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Active Western Pursuits
By Mark Bedor
Grab the reins of the American West
How The West Was Won. That’s what got me
interested in this whole cowboy thing. To me, it’s the best movie
of all time. I can practically recite it. I must have seen it 32 times.
I even own the soundtrack. I was in second or third grade when it
came out in 1962. Wagon trains, Indian attacks, outlaws, buffalo stampedes—
the movie has it all. Legendary actors, too. I can remember those Minnesota
grade school classmates who’d been on summer vacation to South Dakota, and had
actually seen the buffalo herd that stampeded in the movie. How cool was that?! We
took vacations too, but they were back east. Going West would have to wait.
John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” reignited my interest. I couldn’t wait to get
out there. I hitchhiked to Wyoming when I graduated from high school, and worked
on a cattle ranch in eastern Montana the next summer. But most of my time there
was spent on a tractor, and almost no time on a horse. I wanted to be a cowboy, but
farming with a cowboy hat on didn’t interest me. I went to college, got on with life,
and pursued other things. But when I had the chance to visit out West, I’d look at
those mountains, wondering what it’d be like to ride off into those hills.
On the trail of the American bison at South Dakota's buffalo roundup. |
Exactly 25 years later, I was living in
L.A. when I saw a newspaper story about
a rodeo at Pierce College. I discovered
they had a horseback riding program,
and offered horse trips through an outfitter
in the Eastern Sierra Nevada
Mountains. In the fall of 1999, I went on
one of those trips. I still have a picture on
my wall where I’m wearing a huge grin
and standing next to the horse I rode that
week. I’d worked in TV News as a small
market anchorman, and had even done a
little acting on an NBC soap called Days
of Our Lives. But that stuff paled compared
to that horse trip. That was the
coolest thing that had ever happened to
me up to that point. A whole new world
of Western adventure opened up for me.
I’ve been exploring and writing about it
ever since.
And every time I get to spend a week
at a dude ranch, or take a pack trip, or
go to a Western festival, I feel so fortunate.
Blessed is really the right word.
And I wish the whole world could experience just how good and real and authentic and satisfying a
hands-on Western experience can be.
The opportunities are endless. Whatever your interests, time
frame, or ability level, there’s the perfect Western adventure to
match. You can trace the path of Butch Cassidy and his outlaw
gang, for example, or ride near huge herds of buffalo. You can
explore desert trails, visit a dude ranch, or lead a string of pack
mules through the High Sierra. I’ve been on trips with beginners
and pros, teenagers and old-timers, the fit and the not so fit. Your
hosts will make sure you stay safe. Try it once, and at the end of
that first adventure I know you’ll be making plans for the next one.
The spectacular
trail of Utah's Red
Rock Ride. |
Getting started
A good place to get a taste of what this lifestyle is all about is
the Heber City Cowboy Poetry Gathering and Buckaroo Fair,
one of the best of the many cowboy festivals held around the
country. This November gathering in a picturesque valley east
of Salt Lake City is a celebration of all things Western.
If you come to the show without boots and a hat, you can
find them—and a lot more—at a gear show that features all
kinds of Western clothing, hats, saddles, and chaps.
But what draws the crowd is the Western music. It’s not
country—it’s cowboy. No crying-in-your-beer songs here.
Performers such as Dave Stamey, Juni Fisher, the Bar J
Wranglers, and Michael Martin Murphey sing about roundups and stampedes, life in the saddle, and legends of the Old West.
Their rousing renditions of old classics and inspired performances
of fresh new material cause spirits to soar.
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(a) The Western Trail Kit from VSI fits over a saddle
horn and includes essential equine first aid
supplies. www.petfirstaid.org
(b) A hobble, whether made from mohair or
leather, is tied around the front legs of a horse to
keep them from running off. www.brightonsaddlery.com
(c) A Sprenger Leather Punch with compound
leverage is handy for last minute adjustments at
the trailhead. www.sprenger.de
(d) Stay hydrated with a handsome leather-covered
canteen from Richland Yellowstone
Manufacturing. 1-800-366-5130
(e) An oversized stirrup from Court’s Saddlery
easily fits large boots. www.courtsaddlery.com
(f) The Jackhammer hoof pick (www.ultimatehoofpick.
com) and the hand-forged steel Muller
Pick (www.mullerslanefarm.com) are two examples
of a trail tool you can’t do without.
(g) Leather saddlebags from Hunn Leather have
a timeless look. 1-800-852-7967
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(h) A mecate, also known as a “McCarty,” is primarily
used as a training rein. On the trail, it can make
a great neck or “get down” rope for leading.
(i) Stable Work Gloves from Heritage are handy
on the ranch or on the trail. www.heritagegloves.com
(j) Find your way with a Professional
Orienteering Compass from Joy Enterprises,
which includes a map magnifier and a mirror. www.joyenterprises.com
(k) The Knot Eliminator from Rollin Beauchane
lets you easily make adjustments to a highline or
a picket line. www.rollin-beauchane.com
(l) The Leatherman Wave includes just about any
tool you’ll need in a pinch. www.leatherman.com
(m) A catch rope from Callaway Horse and
Roping Supply in 60-foot length is perfect for
everyday roping needs.
www.callawaycompany.com
Items supplied by and in stock at Brighton Feed
& Saddlery, Brighton, Colo. www.brightonsaddlery.com |
Click Here for Active Apparel Essentials for Him and Her
Accomplished storytellers voice true tales and outrageous
put-ons with equal aplomb, while the West’s best poets spin
lines to make you want to ride out like the cowboys of old.
Michael Martin Murphey will be happy to help you do just
that. He’s been outfitting horse trips into the most spectacular
parts of the West for years. He’s driven a herd of longhorn cattle
on the actual Chisholm Trail, taken guests into the wildest
corners of Yellowstone National Park, and ridden Big Bend
National Park in Texas.
This fall Murphey is teaming up with
Gunsel Horse Adventures for the annual buffalo roundup at
South Dakota’s Custer State Park. That exciting adventure
offers a horseback view of the Park’s annual fall roundup of its
1,500 bison. After a day on the trail, Murphey will perform his
Western songs around a campfire. Beginners are always welcome
on his trips. “Givin’ em a hands-on feel for the
[Western] adventure really locks people in to understanding
what we’re doing,” Murphey says. “It’s why I love to outfit.”
Murphey’s not the only Western singer inviting you to live
the life he sings about. R.W. Hampton offers a week-long stay
at his Clearview Ranch outside historic Cimarron, New
Mexico. You’ll spend days in the saddle, share ranch dinners
with the Hampton family, and sleep cowboy style in big tepee tents. The week also includes a rodeo, a country dance, and, of
course, Hampton’s award-winning music.
Singer-songwriters Belinda Gail and Curly Musgrave ride with
their fans on the spectacular Red Rock Ride in Utah. During this
week-long adventure, you’ll ride Zion National Park one day, and
Bryce Canyon National Park the next, followed by an equally
beautiful area known as Thunder Mountain. You’ll even spend a
day riding the Outlaw Trail, made famous by the legendary Butch
Cassidy. We stopped for lunch at the remote and well-preserved
remains of one of Cassidy’s hideouts.
In the evening, you’ll stay in cabins at a comfortable base
camp, and gather in a rustic lodge for excellent meals and performances
by your musical hosts. This year Dave Stamey is providing
the entertainment.
Finding your stride
Murphey says he made a promise to himself when he was 50
that he would “see all the most spectacular places in America
from horseback.”
One place still on Murphey’s wish list is affectionately known
in Montana as “The Bob.” Straddling the Continental Divide in
the northern Rockies, the Bob Marshall Wilderness is more than
a million acres of some of the wildest country left in the West.
It’s home to bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk, wolves, and
grizzly bears. I’ll never forget spotting the very fresh track of a
griz on a muddy creek bank during a horsepacking trip into the
Bob with the Triple J Wilderness Ranch.
We never actually saw a griz, but we did see pristine mountain
lakes and rode beneath an 18-mile-long rock wall that juts 1,000
feet into the sky. It’s appropriately known as the Chinese Wall.
At night our expert guides turned our wilderness camp into a
gourmet dining experience. As we enjoyed dessert and coffee,
we received visits from curious young mule deer, apparently so
unaccustomed to humans they had no fear. Susie Scott, a guest
from Ohio, remarked: “It occurred to me what an absolute privilege
it is to get into an area like this ... and share it with these
guys that live up here.”
The Triple J also offers a more conventional dude ranch experience
where you can take day rides and other activities, savor
evening meals in the rustic main lodge, and spend the night
tucked in a warm bed in a snug cabin.
It’s one of more than 100 member ranches of the Dude
Ranchers’ Association. From Arizona to Canada, there’s no better
way to immerse yourself in the Western world than by spending
a week at a dude ranch. While all of them are unique, they’re
all located in beautiful areas of the West, and they offer warm
hospitality, well-trained horses, and staffs that specialize in
making nervous city slickers comfortable in the saddle. Rookie
riders often find themselves loping the trail by week’s end.
Don’t have a week? Take a day ride. The Recreation Equestrian
Coalition (REC) holds an annual fundraising ride I’ve been on
several times in Malibu, Calif. For about $100, you can rent a
horse and spend a fall afternoon riding through Malibu State Park. You can ride right through the
Western movie set of TV’s Dr. Quinn
Medicine Woman, see Ronald Reagan’s
old ranch, and even ride through the
area where they filmed TV’s M.A.S.H.
REC is one of a number of groups
working to preserve horse trails
throughout the country. One of the best
known is the Backcountry Horsemen of
America. Not only do they fight to keep
trails and public lands open to horses,
but their members also do a lot of volunteer
work to keep those remote trails in
good condition. A $40 membership is
money well spent.
Blazing your own trail
Then there are the adventurous ones
who want to set off on their own pack
trip adventures, using their own horses
and mules. But how do you do that? How
do you learn how to properly load gear
on a pack saddle? What effect does high
altitude have on horses that aren’t used
to it? How much feed should you carry?
What if a horse gets sick or hurt, and
you’re 20 miles from the trailhead? Do
you need to bring a gun?
You can get answers to all those questions
and many more at California’s
Rock Creek Pack Station. Owner Craig
London offers a week-long, hands-on
course packed with so much information
you can actually earn credits at a
California University. It’s called
“Mountain Horsemanship: Veterinary
Care and Horsepacking in the
Wilderness,” and the classroom is the
spectacular backcountry of the Sierra
Nevada Mountains.
London is well qualified to lead the
trip. The 53-year-old practicing veterinarian
grew up horseback at Rock Creek,
which his father bought back in 1947.
“I’ve worked with so many great people
and my knowledge is the sum of what
I learned from them,” Craig says. “And
then I’ve had enough things happen that
hopefully you can prevent other people
from making the same mistake.”
In other words, you learn by doing.
Craig and his crew will teach you how
to load pack saddles and secure those
loads with a box hitch, then have you
lead a string of mules through some of the most beautiful country you can
imagine, where you’re up so high and
the water is so pure you can drink it right
out of a creek.
It’s not easy. In fact packing is a lot of
hard, physical work. It can take hours in
the morning to roundup the horses and
mules, brush the animals, saddle, pack,
and load, not to mention break camp
and clean the site. Then you’ll spend the
day horseback leading your string of
mules. (Trust me, sometimes those critters
don’t want to cooperate.)
But it’s all worth it. Along with the
intense instruction and hard work, there
is plenty of time to relax and explore an
area few people will ever see. One day we
took a side trip to the top of Kern Peak. It
was quite a view from above the timber
line. After riding as far as our horses
would go, a hardy few of us hiked the
steep trail to the summit. At 11,510 feet, it
made for quite a view.
That was a sunny July afternoon in
California. Two months later, on a much
colder morning in Wyoming, I was off
on another horseback adventure—elk
hunting.
Many of the pack stations and dude
ranches morph into hunting outfitters
in the fall. My trip was hosted by the
expert guides of the Triangle C Dude
Ranch outside Dubois, Wyo. Elk don’t
have much to worry about when I’m out
there, but it was another great chance
to ride the roadless West, and get a hint
of what Indians and settlers faced when
they had to live off the land in the 1800s.
I spent months getting ready, including
taking shooting lessons from an
experienced pro. (Your local gun shop
can direct you to an instructor.) At 300
yards, with a high-powered rifle, just getting
your shot anywhere on the paper
target is quite a challenge.
When the day finally came, it was a
thrill to shove my rifle into the scabbard,
swing into the saddle, and ride into the
wilderness. And while it was pretty darn
frosty on that trip, the Triangle C made
sure it wasn’t too rough. We slept on
comfortable cots in big wall tents the
size of a small cabin, each outfitted with
its own wood-burning stove.
We were horseback before dawn that first morning of the
hunt, riding out in the chilly dark to be in position to see elk
when the sun came up. As we rode, I looked up at the bright
stars in the clear, dark sky through the tall pines. I know we
were there to bring home an elk, but just being there was
enough for me.
Not interested in hunting or cold weather riding? There’s
another fall ride in a much warmer
locale—California’s Death Valley
National Park, where this year ETI
(Equestrian Trails Incorporated) will
host its 47th annual Death Valley Ride.
The trip is not for the faint of heart.
Beginning in Ridgecrest, Calif., and ending
in Death Valley’s Furnace Creek
Ranch, the ride takes you six days
through more than 120 miles of the
rugged Mojave Desert.
You need to provide
your own horse for this one, and
make sure both of you are in shape. ETI
provides feed and water for the horses,
excellent food for the riders, and a wellstocked
bar if you get thirsty. But there’s
no wrangler to feed, water, and saddle
your horse. You’ll do that yourself, and
pitch your own tent as well. And when
the trail boss says saddle in the dark and
ride out at 6 a.m., he means it. Chances
are it will be dark by the time you stop
again, too.
It was tough at times, but I loved it.
There’s nothing like spending hours
horseback in the eerily beautiful, stark
desert landscape. Plus, you’re supporting
ETI, an organization that works to make
sure horse trails on public land stay open.
“A lot of people come out here and
they don’t ever wanna come back,”
warns former ETI President Tom
Kirsch. “This is not easy. But I’ve never
had anybody in all the years I’ve been out
here that has not been proud of their
buckle [awarded to each rider at journey’s
end]. They may never come out
here again, but they are proud of the
accomplishment.”
When it comes to experiencing the
West, there’s always a sense of accomplishment,
a sense that your time and
money are well spent. The creak of saddle.
A day on the trail. Friends around the fire.
A good book in a historic lodge. There’s an authenticity to the
cowboy world like no other that’s good for body, mind and soul.
I wish the whole world could experience it. There’s no reason
you can’t.
Mark Bedor is a freelance writer and photographer whose articles
on the American West have appeared in more than 20 magazines.
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