Annual Trek to Linton Meadows

On Wednesday August 29,2007, 3 brave women, 5 burdened horses, and 1 free-spirited dog set out on yet another adventure into the wilds of Three Sisters' Wilderness Area. We drove to the Foley Ridge Trailhead, ate some lunch, and packed up 2 horses, Chip and Tess, with all of our accoutrements for 2 days and 3 nights at Linton Meadows.
The ride is 8.5 miles and takes us from 4000 ft. elevation at Foley Ridge Trailhead to 6320 ft. at Linton Meadows. It takes about 4 hours of riding to get to our destination. The red dots on the map show the trail that we follow. Linton Meadows is nestled between 3 mountains...The Husband, South Sister and Middle Sister.

At the trailhead, we all get busy and help to load our food, tent, sleeping bags, clothing, etc. etc. into 4 bags...2 pack bags per horse. We carefully weighed each bag to get it perfectly even. Pam and Lorrie are the experts...I just do whatever they say!

Pam and Zane

Lorrie and Pam securing the pack on Chip

Lorrie bridles Tanner. She rides Tanner and will pony Tess.

I make sure we pack a very important piece of equipment...never go into the wilderness without your shovel!! I will ride Bucko.

Pam will ride Zane and pony Chip.

Sam loves to go on this pack trip. He scouts ahead of us...behind us...beside us! He keeps very busy!

The trek is on a well marked trail through beautiful tall trees. It was a warm day. We decided that the best order of riding would be Pam first, then me, and Lorrie brought up the back. We had a great ride in and stopped for a rest about half way.

Pam did have some challenges ponying Chip...sometimes he wanted to just do it his way!

We arrived at our camp about 730 pm. It is good to be here. The views are spectacular!
This is one of the meadows in Linton Meadows, and this is just below our camp, called Winter Camp. The first thing to do when we arrive is unsaddle and unpack the horses, hobble them and turn them out for a well deserved graze! When we arrived it was just starting to get dark. There was lightning just over the mountain, but we couldn't hear the thunder, so we knew it wasn't too close to us. We found out Saturday that the lightning had started a forest fire on the east side of the mountains.

Setting up our tent, getting a fire going, and eating Taco Salad came next. Food always tastes so good when you're camping out. We always eat so well...from breakfast to snacks to suppertime...we ate very well! We had steak, porkshops with fried apple compote and of course Lorrie's breakfast are a highlight of our day. We also had some great conversations and solved alot of the world's problems too. I love going with Pam and Lorrie...I feel well taken care of and they are both so good at all of this "packing stuff".

We spent the next couple days exploring the wilderness around us on horseback and on foot. We walked down to Linton Falls early one evening...it took about an hour and a half to hike there and back...that was beautiful. Another evening we walked and found a new place to set up camp next year...not too far from this Winter Camp, but with more wood, closer to Linton Creek and a lovely green grassy meadow to graze the horses.

We also found time to go for a swim in Lake Eileen. The day was warm and sunny and the lake was refreshing! One odd thing about this lake is that the shores are crawling with tiny little frogs about 1/2 an inch long...they are crawling out of holes in the grass and heading for water. Once in the lake they disappear. Amazing!

Two beauties frolicking in the warm waters of Lake Eileen! Nice back drop, don't ya think?!!?

Pam and Lori find some time for a little horse training.

The last day we packed up and left about 2 pm for the trailhead. We had a good ride out...only stopping once to fix Tess's packs. The day ended perfectly as we were met by Carm and Lee Anderson, Lorrie's Aunt and Uncle. They waited patiently for us and we arrived in the nick of time for a great supper they brought for us. We are always starving when we come out, a little bedraggled too. This was a perfect ending to a great weekend! It is now October when I am finishing this blog, and we are so very glad we went when we went, because the weather changed dramatically after this. The Sisters are covered with snow now!

Next year we will look forward to another adventure with 3 brave women, 5 burdened horses, and a very happy dog!

Life is good! God is good!