I rode north out of Seiad Valley today and headed for Cook and Green Pass, where a little spring bubbles out of the hillside in an otherwise dry section. We camped among the trees there, and I spent a bit of an anxious night because Shyla had been walking gingerly the last little ways. She had banged a hind leg on a tree (we struggled with LOTS of downed trees!) and I was concerned that she had hurt herself but hoped that a night's rest would help her feel better. I went to get her water from the spring, which is only a shallow trickle without a deep enough pool for a horse to drink from, so I put a bucket underneath it and waited for it to fill. That's when I saw this cute guy--a California giant salamander, which I have never before seen in the wild. It's a little ironic that here I am only a few miles south of the Oregon border, too. I also wondered how he got here, as it is a fairly isolated small spring, and worried that it was not a likely place for him to find a mate.

#wildlifeonthetrail #2016PCT