Day #48

So Dan had the hiccups all night and woke me at 5:00 sneezing. He doesn't have any cold symptoms and often gets a really clogged nose while sleeping. I guess because of the hiccups he wasn't sleeping soundly and the sneeze just happened.

I got up and played around on the computer for an hour and a half, finally going out to do the chores at 7:00. It was an overcast day, but within an hour the sun was trying to peek through the clouds.

Since Dan wasn't going to ride I fixed breakfast and then got Blaze cleaned up and saddled. I wanted to see if I could find the Sheep Tank. Chris and Jerry had taken us there in January, but there are no sign posts showing the way. :-) I set my GPS Tracks app on my phone and headed out.

The way to the Sheep Tank takes a trail that crosses the park road and goes by the Ranger Station on the opposite side. After a mile or so, you come to a development. The trail goes right next

to the houses and then up into a canyon.

I did good to get that far, but then I wasn't sure about how to find the water tank. This water is for the mountain sheep that supposedly live in the Catalina Mountains. I have never seen any since we have been riding here two years.

There was a trail that was very plain through the canyon and so I followed it. A runner was the only person I ran into, but I didn't bother to ask about the tank, because I doubted a runner would have any idea where it was.

The trail split and I chose to take the less traveled path. It went right up a hill. Blaze was kind of leaping up and over the rocks, as they were quite big. When we got to the top, I looked around and didn't

see and tank.

Deciding to continue to follow the very light trail seemed like the thing to do. I hate turning around and would rather find a loop trail if I can.
At one point on the top of a hill the trail didn't show because the way was paved with huge rocks. It was like riding on pavement, except they weren't level. Blaze was very steady and didn't do any slipping. I wasn't sure which way to get off the rocks to find the trail, but it seemed to follow a little wash. When we came up out of the wash, there was a cairn, so I knew I was right. Several other cairns showed me the way and then I got on an obvious horse trail.

It led me to a beautiful view and I could see the campgrounds way off in the distance. Blaze was showing that we were heading home, too. There was a very steep descent that had a switch back every three or four steps for him to navigate. He did great and didn't even bump me into any of the thorny plants growing on either side of the trail.

Once we were down I realized that I had been on that path before when we did the Sheep Tank. The rest of the way home was easy

because I recognized the area.

We were gone for 2 hours and 6 minutes and covered 6.7 miles. Looking at the map later, I see that I should have taken the well-worn path and it would have gotten me closer to the sheep pen. I cut off early and that was why the ride was only two hours long instead of three.

Dan is feeling much better and his hiccups quit sometime in the morning while I was gone. He will go with me tomorrow and try to find the Sheep Tank.

The rest of the day I made sour dough bread and painted on the tiger. What a life!
'Till tomorrow. God's blessings on you.
Pam