May 8-14, 2005: Spring Gather

Monday, May 9, 2005

A crew of mostly veterans this week. Have eight folks and five of them have been here before. Alan from England is here for his 6 th visit. He stands out as one of our longest consecutive crewmembers and certainly gets the prize of most miles traveled over the years to come visit.

Then there is Joe from Kansas City here for a third time. Russ from Maryland is here for a second visit. George from Chicago is making his second trip. Jose from Long Island is here for two weeks, he was here for two weeks last year as well.

Our first timers are Lonnie from Michigan and Jennifer and Glen from California.

We were slow getting out today. Just the usual Monday morning get it together stuff but for some reason it just went on and on. We finally got out late morning with our main job being to get the south trap gathered and the cattle moved out into Negrito. The gather went well and after having to spend a few minutes pairing a couple calves up we got them through the gate and then moved them up towards Dog Spring where we let them drift. We got done with this chore about 3:30. There wasn’t enough day left to go out and do any more gathering so we decided to save our horses and call it a good first day.

It was a bit breezy. Hi was about 59 low was 26

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Things went much smoother this morning and we got out in good time heading out into 7HL. Our plan was to ride all the way to the east side and work T Bar Ridge. Just after we got going Whiskey lost a shoe so Nate went back with Lonnie to put one on and Jose went along with them. After they got the shoe on they trailered out and rode the northeast corner and met up with us just after we split up at Fence Tank. Lyndsey and I went up on the ridge. Alan came a long with me and Glen and Russ worked the lower slope. Joe along with Jennifer held the herd in the valley. There weren’t as many up there as I had hoped but we got about fifty or so adults and lots of calves. The wind was not a whole lot of fun out there today. Lots of wind burned faces. It just blew and blew and blew. Once we got everything gathered up at the end of the valley we started over T Bar Saddle and it was one of the best pushes we have had in a long time. A nice line along the trail and none getting downhill from us. There were several really small calves but we brought them with us as far as Elladeane tank wanting to get them that much closer to home. It was another pretty good day for small calves, partly cloudy with even a bit of a chill in the wind. We left three or four little pairs behind and continued on to the T Gates and put them all through getting a final count of 73 adults.

We got back to H.Q. just before 6pm. everyone knowing they had ridden a couple miles.

Hi was 61 windy overnight low was 24.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

The Forest Service had left a message yesterday saying there were cattle in Bearwallow pasture and they wanted to know whom they belonged to so Nate headed there today. He took along Alan, Russ and Joe. They rode up Rocker canyon and then up to near the top of the mountain. The only cattle they saw were some of our neighbors which Nate said he’d seen in the same area all last fall. They had wintered in there and looked good for it. They are little short mutant mountain cattle. Those folks have a breed of their own going. Inbred and tough, nothing can kill them it seems. But wild to work!

The riders had a long day in the timber, having to do a lot of bushwhacking. They were still seeing patches of snow here and there.

Nate doesn’t know the country that well in there. The only way to learn it is to ride it. You can follow along with someone who knows country but you don’t really get it like you do when you do the thinking on your own.

The rest of us rode out in 7HL in two groups looking for cattle. Lyndsey took George and Jose up over Feathery Hill and down Feathery valley. They found several pairs, which they pushed to Elladeane. Glen and Jennifer rode along with me. We rode part of Ten Dead Canyon and then took the Red Rock trail over to T Bar Canyon and rode that to the fence and back. It was great down in there, kinda out of the wind, water flowing everywhere, just plain sweet.

We found no cattle there but had a great morning. We got to T Bar Saddle and called Lyndsey on the radio. She had found a few more already at the tank so had a good little bunch.

Jennifer and Glen decide they wanted to work the cattle so they rode to catch up with the herd while I headed to cowcamp where Nate had left the trailer yesterday. It was a good ride over there. I was on Dakota and he was just as happy as could be to ride off and leave his friends and go whereever.

We all got home about the same time; about 5pm. Nate’s crew came in about a half hour after that.

The wind wasn’t as bad today but it still wasn’t as quiet as I would like. Hi was about 62 lo was a really chilly 17

Thursday, May 12, 2005

It was a day of branding but not until we went and got the cattle in. We gathered the south trap getting in the cattle we had been putting there the last couple days. The gather was one of the best I had ever seen. Every one paid attention to instructions and it was just picture perfect.

We had all the cattle in the corrals at just a bit after noon when we took an hour for lunch. Then we spent awhile sorting the cattle just as we did last week and about 2pm we got ready to brand. Most of the crew knew what they were doing and it went very smoothly. We got 26 calves worked in a couple hours. Then we doctored a couple cows in the chute and that was done in ten minutes. We finished all the work about 6pm.

Windy again today with a hi of 60 after a low of 19

Friday, May 13, 2005

We rode out in three groups today. Lyndsey along with George and Jose rode 7HL pasture picking up little pairs we had left behind over the last week. Ones that were too little to make the drive in one day. They had good luck finding all but one pair we knew were on the west side.

Nate and I took everyone else and headed to Snow Lake to gather all our bulls and move them off the winter pasture and out to the good grass under the trees in Loco Pasture.

Nate along with Alan, Lonnie, Jennifer and Glen rode from the H.Q. making the long decent down to the lake. Joe and Russ trailered out with me to Gilita Ridge where we unloaded near Principal tank. I wanted to get into School House Canyon, which runs on the south side of the ridge. It’s a long deep canyon and I knew the bulls had been using it all winter. I’d never gotten into the canyon from the north side and had been told there was no way down. We rode the rim for about a mile when I thought I spotted a dim elk trail. We angled down the slope and got to the bottom finding our selves in a side canyon where we had to dismount and bushwhack for a mile or so until it got open enough to get mounted. From there we had a nice ride down the canyon but found no bulls at all. When we got to Snow Lake trap we met up with Nate and his crew who also had found no bulls. We rode the trap and found that all our bulls were right there in the trap waiting for us.

The first one we picked up was J. He’s a big black bull who is scared of his own shadow. He wanted nothing to do with those other tough guys out there and gave us some problems. He kept trying to run back to the far end of the trap to get away from the other bulls.

The other 15 bulls went right on to the gate more than happy to get on fresh grass.

J gave us problems to the end. At one point we were going across the dyke on the road along the top of the lake. Lonnie for some unknown reason took off after the bull running through everyone else, losing his hat, which caused Jennifer’s horse Tom to spook almost dumping her in the rocks. A good horse and a balanced rider saved a big wreak. Lonnie never looked back at the mess in his wake and just left his nice hat sitting in the road. He didn’t go back for it till a half hour later. And low and behold it was gone. I guess the moral of the story is don’t be a hero, don’t run through other horses and don’t leave your hat in the road even out here or you will end up with a sunburned head.

The last bull we got was one that had decided to call the campground his home. We have moved him out of there so many times it got pretty annoying.

But finally about 4:30 we were done with all our work around there.

The horses had a long day so Lyndsey had met us at the lake with a trailer. We were a bit short on space so we unsaddled Tom, Preacher, and Villa and I started to push them home on Gambler.

Things went fine till we got to the top of the trap and Villa saw that spring and green grass. It took thirty minutes of rodeoing him around till I got him off the grass and out the north gate.

He then took off at a dead run up Snow Canyon. Now he had never been there before and didn’t know where he was going but he took off like a drunk driver in Tijuana. Of course Tom and Preacher took off behind him just out for a good run. They missed the first trail home and I knew if I didn’t stop him he’d go who knows where and make a long evening of getting home. Gambler and I took off after them. First trying to get around them by going along the south side of the canyon through the trees. The horses were on a nice two-track road and really making time. Gambler was amazing. We were going full speed ahead jumping huge logs and the creek, which wound it’s way back and forth down the canyon. Just as I thought I was going to get around them I lost time slowing for trees or jumping something. The creek there is a cut bank affair that at some places is ten feet lower than ground level. I would have to slow down drop off one bank cross the creek and climb the other bank. The last shot I had of getting around them was going well when I looked and saw a deep bank cut coming up. It was about eight feet wide and ten feet deep. Gambler hesitated about twenty feet away assuming I would check him up to go down the first bank. I knew Gambler could make the jump so I touched my heel to him and he eagerly responded by digging in. He sailed over that creek and cleared it by three feet at least.

I still couldn’t get around the young idiots so I started a horse race getting to the two-track road and giving Gambler his head. Those young horses were fast but not as fast as the locomotive I was driving. First we flew past Tom, and then caught up with Preacher. They both slowed as soon as I passed them.

Villa was still going for all he was worth. It was another mile before I caught and passed him and got him stopped. He turned and looked back surprised Tom and Preacher were not behind him. I headed back the other way and Villa fell in behind me. But once we got down to where the other two were grazing he took off again running past them and hollering. They just looked at him like he was the idiot he is and didn’t follow. They headed up the steep ridge in the direction of home deciding getting to the trail home was a better idea than following Villa. I followed Tom and Preacher up the ridge and soon enough Villa showed up behind us worn out and dripping sweat. It was the most exciting ride since my last steeplechase race 25 years ago. I tell ya if I had Gambler back then I would have been a champion. That horse can flat out fly and jump like nothing I’ve ever ridden. And at no time was he out of control. The whole three-mile run he was on a slack rein and I was just using leg pressure to maneuver him around the trees. It was great. I got back home with no further problems and was as high as I have ever been. There are no drugs to compare with the buzz you get from a great horse.

Today was the best weather of the week. Little wind, high of 70 and lots of sun.

It was a super crew this week. We love having all the veterans to work with.