By Olivia Huddleston

We finally did it.

After an oil change, a new fan belt, new trailer tires, Coggins tests and health papers for our horses and twenty phone calls trying to find certified weed free hay (which we never found), we were ready to go. My friend, Sherie Taylor and I headed for 22,000-acre Fort Robinson State Park and the Soldier Creek Wilderness in far northwest Nebraska. We had reserved horse stalls for the first evening, but our rig was too long for the first pull through camping area.

The next morning we saddled up and started looking for a trailhead. We finally flagged down someone in a pickup, someone who appeared to know what he or she (in this case, she) was doing and asked where to go. With a waive of her hand and the words "through a gate", we were introduced to riding wherever we wanted. We climbed the bluffs high above the Fort and if one looked closely, he or she might see the ghosts of the Cavalry riding through the passes with the ghosts of Indians looking down from above. During this ride we encountered buffalo and longhorn cattle. Water was scarce, but the scenery was great.

Fort Robinson was established as a post-Civil War Indian Agency protective post. Later it served as a remount station for the Cavalry, then as a field artillery testing station, and later still as an Olympic equestrian training ground. The Fort also served as a horse-breeding farm for the military and later on, the area trained dogs for military service. Before it was turned into a state park in the 1950s, Fort Robinson was a German Prisoner of War Camp. The Fort also has a history museum as well as a natural history museum. There are signs, indicating where the POW Camp and the Red Cloud Indian Station once existed.

Then, it was on to Soldier Creek Wilderness which was once a part of Fort Robinson and is now under the National Forest Service. We forded the river to the parking area on Forest Service Land and rode in the wilderness area, which was marked with posts (here and there), with slanted tops. In 1989 a severe forest fire started in Fort Robinson State Park and burned 48,000 acres including Soldier Creek and private land. Reforestation has started, but the view from every direction would be much different if the forest were still standing. Our campsite had vault toilets and a hand water pump. The corrals were large and adequate. We camped alone. There were no telephones, no TVs, no computers and no people. We also learned later that after a hard rain the river ford might become impassable and we were on the far side.

The last stop on our vacation was the Pine Ridge National Forest. Again we had corrals for the horses and water for stock was pumped with power supplied by a huge solar panel. The water was pumped into large storage tanks. There was also a well with a hand pump. Here, we once again rode some steep narrow trails and wide-open meadows and we camped alone. The wind was noteworthy. It would blow hard for a while and then it would be completely still.

The weather all week was cooler than in Kansas, but it was still quite warm. We chose to ride in the mornings and evenings. They had adequate moisture this year, so there was green grass. The wildlife we saw was much like that at home.

It was finally time to come back home to reality, but now that we know what to take and what to leave at home, we are planning next year's trip.