Our trip to Sheephorn

October 5 - and it's snowing! This was our week to work in the yard and trim back bushes and lay sod in the garden area and back fill around the house to stop the basement flooding! Drat. So I am playing in glass again - haven't touched anything in the workroom since my finger was smashed and it feels good to be back in the saddle again, so to speak. The forecast does hint of major yard work in the next day or so. Sure wish you were here to help us again, Daniel! The tree that you sawed the wild trunk off of has SHOT up! But on to our Sheephorn experience.

Way back when Aunt Cindy and I were leaves in the wind, we stopped at a Ranger Station (most likely hoping they would have a bathroom!) and we picked up all sorts of pamphlets and one was a book on Ranger lookout towers that are no longer being used and so are rented out at dirt cheap prices - depending on how large the tower is. Ron and I have been wanting to rent one ever since we saw the book so He got on line one night and found a "dog friendly" lookout just 3 hours away so, we booked our stay for the last 3 days of the renting season!



This tower was supplied with 2 twin bunks and a wood stove. That's about it, the reservation print out said to bring firewood and everything else - so we did. Had I known we had 53 stairs, rickety stairs, to climb - we would have downsized what we brought!















It took several trips to get all of our survival stuff into that tower. The girls were in heaven as there were chipmunks "munks" in the rocks all around us and they were busy hunting and terriorizing munks when they weren't in our way on the stairs. The only parking area was a very tight space 1/2 a football field away from the base of the stairs ( no, I did not exeragerate the length - I asked Ron, and we all know men NEVER exeragerate about length) so we loaded up the survival supplies onto the atvs to transport it up to the stairs! LOL

We didn't arrive at the tower until dusk and scrambled to get settled in before dark - we would have had more day light to unpack with if we'd not taken Ron's shortcut road on the way there! LOL

The wind howled through out the night - forecast was for storms in the next day or two - and the wind was helping to move those in! The windows rattled like crazy but we were toasty warm with the dogs taking up most of the bunk space! Wednesday morning Ron cooked a FABULOUS breakfast before we all went out for our morning walk!!



After walking with the dogs, we put them in the tower while we went out for an atv ride. It was wonderful and there were miles and miles of forest service roads we could have spent hours exploring if not for the girls back in the tower. Anyway, another glorious, windy, sky threatening day spent OUT OF CELL SERVICE!! Ahhhhhhhh!

Approximately 1:00 am Wednesday I woke, and I use that term lightly because sharing an uncomfortable bunk with a dog or two does not REALLY allow for much sleeping, but be that as it may, I awoke to sleet hitting our windows. I woke Ron only to have him say - "well, there is nothing we can do about it now - sure wish it was light out" and then he was back asleep. I was not - Now this is the whole male/female thing. I stayed awake and worked myself into a frenzy. Ron, however, wisely went back to sleep knowing full well there really WAS nothing we could do! How unfair does that seem? When morning FINALLY came - oh, what a painfully LONGGGG night it was for me - we both decided to pack up and leave while we could.

Now we had to carry DOWN our many survival supplies! Ron saying the entire time - we could be snowed in here for a couple weeks and be just fine! As "they" say - true nuf! But the snowed in talk did not help calm my frazzled nerves!




So we loaded up the girls and made the terrifying trip down the mountain. Again the male/female thing. Ron was looking at the fall colors and was in his happy driving place - I had disappeared into that white knuckle - mind numbing hysteria that did not allow me to even weakly smile at his comments and it took my full concentration to keep from passing completely out or throwing up. The road was tiny! The road was not much wider than an ATV trail! The road had several places where sudden death was inches away from the Yukon tire ON MY SIDE!! The road was covered with icy sleet! My hysteria was totally justified!! LOL

Ron has checked into our next tower experience - it seems there is one that we can snow machine into........................................oh my