June 13, back on the long ride trail

and our first rest stop.

We are now camped at the Burke creek graving co-op. The horses have a large corral with a stream running through and I have a nice tent spot on the edge of an aspen grove.

I was here last august and so knew about it a good destination. The critical issue being whether there would be cattle. I had a plan B, but we didn't have to go to it as there are no cattle, it's all peace and quiet and a good place to take 2 days off of which this is the first of them.

Strange after all that movement to suddenly halt, but I'm settling in just fine. The sun is coming out and things are starting to dry. We had heavy rain and hail coming into the camp which cleared for a bit, i didn't cook, just eating some pemmican and jerky. A good thing too as the thunder started rolling in and I had to make a hustle to get everything under cover.

Last night we had the strangest hail that was more like slush. Lots of it and it piled itself on the edge of the tent wall. There was enough that when i woke this morning there were still little mounds here and there.

All in all, the weather has been cloud/sun, mid teens during the day and 6 or 7 at night. (at least that what it feels like. I don't have a thermometer with me.) 

One very different aspect to this trip from my other 2 years of long rides is that I am taking a portable fence thing that is powered by 2 D cel batteries. On the last rides I always picketed the horses (stake in the ground, with 30 foot rope attached to horse's foot) I had the fence kit when i started but decided that the pickets would be more secure. This year with the ever so calm Juniper and Dakota also in that mode, this being his 3rd year I decided to try the fence after Juniper got caught up in the rope back at Windy Coulee. She did well with the pickets but getting tangled and injured is always a risk with pickets. I would never picket them and go away for a length of time for instance.

The fence is working out great and I am sleeping better because of it! If it's not a contained (somewhat contained at least) area then I also have been hobbling them and putting the wood 'bell' that I got in SE Asia. Not as clangy as a metal bell (which I also use during the day) but still a different sound from what's generally around.

Juniper has been doing so wonderfully well. Completely non plussed with the pack. In fact, yesterday afternoon the whole pack, saddle, pad an all flipped completely around ending up under her belly. She was a touch startled but very quickly realised what was going on and just stood there while I undid everything and packed the load up once more.

The only trouble I've been having is that the pack has been shifting as we travel. This can be very troublesome as I'm sure you can imagine. She is overweight at the moment and I'm hoping that in a short time her withers will make a more pronounced and thereby make the load more stable. Not to single her out on that account, Dakota and I can use of fair bit of that long ride weight loss program magic!

I'll also widen the pack saddle a little bit and see if that helps. 

So I guess that's good for now. Our camps have been lovely and it's so great to be camped in trees for the most part. Great to feel a little sheltered, a place to hang food out of bear's reach etc etc. Last year was so much open treeless plains. I love that too but hoo boy can it ever make you exposed to the weather.

Today's 'plan' is to get my shamisen put together, do a little practising, a little reading, some coffee in the early afternoon and also to gather some wood while it's dry for the next couple of days. Something I should have done yesterday. I'm also using a new type of wood/dung burning stove which is working out very well. I do a post on that down the trail, this one seems long enough.

Cheers and all the best

Cath 

Doi Saket Temple Rave

a 3 day party to help raise funds for a new Temple Building. It was a truly amazing experience. (thanks to Brian Bulfer for the 'rave' tag. perfect)

Nahanni. Dakota and some of the herd

More new year's celebrations

After visiting Siam Centre, I headed home from a nearby MRT (metro) station through small side streets. I often walk back this way through twisting lanes, past a temple. There are tons of little sewing studios completely open to the street. I love walking by them and feel a small kinship after so many years and hours in front of a sewing machine! This was my first time walking back in the dark and the place was transformed. Many of the sewing spots were now party places with people sitting around laughing, inviting me in for a drink (had a beer and great chat at one place). It was so beautiful and a great example of Thai love of having a good time. At the end of one street, a stage was set up and I caught the last bit of these young girls doing a dance routine. Another amazing day.

Siam centre,Bangkok, new years eve

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Night market

Chiang Mai, Thailand: A morning walk next to a school

I took an early morning stroll on our last morning in Chiang Mai and happened to walk by a school with the kids coming in ... mostly on scooters and often 1, 2 or 3 passengers to a bike. Amazing.

Saskatchewan Birds

Click here or on the title above to listen to an audio podcast of the amazing bird sound that surrounds us in the summer at Trails End Ranch in Saskatchewan. This is the first podcast of what will become many.

The birds bring to mind a quote from David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous, 'As technological civilisation diminishes the biotic diversity of the earth, language itself is diminished. As there are fewer and fewer songbirds in the air, due to the destruction of their forests and wetlands, human speech looses more ond more of it's evocative power. For when we no longer hear the voices of the warbler and wren, our own speaking language can no longer be nourished by their cadences. As the splashing speech of the rivers is silenced by more and more dams, as we drive more and more of the land's wild voices into the oblivion of extinction, our own languages become increasingly impoverished and weightless, progressively empties of their earthly resonance.'