Still in the St. George Area

12/2 We woke up to find that Cinnibar had pulled a shoe off during the night, so we headed for Littlefield AZ (about 15 miles away) looking for a farrier. We managed to get one to came out to our camp about noon. While we were in town we met Sharon with a bunch of horse pens. She invited us to stay a few nights for $25. There were horses there from four generations of family from the spry old 70 something grandmother who owned four of the horses to the 10 and 14 year old grand children who we later watched breaking a pony they had just purchased at the auction.

It is a pretty little compound in its own way. The horses were kept down among the cottonwoods and the families lived on the bank above in several trailers.

12/3
We had planned to stay at welcome springs a little longer but it was cold (relatively speaking) and windy this morning. We rode a little in the morning and then headed down into Littefield and Sharon's horse pens. The pens will allow us to leave the horses and do some non-horse activities. The whole family went to Mesquite NV (8 miles down the road) for a grocery run. We poked our nose into a casino looking for dinner deals but ended up eating dinner at McDonald's.

12/4
Went to St. George and toured Dixi College and then went climbing in the afternoon. I purchased a grigri which is an auto locking belay device. This allowed the girls to belay each other without our help. This means that all four of us can be either belaying or climbing all at the same time. So no one has to wait or get bored. We give the girls points for climbing. The points are redeemed for various treats. With the grigri the girls earned a trip to McDonald's that evening.

Jackie on Chuckawalla Wall with Lily belaying.

After making enough points to get to McDonald's the girls spent the rest of their afternoon doing homework.

12/5
A little ride up the gorge behind the stable today.

12/6
We spent the day at Black Rocks climbing. This is a great little band of igneous rock that bakes in the sun. I got in a bunch of leads and top roped two 11's. Using the grigri the girls amassed enough points for another trip to McDonald's.

Jackie was interested in lead climbing. She has never lead before so I had her top roped a bolted 5.9 a bunch of times and then practice "leading" it with a top rope on also. After all that Jackie felt ready to go. I pre-cliped the first bolt and hung all the draws for her. Jackie went right up without a problem! She is pretty excited and wants to try it again some other day.