I have been pretty busy lately.

At the end of May, my horse pasture landlord called and said he had sold the land and I needed to find a new place for my horses. We were lucky enough to find a suitable location that very week, right across the street from the other location, which is very convenient to my home. The place needed quite a bit of work to make it horse-safe again, since it hadn’t had horses in quite a while. That took a solid week of dirty, sweaty work, the kind that is good for the soul: post hole digging, repairing fence, hauling hay…

I have also been working on redesigning and replacing my front lawn (wife’s idea). There is so much construction going on in our area lately, that we couldn’t get a landscaper to even return our calls, much less give us a bid. So, wife and I have been in DIY mode. I finally got the sprinkler system redesigned and installed. And, it actually works! Yesterday I tilled in 8 yards of compost into our rock and clay “topsoil.” Maybe next week we’ll get some grass in.

On top of that, I have been trying to get some things done on my regular part-time job, which pays most of my horsey bills.

Then, a good thing happened. A friend offered to pay me to train one of his horses. Well, not really train him,  but more like tune him up. He’s a Tennessee Walker nearly 17 hands tall and lean. Nice looking horse. He has had some good training, but wasn’t hitting his gaits like he should. So, I have been riding him two hours in the mornings and coming home to ride my own horses for another hour or so. I’m getting some good miles done on horseback lately. Looks like I may be “tuning up” several more of my friend’s horses. It will certainly help with the horsey bills.

Then, last week Jon Tanner, who I believe knows about every horse trail in Utah, texted me to ask if I wanted to head up to the Highline Trail on Saturday. I had to tell him I’d get back to him as soon as I knew whether I could go. I had a load of compost coming on Friday afternoon that would need to be moved from the street to the yard, so I was thinking I wouldn’t be able to make it.

Happily, when I got home from training my buddy’s TWH on Friday morning, there was the load of compost in a big pile on the street. A couple calls to another buddy landed me a small tractor with a bucket and by about 3pm I had the entire load moved and spread over the front yard. So, a call to Jon confirmed that we’d be heading to the High Uintas the following morning.

As things turned out, the group Jon had going with him all cancelled one by one and it looked like it would be just Jon and me…which is no problem at all. I posted the information on my facebook page, just in case anybody else wished to join us. That brought in Amber Pierce and her two boys, Caden and Easton.

Jon and I met at 9am in Kamas, Utah, where I put my Missouri Fox Trotter, Lizzy, in his trailer. The trailhead parking lot is a bit restricted and fills up quickly on busy days, so we normally consolidate when we can. Amber and her boys met us there at the trailhead.

The trailhead for the Highline Trail is on Route 150, also known as the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway, between Evanston, Wy and Kamas, UT, right at the Summit/Duchesne County line, just north of Mirror Lake (the trailhead is in Utah). There are two parking areas, one for cars only and the north one for horse rigs. As I said before, the lot can accommodate several fairly large rigs, but on busy days can fill up with non-equine parking pretty quickly. The parking lot has two entrances, so turning around with a trailer is no problem. There are restrooms, but no running water. A water trough is provided for horses right at the trailhead and riders will cross a number of running streams along the trail. There is no camping allowed at the trailhead and parking requires either an annual permit or a $6 fee.

The trail starts about 10,350′ elevation and the highest point is nearly 10,700′. While the trail is pretty rocky, I have ridden it on a barefoot horse, as has Jon. Our horses have good, hard, healthy feet, and they were tender by the end of the ride, but it’s doable. I recommend shoes or boots. If you try the trail before the July 4th weekend, you’ll have to expect to cross numerous deadfalls, but it’s no problem. There’s always a way around them. There are several man-made wood path sections, crossing muddy areas, as well as several stream crossings, but there are no sections of this trail that I would consider particularly technical or challenging. It is appropriate for riders and horses from advanced to accompanied beginners. The scenery is spectacular including waterfalls, small lakes and numerous streams. Most of the lakes and streams have brook trout. Expect to pass numerous hikers and their dogs, however, since this is a Wilderness Area, there will be no bicyclists.

The trail, according to Ramblr, is about 6.3 miles (to the point at which we stopped for lunch in the basin) and is an in-and-out trail. You will follow the Highline Trail until the fork where the Naturalist Basin Trail turns northeast and the Highline Trail continues southeast toward the Four Lakes area. That fork is at about the five mile mark and there is a sign marking the two trails. The place where we generally stop for lunch and turn around is at the entrance to Naturalist Basin. The trail actually continues a bit farther, but we generally do not follow it out.  The in-and-out is about 5-6 hours, depending on the pace of your horses and how long you take for lunch.

The trailhead is about 2 hours from my home in Salem, Utah. Jon and I normally meet at Kamas, combine our resources, then head on up. It is about 30-40 minutes north of Kamas, Utah. I think it is a little shorter coming south from Evanston, WY. Jon and I generally make it back to Kamas around 5-6pm, at which time we enjoy a delicious hamburger and fries at a small hamburger joint there in Kamas, before heading our separate ways. That’s how the trip went last Saturday.

You can take a look at my Ramblr link here for complete details.

This trail is one of my favorites in the state of Utah. What a great way to spend a Saturday on a horse. It just doesn’t get much better.

In fact, I’m heading up there with another group this Friday!