Because of weather and general busy-ness, I haven’t actually driven into the basin in weeks … but I have done a lot of hiking.
On the day of my most recent hike, it snowed and was brilliantly sunny – toward the end, at the same time. Not unusual here! But we also got a huge dumping of snow this week – about a foot in the mid-Disappointment. That will definitely help our moisture levels this winter. It was getting scary. Bare ground is NOT something you expect to see in February in Colorado, and we had it everywhere.
Copper has been hanging out with the pintos for quite a while – since right after the roundup – but on that last hike, I found him separately. I had seen him from a distance and walked out, only to find no horses at all. But I found his tracks and followed them … Quite interesting to follow in his footsteps for that distance. He didn’t always pick the easiest path – though he did briefly pick up a trail – and he didn’t always go around vegetation but sometimes straight through it. And he went way out around an area … only to end up back very close to where I’d first seen him. Looking. I finally caught up to him, and he whinnied at me.
Poor guy. He was clearly looking for his pals. Behind him is the frozen surface of the Round Top pond. I waited out of sight for him to go down and drink, and this was him coming back up into view. The pond is frozen nearly edge to edge, but there was a small little hole that had either thawed or he pawed to get some water. Above the ice in the background is the dirt of the side of the pond. Behind him, the wall of the pond, which faces northwesterly, had some snow still.
This was earlier, when it was still snowing.
I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the pintos, and I was just about to drop down into a drainage and walk out … when I spotted Corazon and Chipeta – way back near where I had first seen Copper. Of course. Their tracks – which I followed later – had come out of another drainage. So close … and yet so invisible.
Puzzle (left) and Chipeta with grand unnamed promontory in the background, fresh with snow.
Pretty Reya. She reminds me so much of Kiowa. Of all her foals, Reya always resembled her most, I think.
The snow that day was light and flying and didn’t stick – as you can see. A few days later, we’re covered in humped marshmallow mounds of fresh, glowing snow. Amazing how it transforms a landscape.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 