Winter weather forced us to migrate with the deer to a lower elevation. After camping in the snow for a week we said our good-byes to the Crest for the winter. We rode West to the little resort of Butte Meadow, where we stayed one week with some new friends, Walt and Tina. It was a nice break from camping to fully enjoy all the comforts of the 20th Century. We were overwhelmed by satellite TV, Internet, electric lights and a warm wood stove. The greatest luxury had to be hot running water. I was turning into a zombie watching TV until 3 AM, then rushing for the remote again at 6:30 AM. During the day I would help Walt collect firewood, and then I would go ONLINE!.

After a week of overindulgence of super comfort we were starting to get anxious to be back on the trail. We were surprised how good it felt to get back to our cozy little tent. We were then greeted by California's first major snow storm of the year. It snowed for three days. As it cleared it was very cold and the wet snow froze. The horses had a hard time digging for forage through the frozen snow. We decided to ride west to the coast and a lower elevation. Ishi Wilderness would be the next obstacle.

Ishi Wilderness has been calling out to me since I first saw it on a map, way back on the Pacific Crest Trail, weeks ago. All the locals told us horror stories of the Ishi. Many times people will exaggerate how rugged an area is to impress us, or to add some extra glory to their own adventures. Old timers are great for this.

One old boy told us the canyon trail was so narrow he had to put both poniards on one side to squeeze through the gorge. This is impossible since a saddle must be balanced within 3 pounds or it will end up UNDER the horse. Even some bear hunters we met before the intersection added their own stones about the Ishi. These high-tech hunters were in three pickups with Walker Hounds. These guys didn't shoot bear but had fun tracking their hounds with their radio collars.

The locals had me convinced that Ishi was just too rugged for a pleasant visit and I found a new route around the Wilderness. As we rode by the intersection to Ishi I was drawn like steel to a magnet. So down to the Ishi Wilderness we rode, riding through Devil's Playground, Devil's Kitchen and Devil's Den. There is a good reason when a place is called "Devil" anything, so we always approach these areas with extreme caution.

We were astounded by the beauty of Ishi Wilderness. We rode along Deer Creek with Steelhead jumping and Deer covering the banks, shadowed by 1,000 foot cliffs. The vegetation was a nice change from the sub-Alpine mountains we always ride. The landscape was an open oak countryside with lush meadows. There were lava outcroppings in very strange and unearthly formations, rocky spheres and pinnacles dotted the terrain. The trails were rugged, but we've been much worse.