to compress the contents, both
helping it to not bounce on my cantle and drive me nuts like others I've
tried.  It comes with its own 2-liter Platypus water bag complete with hose
and bite valve for drinking on the go and has enough room for plenty of other
small items like Susan's "Overkill Fannypack List" of trail necessities.

I'm not sure I have what it takes to be an endurance rider (though I found out
my horse does!); I get tired, and my knees hurt very much, though if I get off
and walk a lot every 5 miles or so it helps.  Don't know if I could keep up
the pace required for the time required!  But Rough has talked me, neigh,
coerced me into trying the Lost Wheelbarrow Mine ride next year... like the
song goes, "How you ever gonna know, if you don't dare to try?"

"Ready" aka Karen Bratcher and Bender (formerly Spike) the Little Big Horse
("just watch me dance over these rocks ma, see, nothin' to it!")
Hayden ID