Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Excitement on the mountain



We have a 3,000 foot mountain practically in our front yard.  Actually, it is about 3 blocks away.  It's massive.  And, it has a hiking trail called the "bump and grind" which is open to hikers all year.  Unfortunately, the BLM tried to shut it down due to the bighorn sheep, but they aren't ON the trail...they are sometimes seen next to it or even higher up.  A LOT of hikers from around the valley use this trail.  Occasionally rattlesnakes are seen on it and every once in a while, at night, we see lights on it (it is CLOSED to vehicles!)  Hmmmm....Anyway, once in a while a hiker gets injured, which is what happened two days ago.  I was home in the afternoon and I heard the thump, thump, thump of a helicopter over it.  That would mean only one thing:  another hiker was injured on the trail.  People have had heart attacks, sprained ankles, and falls on this trail.  A helicopter ALWAYS has to come pick them up and then race them to the nearest hospital, which is only about 5 air minutes away.  So, I ran out with my camera to take some photos.  Then, another helicopter, which turned out to be a CHP (California Highway Patrol) one made huge circles overhead.  I have NO idea what that was about!  It was a busy afternoon...If you click on the first photo, you can see all the people lined up on the trail, watching the rescue.