Veteran's Day Ride

Mike here. On Veteran's Day, our son-in-law, Collin Claridge, set up a grand adventure for some of us. My dad, Keith, Dallin Brown, Collin's dad Chris, and I took an 6-hour ride from the Diamond Bar headquarters north up to Hooker Gap, where the old military trail from Fort Apache to Fort Thomas crosses the Gila Mountains. We then rode east along the reservation line to the head of Fishhook Canyon and crossed south into Twin Troughs Canyon and circled back down to Fishhook Canyon and the trail back to the ranch headquarters.

We saw 4 whitetails and about 100 elk, including a big 6x6 that I watched walk away without taking a picture. (Duh.) The horses did great, including Dallie's Mexican horses. When we started down Two Troughs, I was thinking that this was the roughest country I had ever ridden a horse through. There were places where I would have gotten off and led, but everyone else was still on. Collin admitted to me later that he was ready to bail off on the high side if his paint mare were to roll. We skirted some 100-foot cliffs, rolling rocks and scrambling all the way. Dad took a spill when he went to get back on once, and had to backtrack to find his camera. He's fine though, not even a scrape.

It was Dallie's 22nd birthday--what a way to spend it! Our thanks to Collin and Chris for showing us some wonderful country.