10.06.2025 – Hangover Day With Coyotes
We traveled a good bit on the next day. Maybe 15 miles, until we all got really tired. We didn’t quite make it to the camp that we had picked because Elli got hungry and we all still needed some more rest. We had left forest service land and ended the day trip on ranchland, because there was water which the horses needed really badly. Ranchtrucks kept coming by and we thought if somebody didn’t like us staying on their land, they’d let us know. Kind of ready for a discussion, it took us a little bit to really relax.
I guess it’s trauma from travelling in Germany, where we had a few encounters, with people have getting real mean about us camping on their land for a night with the horses ( there is basically only private property there, but they are not allowed to fence it all). But even if its not private, you are not allowed to camp anywhere ). but there was no one wanting us any harm this time.
Only friendly smiles and waving hands driving by. Still, it was a challenging camp. The horses didn’t feel very safe and the grass was very short and therefore too ritch for them, which also shows in the mood and gave Gator diarrhea. At night, the coyotes were really close and all around us. Gators swiss cow bell drove them out with just one “kling klong”.
Somehow we ended up staying for another night… although the perfect campground was only 7 miles ahead of us. But apparently, we needed rest so badly after our little vacation in a small town, that we just didn’t manage to get rolling that day. That way, we met Dennis and his wife. They stopped by, when they saw our wagon on the road and the camp with the horses, to say hi. When we mentioned that we liked the area and might be interested in buying property here to staying for a while, they basically invited us to be their neighbors in the middle of remote forest… that DID sound interesting to us.
When we finally got going on the next day, we had a nice, short trip to a beautiful public campground with perfect long grass for the girls and a river close by. We had a great dinner on one of the picknick tables. We all enjoyed it and felt very safe and good there. The spot was fenced on two sides, had bushes on another and a cattleguard at the exit of the campground, so even Peer (who is usually very cautious with that) agreed to let them be free with just their hobbles for the rest of the day and we only tied them up for the night.
