Fort Welikit

May 29 thru 31, 2004

It was a great four days at Pringle, South Dakota, in the camp, but it was time to move on to get ready for our reservations at Custer State Park.

It rained very heavy at Elk Haven Ranch so we chose to stay at Fort Welikit, only a couple of miles from the town of Custer, South Dakota. This made it very convenient for our daily ice cream fix at the wonderful little purple and pink building in town. Sometimes we paid as much as $14 for ice cream for four people.

Eddie and I were very pleased with this event because we liked this particular camp very much. A Grizzly-Adams type camper talked to us there when we visited and told us there were several places to ride. It was very nice up under the big Ponderosa Pine trees, even if Dale could not get his satellite connections. There was a family style shower house containing six complete bathrooms which consisted of sink, commode and shower. There was a laundry room with three washers and dryer sets.

The stalls did not have covers or doors so we chained the gates provided to the big 12 x 12 stalls.

Paul La Cross, (was that the owner's name) was very kind in attempting to get me hooked up to AOL, but we were not able to accomplish it. I did use the office computer to check my email. Didn’t send out anything.

Paul Horsey was the bearded man who did odd jobs around as part of an association who work for the park for expenses. He said he was looking for a girlfriend who would like to ride full time and travel with horses. He said he had a horse in Virginia and a trailer for sale in North Carolina.

Dale and Eddie saddled up and rode the next morning. I filmed them while they rode in a circle singing "Here we go around the Mulberry bush." They crossed the road into the open woodland and found an old dirt road

My horse did not like being left behind so she called to the horses when they got out of sight. She twisted and turned and reared and kicked. I stayed with her a little while.

The men traveled it until they came to an open gate and rode up the hill where they found a beautiful house perched on a rock cliff between two huge rock formations. Rich Gordon and his wife, Cheryl Warren-Gordon now live full time in the structure. There are vast amounts of firewood stacked around for the hard South Dakota winters.

Eddie asked if he could bring his wife up the next day to see the place and he was given permission.

Dale and Eddie rode back down the red crushed rock drive and took a short cut through the woods to the forest service road. They did some exploring and returned happy after about four hours.

The next day Eddie and I saddled up to take the same ride.

"There is not anything dangerous about the trail. You will like it," Eddie assured me. He knows I am more timid and I always say, "If it ain’t fun, I don’t want to go."

In the dirt road, a pretty woman driving a truck stopped to talk to us. This was the lady who lived in the house up on the hill. Eddie told her that they had been up there yesterday and her husband had given him permission to take me back up there. She was agreeable.

The road up the hill was single lane but it was very well maintained. However, it was a long, long way up there and the higher we got the more it made me nervous. Eddie was so proud to be able to show me the place but I could hardly look. Eddie talked to Rich a while and we eased back down off the hill.

"I didn’t know heights made you nervous," Eddie said. "You were much higher in the Smoky Mountains."

"I didn’t know it either, but I was nervous sometimes in the Smokys but I didn’t say anything about it."

I could not have lived up on that cliff for anything. I probably would not have been so scared if I were on the ground, but being on a horse that might do something I didn’t want to do added to it. Eventually we were off the road and Dusty automatically turned down the shortcut through the woods again to take the same route he took yesterday. I was glad to travel the entirely safe forest service road. It was smooth and grass covered with only some worn tire paths which showed a little rocks.

I relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful country. We saw nine deer and a white house cat. We rode around and took pictures, particularly one of a rock outcrop that looked like a head with a eye socket area and a nose. Ed and Dale called it the natural Crazy Horse mountain.

We stopped and ate at a fence line and turned around to return.

Teege was doing very well without shoes. She is just as smooth and not a bit more sensitive than when she has shoes. After all, shoes only protect the outside rim of the hoof wall and the frog and other parts of the sole are as exposed as the bare foot. And I don’t have to worry about throwing a shoe or pulling one loose or having to replace a shoe.

When the house cat jumped out of the grass, the horses noticed, but it was over so soon that they continued on up the hill.

Almost back to the dirt road, we stopped to let them eat grass and Eddie turned to open his saddle bag for a drink of water. I released the rein full length so Teege could eat the grass. We were just sitting there when both of the horses spooked.

Teege gave a jump and I rolled back. The reins were long and I did not have but one side as I rolled off the horse and hit the ground on my upper and middle back. I saw her feet all around and decided to let her loose. I guess I had curled when I fell but somehow my short boot was thrown about 20 feet!

"Are you all right?" Eddie asked as I rolled over to get to my feet.

"Yeah, I’m OK."

Eddie rode to catch the fleeing mare. I remembered to whistle for her as I do every time I feed the horses, even if they are standing there looking me in the eye. I want her to associate the whistle with coming for something to eat. Maybe it worked because Eddie said she slowed down.

"Tie Dusty up and you can walk up to her," I yelled from the foot of the hill.

It occurred to me that what ever had spooked them was probably still down there with me as I stood all alone in the middle of the field in the backwoods.

I walked over and got my shoe. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t hurt. I looked up and here came Eddie and Dusty leading Teege back down the hill.

"She stopped and started eating or I could have never caught her," he said, "Are you all right?"

"Yes. I don’t think I hit my head but it is thumping. I hit hard on my back but it doesn’t hurt."

I led her over to the side of the road and got up on the high bank and swung back into the saddle. I knew she did not try to throw me. I just fell off because I was leaning over and had the long loose rein. I was not even hesitant to get back on.

We never did find out why the horses spooked. Nothing made a noise and we never did find anything.

We continued the ride and my head quit hurting in about five minutes. I was still very glad that I was now wearing my Laredo riding helmet. It really was a good place to ride.

When we got back to camp Eddie missed his billfold. He looked everywhere and could not find it. I thought he had just laid it up and forgot where until I saw a man come up to the trailer with something in his hand.

"Where’s Eddie?" he asked.

"He’s around back I think. Probably looking for what you have."

He didn’t say anything but when he got to Eddie he just held the billfold up.

"Where did you find it?"

"Out there in the road near my house. I had been here once and left a note on the windshield of the truck."

"I had looked in the truck for my bill fold and stuff. We had been looking around all over the place but I didn’t notice the sign in the window. We were getting ready to saddle back up and take off out there to see if I could find it. Thank you."

Eddie said, "I tried to give him some money for a reward but he wouldn’t take it."

"I’m glad to see there are still some honest people in the world anyhow."

It was amazing that the bill fold with our travel money in it had been lost and found. We had ridden about three hours that day. I would have guessed it was near where we ate lunch. We were indeed fortunate. It would have been a hard place in our vacation to have lost the billfold and the money it contained.

Eddie said, "I wore those chaps today and it must have shoved it up out of my pocket. From now on I will leave it in the trailer when I ride."

"Maybe we should just leave all of our money with Janice and let her take care of it," I said, since both Eddie and kept losing stuff and Janice was so capable in her duties of obtaining reservations and directions.

"Yeah. I’ll get rid of it for you," Janice said with a laugh.

That evening I did all of the laundry before our move the next morning.

I was sore from the fall and I had to be very careful when I lay down in the bed. I couldn’t lay straight down but had to first lay on my side and then turn over. I couldn’t get straight up either. I was back to normal in about 3 days.