Photos and article 

by Allanna Jackson,

Several storms in the middle of November brought much-needed rain that left the trails too muddy to use for several days. Thanksgiving weekend was clear and sunny, with daytime highs in the upper 50s, and only a light breeze. Perfect weather for trail riding.

The trails west of Show Low have sandier soil that dries out faster than the clay soils in Pinetop-Lakeside. They are lower elevation, which makes them warmer in winter and hotter in summer. The Ghost of Coyote Trail on the northern edge of Linden is one that dries out quickly. The Friday after Thanksgiving, I trailered Cinnamon to the official Ghost of Coyote trailhead beside Burton Road. There were two trucks in the parking lot when we arrived, but no one around. I finished grooming Cinnamon, saddled up, and put her hoof boots on her. We set off a few minutes before 2:00 p.m.

The trailhead is between Burton Road and a wash, so the trail immediately descends into the wash and crosses it to reach the kiosk. The sand at the bottom of the wash was damp. After crossing the wash, the first mile of trail climbs, descends, and winds its way up, down, and around several hills. The trail surface is covered with loose rocks, so Cinnamon was happy to have her boots.

As we passed trail marker G1 (Ghost of Coyote), Cinnamon alerted to the sound of people talking somewhere in front of us. A moment later we rounded a turn in the trail. Two dogs suddenly charged at us, barking. Cinnamon merely slowed to watch the dogs, who were acting on their instinctive predatory urge to chase prey, in this case my horse. 

There were four people and six dogs. Four of the dogs were leashed, as they should be. Two people called their loose dogs, and I stopped Cinnamon while they caught and leashed the dogs. They apologized with the explanation that they never see anybody on that trail. This is a very common excuse for ignoring the leash law notice posted at every trailhead kiosk. In 47 years of hiking and riding in the White Mountains, I’ve learned that I can expect to meet something or someone at any time, anywhere in the forest. It’s not predictable who or what it will be. Those loose dogs might have encountered a wild animal that would attack them. The dog owners were just lucky that what they unexpectedly met was an experienced mountain trail horse who has the highly desirable mental attribute of thinking before she runs, and that their aggressive dogs didn’t get close enough to provoke her into kicking or striking to defend herself. After catching their loose dogs, the hikers reported that the Ghost of Coyote Trail was dry enough to use. We continued on our separate ways. Cinnamon and I had the trail to ourselves for the rest of our ride.

Shortly after leaving the dogs and their people, we came to a trail junction that begins the loop. Cinnamon looked right toward the trail sign that lists the distance to Blue Tank, probably because that’s the direction we’ve gone most often. She was quite agreeable about going straight instead. I discovered we were going clockwise ascending the numbers.

Part of the reason the trail winds around the hills is to see the views in all directions. I took photos. 

The climbing up and down hills soon had Cinnamon huffing and puffing, but she kept a steady walk. To the south, there were columns of smoke from some controlled fires that appeared to be on private property. I could see the fire lookout tower on Juniper Ridge on the other side of Highway 260. Behind us, I could see Show Low in the foreground with the White Mountains on the eastern horizon. There was snow visible on the highest peaks. As the trail curved around to the north, I could see the windmills between Snowflake and Holbrook.

Approaching marker G7, we heard some very unhappy cows. Some were angry, bellowing moos; other’s moos sounded like the cows were crying. Cinnamon listened sympathetically, but if she understood what the cows were upset about, she didn’t tell me. We spotted three black cows, but no calves downslope from us. They were quiet when I could see them. The distressed mooing resumed as we descended the slope where trees hid the cows from my sight.

The trail drops onto an old road and follows it up and around a hill before turning off to climb another hill, and then the descent down to Forest Road 9890F is steep and rocky. The walk-through gate and a new roll-over bicycle gate are at the bottom of the hill. Cinnamon stepped up to the horse gate so I could lift the bale, then pushed it open with her nose and walked through. I caught the gate, and Cinnamon side-passed and backed to help me close it and fasten the bale again.

From here, the trail crosses another small wash. The crossing is quite steep but short. Cinnamon carefully stepped her way down, then almost trotted up the far side. Signs informed us we were on the official shortcut or Loop One. The shortcut follows a road beside the west side of a barbed wire fence to its junction with Forest Road 9890G, where the non-motorized Ghost of Coyote Trail merges with the Maverick motorized trail near marker G40. Loop 2 of Ghost of Coyote continues north on the east side of the fence, while Loop 1 turns east toward the trailhead. There is a cattle guard in the road at this junction, with a stick and wire gate beside it. Cinnamon can’t help with that type of gate, so I dismounted, opened the gate and led her through, then closed the gate and mounted.

I asked Cinnamon to running walk along the road, which she did nicely. Around G41, the Maverick motorized trail takes a different road than the one marked for Ghost of Coyote. Cinnamon and I continued alternating between flat walk and running walk on the way to G44. The motorized and non-motorized trails overlap again briefly before diverging again.

Blue Tank had more water in it than I’ve seen in 30 years! After passing Blue Tank, I asked Cinnamon to lope a little on the left lead, then on the right lead. She got cookies for her efforts. We loped past marker G45 and stopped just before a mud puddle.

We walked along another old road around the toe of a hill and continued south on the single track that climbs up the hill to the trail junction just after G1. Then we backtracked to the trailhead. We’d been out one hour and 55 minutes on a six-mile route that my GPS says isn’t quite that long.

My rig was the only thing at the trailhead parking lot when we got back. I unsaddled Cinnamon, groomed her and offered her some water. She wasn’t interested. I loaded her into the trailer. We went home, arriving just in time to feed the horses and park the trailer before dark. It was a lovely ride on a lovely day. Happy Holidays!