Chasing Wild Mustangs!

Having a family full of outdoor enthusiasts, you never know what kind of adventure you will find yourself on. Someway or another we found ourselves chasing wild mustangs. There's a great spot we know of that we have good results of finding the horses. We checked the weather forecast and figured it would be a good day to go explore. We would have 2 UTV's going on the trip, a Polaris Ranger Crew and a Yamaha Rhino. These vehicles are slightly better suited for the trip because of some of the narrow and overgrown roads. After a beautiful drive through the high desert, we arrived at the staging area. There were some dove that fluttered around the crystal clear spring as we loaded up the ice chests and gathered our gear.

There is a cool old cabin where we stage (below)

It looks like someone has redone the corral (below)

Gettin' ready (below)

Off in the distance we saw a trail of dust. A truck you ask? No, a herd of running horses! Imagine that, we didn't even have to drive anywhere, they were right there at the staging area.(below)

We hopped in the UTV's and drove up the road and intersected the horses on their jaunt. Check out the video below:

We continued on, down the road that goes on forever! (below)

We came up onto Pizona Spring. Quite the green wonderland out in the dry desert! (below)

We came up on Upper Pizona Spring, pretty overgrown at times, but pretty (below)

Next we came into McNamara Lake which is usually dry (below)

Shortly after we came into McBride flat. What a nice area! (below)

There's an old windmill out there, doesn't look like it's been used for awhile (below)

A house of some sort out at McBride Spring (below)

Looking back across McBride Flat towards the Sierra Nevada mountain range. We hung out a for a few minutes and chased some Chuckar (below)

After a quick break, we continued onto Sagehen Springs and had lunch (below)

A few remnants of days past left out there (below)

We left and headed down towards Truman Meadows. This is descending looking south towards Upper Truman Meadows (below)

Down in the Truman Spring (below)

Taking a quick break (below)

Beautiful day out there! (below)

Montgomery and Boundary Peak in the back (below)

Here a pack station stages their horses (below)

Check out this natural rock wall! (below)

We headed up through the rest of Truman Meadows and back towards Sagehen. While we were driving safe, it looks like someone had a minor 'oopsies' at some point prior (below)

I really liked this tree (below)

A teepee ring from people long ago (below)

Awesome clouds! (below)

We started looping back as it was getting late. Here we are looking down on McBride Flat (below)

The lead Rhino was moving across McBride Flat when we noticed a trail of dust coming from the left. 6 wild mustangs at full sprint crossing the flat, directly on a collision course with the Rhino. The Rhino stopped 15 yards short and watched in awe as wild horses raced by directly in front of them. (below, horses on left, Rhino dust trail on right)

We drove back through Pizona and tried to imagine who lived in this old structure (below)

We finally reached the trucks after 50 miles of exploration. Some horses were still out in the valley. (below)

We loaded up and bid farewell to the horses until next time. We had another great trip down in the books!

Bullards Bar Camping Trip Aug 6 & 7 2011

Since I have moved to Northern California, I'm always looking for someplace new to explore. I came across Bullards Bar Reservoir north of Sacramento. I searched the internet and found nothing but good things about it. So we decided to give it a try!

On Saturday we awoke around 6:30am to try and get an early start. We were able to get on the road by 8am. The drive up was pretty easy.

We came in through Marysville. I'm pretty sure the route through the 49 is lots of up and down and winding road.

We launched at Dark Day launch ramp. The launch was free (amazing, right?) and there was no mussel inspection, but the girl at the kiosk said to expect inspections next year. Bummer!

It was around 11am and the ramp was pretty busy. Lots of people going shoreline camping, etc. We got on the water and started motoring around.

Map of the lake (above)

Quite a bit of houseboats out here! (above)

Skipper and first mate (above)

Lots of pine trees and emerald green 80 degree water, my kind of lake! (above)

Love the red dirt too!(above)

Always a place to rock jump!(above)

Cruisin...(above)

It was tough to get a shot of this guy, but I don't see bald eagles very often!(above)

We stopped at this popular cove with the waterfall and climbed up(above)

It's a party!(above)

Pretty big waterfall!(above)

Got out on the wakeboard for a few minutes(above)

We met up with Bruce and Katherine, they got this boat about a year ago, pretty sweet!(above)

Awesome...(above)

Off they go!(above)

We got off the lake and headed over to Schoolhouse campground and setup camp(above)

We cooked dinner and had some smores and hit the sack by 10pm(above)

We were up by 6am and went on a little hike trying to find the lake and saw this guy on the tree!(above)

Adele cooked up a great breakfast!(above)

We launched at 9am and I was testing the ski out. It wasn't running quite right, but I rode for a few minutes. I was warmer in the water than out!(above)

Willow Creek Arm(above)

They are dropping the water level fast, look at the ladder pattern in the shore?!(above)

Someone has been stacking some rocks!(above)

Garden Point camping area(above)

Quite the dam, couldn't imagine if this thing burst!(above)

Relaxin(above)

Dogs wanna have fun too!(above)

Anchored up in a cove(above)

Nice panorama(above)

Headed back to the launch ramp, man I don't wanna leave!(above)

We left around 3 and hit some bad traffic in Sacramento but made it home by 7. I think the drive is normally more like 3 hours. All in all, it was a great trip and I will definitely be back!