Wild Horses, Mustangs, & Hardtrigger Canyon

This atv jaunt started from the Reynolds Creek T.H. Its hard to declare just where and when it ended. One FatCat and three atvs started the trip, but only two atvs made it back to the trailhead this day.

Phase I: Shortly after leaving the trailhead/parking lot we came across several wild horses in a herd that were not all that wild; unless you actually tried to approach them. Two young studs were dueling or sparring; nothing serious as it was still early in the year. The boss stud eventually came out and broke up these two and moved the herd. What was noteworthy was the significant blazed faces on all the horses, save a couple. Definitely a common gene pool. After watching and studying them for awhile and taking pictures and video we moved on down the road to our main objective, Hardtrigger Canyon.

To get to Hardtrigger meant we had to do a little water and puddle dodging along the way, but nothing serious. It was cold this morning, and with ground well frozen there plenty of ice on the road. Although ice is not a favorite thing to ride over, at least when you have ice present it usually means mud is at a minimum.

Once we got to Hardtrigger, we parked our conveyances at the lower end of the canyon and began a walk up Hardtrigger Creek. With all the rain over the last week or so Hardtrigger Creek was really flowing and flowing muddy.

Our main goal of this atv outing was to get to Hardtrigger Falls which was just over a mile up the canyon. Navigating to the falls was not particularly difficult, just a little snow, ice and mud here and there. Along the way two herds of deer were seen. The water flow at the falls was at an unusually high volume and level, again due to the recent rain.

Intermission: After returning from the falls we had lunch at our rigs and discussed the problems of the world and our country, each of us contributing greatly. We also discussed the route to be taken to return to our rigs.

The outing to this point had been uneventful and had not taken that much time. Someone in our group thought a loop around the canyon on an Owyhee county roads would be possible; after all, it was not that much further back to our rigs if we made a loop, and really how much worse could the roads be, certainly not that much worse than what we had gone over to get to the falls. I won't name the person who favored the loop route, but Ed knows him as well as he knows himself.

Phase ll: The first part of the return trip was good, a little more water and mud puddle dodging. After a mile or so we turned to the south and started a gradual climb. At about 3000 feet things came to a sticky & slippery halt. Before we could get turned around, mud had became so packed in the fenders, swing arm, chain and around the tires of the FatCat it became impossible to move; under it's own power or our's; nothing was going to move that machine. While trying to get the FatCat de-mudded one of the atvs quit with an apparent electrical problem. The more time we spent trying to get things worked out the more the temperature was rising causing the road to thaw which meant if we stayed there very long we might stay there a lot longer. I attempted to pull the FatCat down to lower and drier elevation with my atv which was futile.

The atv and FatCat were abandoned. The plan was to return early the following morning, hoping the temperature would be below freezing so that the road/mud would be at least firm enough to get the machines out.

Phase lll: Early the next morning we rendezvoued at the well frozen site. With solid ground to work on we hooked up my atv to the disabled atv and pulled it onto my trailer. After chipping away the mud on and in the FatCat we were able to get it free and rode it out to a lower elevation and it too was loaded and hauled out.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• horses
• hiking
• nature
• mustang
• stallion
• marty stewart
• owyhee
• hardtrigger
• wild horses
• hike
• wilderness
• horse
• herd
• fight
• horses fighting
• atv

[paprika63097]

they need to be left alone,to live in their home free,as ucry4me72 said,free as they should be

[ucry4me72]

Free. As they should be.

[Djinga]

nice video, nice tune as well

[TheUndeservingSon]

Nice, very nice