March 27, 2010, the Home On The Range endurance ride has a new location just outside Washtucna WA. This ride is the nearest location to my house of all the rides in the PNW this year. Straight north about 85-100 miles. I had been excited about it since last year when I realized I could start riding again. I rode all winter every weekend - no excuses - to prepare. I felt more ready for this ride than I did in 2008 when I last attended this ride.
This year there were four of us that had set our sights on attending. Ruth, my co-worker and ride partner. Heather, who was pregnant and realized she probably could not make any other rides this year, and Heather's sister Hope. There was only one minor problem; Ruth was the only person among us who owned a horse trailer and it was a 2-horse. How to get 4 horses to the ride? It was a predicament. Even if we could find a trailer to borrow, what would pull it? I had the Suburban, but it was badly in need of tires and beyond that the 6" lift caused more wear and tear than average - we've replaced the front end on it twice since we bought it.
As luck would have it, Matt uncovered an ad on craigslist for the truck of my dreams. Yes, it was old and ugly, but it ran and it was a crew cab dually with a 454. Even better, the guy wanted to trade it for a motorcycle! We just so happened to have a motorcycle. So that worked out just a month before the ride. We hurriedly made a list of everything that needed to be fixed in order for the truck to be tow-worthy. A new radiator, tailpipe, additional welds to the hitch and adjusted the clutch, to name a few.
Now how to solve the problem of the horse trailer? I have been wanting my own since I first got a horse and it just never worked out. With the addition of a truck to haul one, I started browsing craigslist myself looking for a trailer in my price range. I should mention my price range is just on the border of what is acceptable for hauling horses! From all my browsing I came up with a list of what I wanted in a trailer. I needed escape doors on both sides, head doors for the horses on both sides, tack door on both sides, and it had to be extra-tall and big enough for a horse that isn't easy to load. I found a couple. Some did not meet my criteria and others were just a bit more than I wanted to spend. When I had lost hope in finding a suitable trailer for this ride I got an email reply from ad ad I had inquired about earlier. The trailer met all my criteria, not only that it was a one-owner trailer that had been maintained. The owner was a PNER member to boot!
Matt had a motorcycle he wanted to look at in Yakima so I sent him and Levi on a mission to pick up my trailer in Washougal afterwards. They left at 10 am. They got to the trailer about 5 or 6 pm. After two hours of driving back towards home Matt called me and said he was having two problems: the trailer was bucking an awful lot and the oil pressure in the truck was dangerously low. So he stopped and rested for an hour to let the truck cool down and then started out again. After 15 minutes of driving he called me again to say the oil pressure was too low. He also felt the axles on the trailer and it seemed to him like one brake must be locking up because it was much hotter on one bearing than any other. At this rate it would take him days to drive the remaining distance (which should have been another 2 hours). So, at approximately 4 am I told him to drop the trailer and come on home. He needed to sleep and we could set out for it the next day.
Monday I took some time off work and we drove back for the trailer. In the meantime Matt had talked to his dad and thought the bucking could be from the brake controller being adjusted wrong, and perhaps fixing that would help the oil pressure in the truck. We held our breath as we approached the rest area where Matt left it. My biggest worry was that it would be stolen, or someone would take the tires. It was there and all in one piece! Relief! We hooked up and Matt made some adjustments. It seemed to be pulling much better, but the oil pressure was still lower than Matt would like it to be. We stopped at Boardman for gas and food (and a diaper, I had forgotten the diaper bag!) and ran into Dale McKain at the eatery there. He was driving the bus for a girl's softball team. Because of all the girls it took us about 40 minutes to get our food, and another 20 minutes to get the rest of our order (Levi's grilled cheese and a chocolate cherry milkshake). So the truck had plenty of time to cool off. We also purchased a quart of 30 weight oil which Matt added.
We ventured out again. It pulled well for about 15 minutes and then again we had to stop. We pulled off at a truck stop, Matt was hoping to buy an oil pan and heavier weight oil and do an oil change right there at the truck stop. He came out of the store empty handed, no pans of any kind for sale and no heavy weight oil either. Unbelievable.
So onward we drove. Matt's blood pressure was visibly high over the state of the oil pressure but somehow we made it to Pendleton, and then Milton-Freewater and finally home. Whew! I went back to work for a couple of hours and when I came home Matt went to bed, so I took the kids and the truck and trailer out to Heather's. Her husband Gary came out to take a look at the floorboards. Ruth was also there and offered some feedback. I left the trailer there and headed back home.
Did I mention this was all happening a week before the ride? The trailer went to Heather's on Monday. Tuesday Gary did his research on replacing trailer flooring, Wednesday he got started and noted that the screws were rusted into the frame pretty badly. He was able to get the center board out and agreed that it was lacking in integrity. Thursday night Gary and Eric and Matt all worked hard to get my floor replaced and they got it done!
Thursday afternoon Matt changed the oil in the truck. We went with SAE60, a racing oil, hoping that would solve our problems. No time to test it out.
Also on Thursday night my father-in-law came over to work on the propane furnace in my camp trailer again. He had spent a couple of hours on it about a month ago but didn't get it working. So this was the last chance he had before the ride. After Matt got home from the horse trailer, he helped his dad on the camp trailer and I went to bed after a very busy evening of packing.
Friday morning dawned upon us and I worked all morning getting everything together and ready. I had hoped to go out and give Sinwaan a bath but it was far too windy and cold for that. I left the house shortly before 11 am - went by the bank for gas money, went by and picked up my horse trailer after admiring the new floor and putting the mats back in, then out to get Sinwaan. I loaded all my stuff and then loaded him and took him back to Heathers. Dropped him off and went home to meet my mom. We both drove down to put gas in the rigs. On the way there my mom noticed that the blinkers on the trailer were crossed. When I put on the left turn signal for the truck, the right turn signal on the trailer would come on. AAGH!
We got back to the house and hooked up my mom's Explorer to the camp trailer. Immediately the trailer brakes came on and I couldn't move it. We did not have time to deal with all of this! Our goal to leave was by 1 pm. It was already 1:45 by now. So we unhooked the lights. It was decided that I would drive the Explorer with the camper in the center of the convoy, Matt would drive the Ugly truck and horse trailer in front, and Ruth would follow up behind in case one of us had a problem.
We loaded up the rest of the horses and tack and misc. stuff for the weekend and we were off!! Heading out we took Highway 12 through Waitsburg and Dayton, and then 261 through Starbuck. Crossing the terrifying bridge before Lyon's Ferry was the worst part of the journey, I don't think it was meant for anything other than compact cars. However there was so much curvey winding up and down roads, it was not my first choice for hauling horses. At one turn I saw the trailer jumping a bit and I knew Sinwaan was scrambling and I hoped he would be ok on arrival. We took 260/261 into Washtucna and then followed 26 over to Beckley Road (promptly missed the turn, despite the ribbons and sign). So we had to turn around. I am not sure where Matt turned around but I found a spot to back into off the highway and made fairly quick work of it. By the time I was set to head back the other direction Matt was coming up the road so I fell in behind him.
Another big climb and we were there, Ride Camp! What a journey!
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