September-October, 2021
Today, I headed out for a drive in the big white truck … north! In truth I didn’t get very far north of Winthrop or north of the campground before I found some interesting things that made me stop and look and chat with the local folk, so please don’t think I’m on my way to Alaska or anything like that. 🙂 It was just a few miles.
Here’s a video of a bit of the drive …
I went a few miles, not many, then found a back road, then another back road, you know how it is when you don’t care if you’re lost of not … you just go and enjoy, knowing you’ll find your way home, knowing others will help you if needed.
This is magnificent country. The homes are so impressive, partly just because they are impressive but also partly because of the surrounding area and the views.
That home in the photo above was exceptional, obviously relatively newly built. What views they had from their double-story windows! of the mountains, the river below, the weather. The footprint of the house was relatively small, but I sure could live there very happily.
But then on up the road, or down the road, or around another bend in the road …
“Riding stables”? Horses? 🙂
Horses!
For a moment, I thought about stopping and paying for even just a 30 minute ride on one of their gentler horses (it’s been quite a number of years since I’ve ridden). Just a walk around one of the pastures, just to get the feel and the smell again. But one of the guys hollered at me, “hey, you want a ride or what?!” His tone of voice was not nice! And I knew it wasn’t a good fit.
But close by, I found a really good fit … a beautiful place … where the woman and man who owned and managed the place told me to go ahead and walk around and take all the photos I wanted.
Turned out this was the Lodge that was part of Chewack River Ranch. And, pretty quickly, I realized I’d been here before, many years ago. What a sweet feeling it was to come upon this place again … and find that it was still as beautiful today as it was back then.
The wooden bridge in the photo below spans a small creek that runs down from the mountains and then right past the Lodge. The sound of the creek was so gentle. Ok, let’s walk across the little bridge and see this Lodge.
Five or six individual units … that’s it, that’s the whole Lodge. It felt just like that Winthrop wooden boardwalk, with spurs a-jingling if you were wearing spurs. Every unit had air conditioning … there was strong wifi here … they are open in winter too, when the snow is flying. It was a cozy and well-kept place.
When I realized I’d been here before, and that our stay here so many years ago had been perfect, and that we had taken a horse-riding trek up into the mountains led by this same company … I went back to the man and woman in the office and told them about the comment that the man had shouted at me when I pulled in at the horse riding area. They said they were the owners and that one of the other men who worked there had reported that fellow’s comment and that the fellow who had shouted at me was even then, as of a few minutes ago, no longer working for them. I felt sorry for the guy who got fired, but I hope he’ll learn from that.
The two owners were so pleased that I’d stayed here years ago (same owners as years ago). Can’t remember which, but one of their grandparents had started this ranch … the old homestead, that first house, now very old, is still on the property from being built in the late 1800’s.
I left those two in their office and returned to the Lodge building in the photos above and wandered around a bit. It felt so good. If I ever want a place to stay in this area (other than in my camper), I’ll be back here! If you’re in the area, stay here!