Week 6: Horses and helicopter.

The ranch is just remote enough that it's hard for friends to want to come visit--it's a lot of driving for a weekend.  But, Mike and Kathy came out with Kai and Mike's motorcycle.  It was so great to have them there and they truly appreciated the beauty of the landscape and were completely self-sufficient when there weren't enough operable ATV's to go around as planned. Gregg, Grant and I rounded up cattle w/ 4-wheelers in Toe Jam while the cowboys came down a different canyon.  The plan was to join our herd w/ theirs but it is so hard to coordinate when there is no way to communicate!  Once we got ours trailing down the bottom we got up on the ridge and spotted the cowboys way out in the distance, an hour+ ahead of us.  Mike and Kathy ended up hiking out on a ridge and saw the kind of work Gregg can do on the ATV.  This country is so vast and the pastures so large that the last of the steers have been a real challenge so a helicopter was scheduled for Monday.  

10-4-2010 from Julie's journal
'Plans were set into motion in the extreme pre-dawn hours to get everything in place for the arrival of the helicopter.  Grant was ready for his first ride.  The plan was that he and Jesse would go up w/ the pilots and scope out where the cattle were, Jesse would get dropped off up Rock Creek where Ricarda was waiting with 2 horses.  The cowboys would shuttle the horse trailer over to Trout Creek and wait for the helicopter to push cattle down. Gregg and I would work the Little Rock Creek area on 4-wheelers. Grant would get dropped off at First Crossing where we left our truck with his lunch and book.  

     Gregg and I only found 24 steers and never saw the helicopter all morning.  Deciding they must have found a bunch in other areas, we got ours trailing down then buzzed over to Trout Creek, stopping by Rock Creek expecting to pick up Grant.  Grant was not there.  All morning I was staving off little disaster scenarios with Grant flying around.  At the jct of Trout Cr. we could see some cattle and a couple of riders working their way down.  It was Jesse and Ricarda.  Jesse rode over and filled us in--the cowboys were bringing another batch down and the helicopter had started ~300 down Coyote and would drop Grant off at the truck. The weather was beginning to turn sour and as soon as we turned back around to go find the 300 a squall blew in.  Gregg stopped to put some layers back on and I went on against a head wind, pelted in the face and all the while thinking of Grant flying in this weather.  Back over my shoulder I saw the helicopter coming down the bottom and expected it to blow by and for Gregg to catch up.  I stopped, waited, then turned back and was relieved to be traveling with the wind.  Ahead, through the sideways rain came Gregg with Grant in front, wrapped in Gregg's slicker, ball cap tipped down to protect his face from the pelting rain, jeans soaked and Sobe balancing on the back, shivering and getting spattered with mud.  No talking, just getting back to the vehicle.  Grant thought we'd load up the 4-wheelers and our day was done. After all, he'd spent 8 hours in the helicopter, made 3 refueling runs and even saw some wild horses. No, we warmed up, left Grant and Sobe and headed up to find the cattle.  We rode as far up as I've ever been.  Intercepted Dick (Ricarda's dad who was still in PT for knee surgery--cowboys are a tough breed) just before Soldier and Coyote came together.  He was pushing 9 down and had been over in the Toe Jam this morning pushing steers down to Jesse and Ricarda.  He hadn't seen the 300.  We rode upward and onward and saw cowboy camp w/ the truck and trailer down below in Trout Creek then way down the other side of the ridge was Jesse with what looked like 20 head (turned out to be 50) and he was having to push and badger them constantly.  It was getting late, should we go help Jesse? go get the truck? Decided to both go down and get my ATV loaded then Gregg would take the 5 steers we ran into towards Jesse while I drove the truck down.  The weather had let up but the roads were definitely greasy.

     Dick had gotten his 9 down, pointed in the right direction and was heading up to get the trailer, we loaded his ATV and then along came Gregg w/ his steers at a trot--he'd given up on getting them over Jesse and followed the path of least resistance--these steers did not want to move!  We pointed out another 4 w/in his reach so he picked those up.  In the meantime Jesse came trotting up.  He decided he didn't have enough time to battle his 50 all the way to the bottom, it was late and time to start wrapping up.  He unloaded Dick's ATV, loaded his weary horse and took off to find Ricarda and the cowboys, stopping at First Crossing to load the ATV on Dick's truck.  Dick and I continued on down while Gregg kept pushing his 9 rascally steers.  At First Crossing we unloaded Jesse's horse, my ATV, then reloaded Jesse's horse and Dick went on his way.  I was so worried that we had left Grant waiting for too long but he ambled out of the truck having fallen asleep w/ Sobe.  We hiked up on the rocks to check on Gregg's progress who had to WORK these steers the whole way.  Grant rode my ATV back to Squaw while Gregg and I loaded his and made our way back after dark!  Cooked up some more pasta, reheated the sauce, showered, ate, sleep.

   Mike and Kathy left this a.m. just after the helicopter took off.  They drove out the back side of the ranch to check out Tuscarora and left a day early to beat the weather--smart folks!'

After a day's rest came shipping where Grant ran the exit gate then got a horse-riding lesson from Ron Davis and got to practice in the round coral--6 months ago he didn't want to get near a horse.  After today he wants to own one.