Huntington Horseback Horror

Kip, my mom and I went for what was supposed to be a peaceful one hour trail ride in the mountains around Huntington Lake.  Little did we know what was in store.........

Kip mounted Cocoa, a sweet brown mare.  My mom was given Dandy and was told that she might start acting weird because she really likes to stay with her sister Sandy.  Mom had concerns about the tightness of the cinch as the saddle seemed to be slipping a bit from side to side.  She was assured that it was OK.  Dandy was fine for the first 15 minutes or so, but then she decided to try to scrape my mom off.  That was unsuccessful, so she tried trotting to jog her off.  No good.  So, she sucked in her belly, the saddle slid sideways and mom leapt/slid off barely missing a large rock on one side and a steep drop off on the other (this may be a slight exaggeration, but it is truly amazing she seemed not to be hurt).  Mom was amazing with her calm ability to both stay on the horse, and get off the horse when the going was as good as it was going to get.  After tightening cinches, and switching horses, we were off again for a mostly uneventful ride.

It wasn't until later that afternoon that my mom saw the enormous bruise, squishy lump and scrape on her wrist.  She's not quite sure what part of sliding/jumping off the horse, or landing in the dirt and bushes on her butt caused the wound.  Guess it could have been a lot worse.

No photos were taken of the fated rider or her horse.

Day 2 & 3 Huntington Lake

Kip, my mom and I drove up to Mono Hot Springs. The road is 16 miles of gorgeous and sometimes very hairy one lane driving to get there. We didn't really have a plan for when we got there, but we wanted to go. Kip did great on the drive except for a few complaints about how long it took. We saw beautiful Sierra meadows, incredible vistas, colorful wildflowers, and only a few other cars (thankfully). Once we got there, we explored the creek a bit, but didn't seek out the hot springs. We ended up having lunch-a really, really tasty lunch at the River Rock Cafe. They heavily advertised their buffalo specialties, so we took a chance. Kip was really excited to have a buffalo burger, which was huge. He ate the whole thing.


Yesterday, it was my sister-in-law's birthday so we rented a "party boat" and checked out parts of the lake we'd never explored before. We beached the boat on a little island and had a picnic lunch and swam. It was a beautiful temperature and we probably could have relaxed out there all day. However, the kids were eager to take turns driving the boat so we tooled around the lake for a couple of hours. We spotted a bald eagle and some osprey.

Huntington Lake Day 1

Kip and I flew to California in order to join my family at the annual get together at Huntington Lake in the Sierra Nevadas (it's near Yosemite National Park). http://www.huntingtonlake.com/
We've been coming up here for about 40 years. Hard to believe! What's even harder to believe is how little the place has changed in that time. We arrived yesterday late afternoon and after unpacking, went straight down to the lake for a wade and explore mission. Today we hiked along a beautiful stream and went back to the lake for a romp. Kip is having a great time, but he's really looking forward to the arrival of his cousins tomorrow.