On Wednesday I was riding through parts of the dense Lassen National Forest, on my way to Drakesbad Resort and Guest Ranch. Even though the resort was closed, Nick, the owner, had graciously agreed to let the horses and me stop there for the night. The snow-covered peak of Mt. Lassen towered over the rest of the forest as we made our way north, often blocked by fallen trees, and unfortunately as we scrambled over one of the logs, Takoda badly scraped his flank. The panniers rubbed against the wound, and I stopped and spent a couple hours trying my best to reposition the pack saddle and the panniers to make him more comfortable, but I had only limited success. It was slow going the rest of the way to Drakesbad, as I hated to push Takoda when he was obviously being impacted by the equipment and his injury. At last we all straggled into Drakesbad around 10pm, where the house and barn all the grounds were in darkness, and I felt really bad as I thought I was going to be waking everyone up. But Nick came out to greet me, explaining that the power was not yet on at the resort because they were still setting up for the season. He let me put the horses in the barn--which they were very grateful for!--and I too had a nice warm place to sleep for the night. The next day, Nick was so helpful in assisting me to re-configure the pack saddle so that Takoda would be more comfortable and not have something hitting his hurt flank with every step.

#2014PCT