Copyright 2007 by Don Samuels and Marina
Larson
This was a somewhat of an exploratory ride. It took place after
the big blowdown of 2007, and we wanted to see how far we could get.
Cage was our trail guide / wrangler that day. There were a total of
4 riders, including myself and Cage. I was on Trooper.
Our objective was to see how far we could get on the way to
Salmon and Willow Lakes. We only made it to the point the Gore Range
Trail crosses the North Fork of the Willow Brook. After that the trail
was impassible to horses, since then, we have been on the trail twice
by foot and it is gradually being cleared. Since we were on a full day
ride, we turned back and followed the Gore Range Trail up to the
meadows along the South Fork of Willow Brook, having lunch along the
way.
Here is the map of our ride:
On our way out to the meadows after we turned back from the North
Fork, we took two side trails to get closer to the beaver ponds on the
South Fork. On the ride home, we stayed on the main trail.
We left the Ruby Ranch Barn at 10 am.
At about 10:50am, we crossed the South Fork of Willowbrook
At about 11:40am, we crossed the North Fork of Willowbrook and after a
couple of minutes, turned around and headed back.
At about 12:36pm, we were back at the South Fork and we stopped for
lunch. We got going again at 1:13pm
At about 1:50pm we reached our turn around point and headed back
At about 2:47pm we returned to the barn, essentially out for a 4 hour
ride with lunch.
The GPS says we covered 8.89 miles.
Between the Middle Fork and the North Fork, we passed a big blowdown
that had been cleared already (unlike the North Fork). Here are a
couple of pictures while I was on Trooper's back:
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This page last updated on July 7, 2007 by Don Samuels