07/08/2026
Our first camping trip of the year and I must say it took a lot to make it happen! It was worth it in the end but it was a saga. We planned to leave Thursday evening, prepped like crazy Wednesday night, and didn’t actually get on the road until Friday afternoon. Here’s everything that stood in our way.
Trial #1: Our dog Kiva was out in the back yard Wednesday night and at some point caught one of her hind toenails on something and nearly pulled the whole thing out. We didn’t see it happen and she wasn’t even limping, but there was enough blood that I knew she needed the vet. So we both took Thursday off to get her in first thing, and sure enough she needed some mild surgery to repair it and had to stay gentle on it and keep it clean. That meant she couldn’t come with us. She was very upset to stay behind, but at least she had grandma to watch her.
Trial #2: We finally got the horses loaded and were running last minute stops for fuel and ice before hitting the interstate when the engine light came on and I noticed the transmission slipping and shifting hard. With over 500 miles of hauling ahead of us we stopped at O’Reilly’s to run the code, figuring if it was something minor we could maybe still make it work. It wasn’t. It was the transmission. So there I was, devastated, literally sitting in the O’Reilly’s parking lot with the horses in the trailer and everything ready to go, scrambling for a plan that didn’t mean cancelling the whole trip. We knew we weren’t leaving that day, so we headed back to the barn to drop the horses and trailer.
That evening we decided to spend the extra money and rent a truck from Enterprise’s commercial truck rental. We booked it online and it was supposed to be ready by 8:00 Friday morning; when we got there they told us they didn’t actually have the vehicle we needed, but they called around and found one up in Tualatin about 45 minutes away. So we drove up, grabbed it, cross loaded everything from our truck into the rental, and raced to the barn for the trailer and horses. We were hustling as fast as we could because we still had a 5 hour drive ahead and wanted plenty of daylight to set up a camp we’d never seen before.
Trial #3: We got to the barn and realized we’d forgotten to move the hitch over from our truck to the rental. So it was back home to grab it, then back to the barn to finally hook up and load. Minor, but very annoying, and it set us back another half hour. Then, at last, we were on the road.
Trial #4: Five hours later we made it up into the Fremont-Winema and the Sky Lakes Wilderness where the camp was, but the GPS was suddenly saying we had another 2.5 hours to go, even though it also said the campground was only about 20 miles down the gravel road. For some reason it wanted us to hike in. Cue a little moment of panic wondering if the camp wasn’t even accessible by vehicle, which made no sense for a big equestrian camp. We figured it out and finally pulled in around 7:30.
Trial #5: When we booked, the campground description mentioned corrals. What it did NOT mention was that our specific site didn’t have any. It was a double site that was supposed to fit two rigs and four horses, but it was on a hill with barely any room for our portable corrals and zero room for a tent on top of that. We’d have had to set the corrals up in two separate spots and split the horses, which they would have hated. Meanwhile the entire equestrian loop was full of non equestrians camped in sites with corrals they weren’t even using. That really pi**ed me off. Those sites are equestrian only for a reason: people who don’t know basic horse safety, especially with kids and dogs, can cause real accidents. I asked one group with a simple setup if they’d trade with me since I actually had horses and needed the corrals, and they were flat out rude about it and just walked away.
The camp host is who saved the day. He recognized our dilemma and offered to get in touch with the person who had the empty reserved site next to us, to see if they had horses, and if not, to let us take it.
Trial #6: On top of everything, the camp host let us know the water pump in camp was capped off. This was NOT disclosed anywhere on the reservation site and it’s a huge deal since we can’t haul our own stock water. There was the lake, but getting water from it back to the site would have been a nightmare since it was a good distance away down by the boat launch. Once again the camp host came to the rescue and offered to fill our stock water from his tank truck.
After about half an hour he got back to us. The empty site next to us turned out to be reserved by someone with horses, so we could stay there that night but would have to move again for the rest of the weekend. But all was not lost. The host told us about a free, little known equestrian camp just two miles back up the road that was completely private, had corrals, a pond for stock water, direct trail access, and even a toilet. He scouted it out for us and found it empty except for a camper van and a few forest service guys staying the night, with both corral sites open.
So we loaded the horses back up one more time and headed over, and it turned out to be a beautiful, quiet, private little spot. We had maybe 30 minutes of daylight left, but it was enough to get situated. We ended up giving our abandoned lake site to the camper van family, and by the next day we had the whole camp to ourselves. Pristine and wonderfully quiet.
Saturday we saddled up and did a gorgeous 18 mile loop, then drove up to the lake afterward for a swim and a cleanup. It ran a little longer than we meant it to, which was plenty for Charm, so Sunday we just lounged and gave the ponies a rest day before heading home Monday morning. Charm was so excited to be out again; it’s been about three years since I took her camping and about a year and a half since her last trail ride, though she’s been worked at home so wasn’t totally out of shape. Both girls did amazing.
In the end we loved our little private camp and had a great time. I’m so glad we didn’t give up and made it happen.
