February 2019 BLM Report
Feb 2, 2019
My friend and I drove out to the Basin to check on the roads and the wild horses. We tried to go up 75 but only made it to the top and it was drifted closed. There was one set of tracks that looked to be a few days old, but we choose not to try to follow them. We then drove up 67 until we reached 48 and turned around and went up 21.
15 wild horses on 67
4 hours no vehicles
Feb 9, 2018
We were able to get up to the 52 Junction, today and we drove 52 to Ranger Pond. We turned around there and came back down to 48 and were able to drive to Two Bar. Each trip in we are seeing at least one different band, and most are looking fine. We are seeing mares that are close to foaling.
The washes have had running water in them and are frozen.
20 wild horses on 318
10 wild horses on 67
12 wild horses on 52
42 wild horses
No vehicles 6 total hours
Feb 15, 2019
I have a tour scheduled for the 16th and due to the warm weather and the snow that the surrounding areas had gotten I ran out to the Basin to see if we could even get in. The roads were pretty open, I got up to Bitter Pond on 67 and to Two Bar on 48. The roads were frozen, but it was 48 in the basin. There was water running down the road in several areas. The tire tracks filled up with water as soon as you drove over the thin layer of snow. I did see a lot of wild horses, and most look good, although if you look closely there are ribs showing in many, the winter coat is thick enough that you don’t really see the ribs at first glance. There are a lot of mares that I have seen that look like they will be foaling in March. And as in the norm there were 15 wild horses along 318.
https://youtu.be/sQbre9iF4CU Water running down the 67 by the corrals.
15 wild horses on 318
45 wild horses on 67/126/67
60 wild horses
No vehicles 4 total hours
Feb 16, 2019
I had a tour today. Over night it has snowed. The person had wanted to get some sunrise photos so we meet in Maybell at 6:30. Highway 318 was not plowed and had about 6 inches of new snow. We broke trail to the basin. The person with me is a South African who has been living in the US for some time, but never been to this part of CO. He was excited at the vast open area. Even though the day before I could get far into the basin, with the new snow we could not. We did not get past Davy G on 48 and turned around about 3 miles north of Lake Pond.
We then drove the county road 21 to check on the out of bounds wild horse, which we did not see. We did see a huge herd of elk and a huge herd of pronghorn. Although we did not see a lot of wild horse he was thrilled that the ones we saw were close enough he got some great photos and he said he will be back this summer.
18 wild horses on 48
27 wild horse on 67
45 Wild Horses
1 vehicle on 48
8 total hours
Feb 23, 2019
We arrived at the basin around 11am. There were several sets of tracks in the area around the entrance. Once we got up on top, we were breaking trail. W turned around before we got to Lake Pond. There was a lot of drifting.
We returned to 318 and went west. We found Nakoma at mile marker 40. We went to ID her and took some DNA. There was, no apparent injuries, but it was obvious that she had been moved. She was covered with snow, we brushed it off and tried to check her out, but she was frozen and way to large to roll over. The only blood we saw was a little under her nose. Her eye had been removed, probably by birds as she had bird poop on her.
We notified the BLM and tried to call the State Patrol, as we felt it was their area.
25 wild horses on 67
16 wild horses on 318
41 Total wild horses
4 total vehicles on 67, all turned around before Lake Pond
10 Total Hours
Feb 24, 2109
A friend went back out with me to the basin today so that I could use my range finder to determine how far Nakoma had been moved. On our way out I learned that SWAT was or had been out and they were saying that she had been shot.
18 wild horses on 318
5 wild horses by the corrals
23 Total wild horses.
1 vehicle
4 total hours