It's a Trap

August 20, 2010 ~

We were not planning on observing a gather but I guess we wanted to see what they are really like so we made another trip to Twin Peaks HMA. 

We first stopped at the Eagle Lake Field Office in Susanville to get one of their new maps of the TP HMA area and a plant guide if they had one. No plant guides, said to check with Forest Service, but they did have a noxious weed identification booklet that in the back has pages you can fill out to let them know the location of weeds that should be removed to prevent them from spreading.

Next stop was the Lithfield Wild Horse and Burrow Corrals to find out about Public Viewing of the gather for the next morning. Everyone was very helpful and told us to just meet at the front gate at 6:00 AM.

We drove on up the road past Ramshorn campground, because the next morning was opening of Antelope hunting season we thought it would be full of hunters. For that reason we chose not to camp this trip, but there were actually a couple spots left. I was still glad we were not going to stay there this time.

We continued on to see if anyone was at the water trough... there were tracks but no horses anywhere.
Continuing on, looking over the hillsides with binoculars, we saw no animal life...
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When we came over this hill we saw why there was no one to be seen.

The Trap

The panels that lead into a waiting stock trailer while loading out the horses.

Maybe these are the Chestnut Stallions tracks, his hooves were so big for his small size.

At the trap opening.

"Wings" of trap made of a jute like mesh had been laid down for the evening.

Even while running into the opening of the trap the horses didn't trample the sage brush.

"Flag" blowing in the wind.

We suspected the gathering might be taking place in this area but now we knew the bands we had been watching were probably already at the corrals. It was very eerie, empty and quiet, made me nervous about coming back in the morning. 

We drove back to Susanville for the night, stayed comfortably at the High Country Inn and had dinner at the The Sage Hen Restaurant.
Early to bed 6:00 comes quickly.

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