Well, the day has finally arrived!

After more than two years of dreaming, scheming, planning, and preparation, the day has finally arrived.

Tomorrow morning, Dad and I will be loading up our five horses and one mule and heading for the US/Mexico border near Douglas, Arizona.

Before I say more, I want to thank those who have helped us make it this far, as well as those who are planning to help us as the trip progresses.

In particular, I want to thank my very special wife, who not only agreed to let me do this, but has been supportive and tolerant as I have prepared for the trip. I know she thinks I’m crazy, but she has supported me nonetheless. I also want to thank my mother, who has been supportive of my dad in letting him go with me, so that we could fulfill this father and son dream that we have held in our hearts for more than 40 years.

Thanks to Nathan, my oldest son, for his financial contribution, as well as Tena Snider for hers. Thanks also to Aaron LeSueur, my nephew, and Kelly and Tina LeSueur, my brother-in-law and sister, as well as Dick Goodman, who will be driving more than 12 hours to drop us off at the border and return our trailers to Eagar, Az. Kelly and Tina will also drive to the Grand Canyon when we reach it, to assist us there. Their enthusiastic support and encouragement has been invaluable.

Thanks to Gwen Kahler, who has offered her home as a stopover/re-supply point when we reach Flagstaff. She will ride with us for a few days as well.

Thanks to one particular US Border Patrol Agent, who will be our guide through the Chiricahua Mountains. He will ride with us several days and will also lend logistical support in re-supplying us with horse feed as we pass through the lower deserts of southeastern Arizona.

Thanks to Tyler Theobald for lending me a good horse for the trip.

Thanks also to Outfitter’s Pack Station and Outfitter’s Supply for their generous support and help.

Thanks to all the other unnamed folks who have encouraged and helped us along.

OK, now that all that’s said……

Tomorrow morning we will load up and haul out. We should arrive at the border in the late afternoon, after which we will set up an overnight camp. We plan to have the horses packed and be heading northward by about 10:00 am on Saturday. We have contacted the USBP office at Douglas, AZ and let them know who we are and what we are doing. They secured permission for us to cross a large private ranch as we head northward.

We expect to reach the destination of the first leg of our trip, Eagar, AZ, about the end of April. We will have at least four re-supply points along the way and two stopover points, where we may be able to get a nice, hot shower.

At Eagar we’ll evaluate our horses, gear, and ourselves, to see whether we are in shape to make the second leg of the trip, from Eagar to Panguitch, UT, which includes the crown jewel of our trip, the crossing of the Grand Canyon.

I have reserved a camp at Mather Campground in the Grand Canyon National Park, from June 5-12, in hopes that a Backcountry Permit, allowing us to camp within the park boundaries, will come available. The park officials have been very helpful to us, but their horse campgrounds in the canyon have been booked for some time. They are hopeful that once we arrive a cancellation may come up, allowing us one night’s camp in the canyon. We booked the Mather campsite as a place where we can wait to see if a permit comes available. If a permit does not come available for us, the plan is to have Kelly and Tina LeSueur haul two of our horses from the South Rim around to the North Rim. Dad and I will each ride one horse and tow another. We will ride to the bottom, switch horses and ride up the other side in one day. At the North Rim we will be met by Kelly and Tina, then haul out of the park to camp. Our fingers are crossed that a permit will come up. We could use all the positive thoughts you can muster.

We hope to reach the destination of our second leg, Panguitch, UT toward the end of June. As we have never attempted a pack trip of this magnitude, we have limited experience to go on as we try to estimate how much ground we will be able to cover each day. Additionally, there is no way for us to accurately determine the actual mileage of the trip. I look forward to watching the GPS as the miles unfold. I estimate the entirety of this year’s trip (the first two legs of our planned Mexico-to-Canada trip) to be approximately 1,000 miles, or a bit more.

l have gotten so tired of all the preparation as this day has approached, that both Dad and I are very excited to finally be done with the preparation and getting ready to actually start carrying out the plan.

We’ll be driving tomorrow and making tracks on Saturday!

Hallelujah!!!

Took a Drive Down to Southeastern Arizona Today…

US Route 191, originally named US 666
US Route 191, originally named US 666

Dad and I left this morning about 6:00 am and headed south on US 191, which used to be named US 666 – and for good reason! There are turns on that road where you can read your own rear license plate! We passed one road sign that read “10 MPH NEXT 11 MILES”. Trailers over 40 feet are prohibited. However, the scenery is spectacular as you drop off the Mogollon Rim from over 9,000 feet elevation to under 3,500 feet. It was quite a ride.

A rare white mule deer doe
A rare white mule deer doe

On the drive we saw dozens of deer and elk, one Mexican Gray Wolf, and one very rare white mule deer doe. How great is that?! That was the first wolf I have ever seen in the wild and the only white mule deer I have ever even heard of! Click on the photo for a larger view, then zoom in on the deer. She is beautiful!

We stopped at several points on the road to look out over part of the area we will be riding through and took several pictures, which I’ll post as a gallery at the end of this post, if I can get them to upload – the Internet connection at my parents’ house is painfully slow.

We visited the USFS Ranger Station at Clifton, AZ for advice and intelligence regarding the route we were considering for that area, which was to follow the Gila river eastward to Eagle Creek and turn north, following Eagle Creek to the North Eagle Creek area. There was an area of about ten miles along that route that shows very steep terrain on the maps and we were concerned about being able to find a way through it. One of the USFS officers introduced us to Steven Najar, Arizona Game and Fish Officer, who has ridden much of that region and is very familiar with it, except that little portion we were concerned about. He informed us that he has not ridden that area simply because it may be impassable. He is familiar with all that area, except a stretch of our proposed route of about three or four miles.  He indicated that the areas he was familiar with led him to believe we would be making a serious mistake taking that route. He said that in areas we would be restricted to the creek bed by the high canyon walls and that there were places where we would have to swim the river – not just cross, but swim. With pack horses, that’s a dangerous proposition at any rate.

Instead, Steve proposed that we follow the Gila River farther eastward to the confluence of it and the San Francisco River. We could follow the “Frisco” northward and have the option of turning back northwest to join the Upper Eagle Creek area or continue northward up the Blue River into the Blue Wilderness Area. He has ridden both routes and said both are easily passable with ample water sources and grass for our needs.

Since the latter route was my original plan from more than a year ago, and since the Blue Wilderness Area is one of my favorite parts of the whole world, we were easily swayed. So we are back to our original route. We are sure that was a good decision.

One warning, though, from Steve about that route: There is a stretch of the Gila River between Bonita Creek and the San Francisco river known as “The Box.”  It is an area that is enclosed by canyon walls and is known for quicksand. Steve said horses have been lost in the quicksand there and urged caution. That was a good warning and we will certainly heed it. Quicksand on the Gila River is nothing to play with.

From Clifton, we drove to Safford, AZ, where we met with a US Border Patrol Agent, and his friend, whose names I do not have permission to disclose. After being served excellent BLT sandwiches (Thank you JJ) we discussed our route from the US/Mexico border to the Safford area.

The plan we settled on was that Dad and I would depart the US/Mexico border just east of Douglas, AZ, on Saturday morning and travel northward via Silver Creek and Indian Creek, cross US Highway 80 at “Dangerous Road” (that’s really its name!) and continue northward to join Texas Canyon Road into the USFS lands of the Coronado National Forests’s Chiricahua Mountains. We will continue on Texas Canyon Road to Rucker Canyon, where we will turn northeast until we come to Old Fort Rucker. We should arrive there on our third day on the trail. Our two freinds will meet us somewhere in that area. I will text them our location via Satellite text. Dad and I will rest the horses until they arrive.

We will then take Raspberry Ridge Trail northward to the Crest Trail (270B). We will follow that up to the Bootlegger area, then northwest again, eventually leaving the Chiricahuas via Emigrant Canyon. Our friends will leave us and Dad and I will continue northward, crossing Interstate 10 at Bowie, then continuing northward along a railroad track to Safford.

After our meeting, Dad and I drove into Wilcox, AZ and purchased eleven 50 lb sacks of Equidine alfalfa pellets, which we dropped off at the USBP Agent’s place on our return trip. Dad and I will have to haul our feed for the horses, as grass will be scarce along most of our route. Our friends will bring 200 lbs of feed when they join us and will leave another 350 lbs in their pickup. When we reach their truck at Emigrant pass, we will take as much feed as we need to reach Safford, then on we will go. Our freinds will take the remaining feed to the agent’s house, where we will make a stopover before reaching Safford. There we will re-supply before heading on north to the Gila River.

Our next major stop from there will be the home of a friend who lives on a private parcel inside the Blue Wilderness Area. As indicated above, our route will take us from Safford, AZ, eastward following the Gila River to the San Francisco River, then northward up to the Blue River. We will follow the Blue northward into the Blue Wilderness Area and on up the river to our friend’s place.

At our friend’s place we will again re-supply and probably be joined by a couple of other riders from among our family and friends in Eagar, AZ. We will rest up a couple of days before heading up the Mogollon Rim via either KP Mesa Trail or Grant Creek Trail (whichever appears to be more passable after the recent forest fires), reaching the end of the first leg of our trip at Eagar, AZ about three days later.

We expect this first leg of the trip to take us about three weeks and will cover approximately 300 miles of some pretty rough country. If we and our horses survive this leg of the trip, we should be in good shape to continue the second leg of the trip, from Eagar, AZ to Panguitch, UT, about 700 miles, as close as I can figure, making the total mileage of our pack trip at least 1,000 miles.

I am anxious to see just how close to reality my distance estimations are. The GPS will tell us the true mileage.

Stay tuned for more!

Getting Ready…

To catch up on the developments of the past several days, this will be sort of a catch-all post. Few pictures on this post, but I’ll get more up soon.

This past week has been a very full one. I finished all the projects I have been working on, made the last of my gear purchases for the trip and got to working on a pair of chaps for myself (I sold both sets I made earlier, as well as third set I made for the same customer) and got everything all packed up and loaded into the trailer.

I had planned on heading for Arizona on April 1st (appropriate, considering the undertaking at hand), but with all I had to get done in the last several days, I decided that I could really use one more day. I decided to leave on Thursday, April 2nd.

I got up bight-eyed and bushy-tailed (more or less) at 5:00 am on Thursday. My good wife made breakfast for me while I got the last of my gear in the trailer and went over my lists one more time. A friend came over to assist me in getting the horses loaded, so I could waste as little time as possible in that endeavor. We arrived at the place where my horses are boarded about 6:00 am.

Amazingly, the horses met us at the gate and offered not even the slightest difficulty in catching them up and loading into the trailer in the dark. I was on the road at 6:15 am.

The truck and trailer both functioned as expected and the trip went well. The horses traveled very calmly and made no trouble for me or each other. However, as I entered Arizona, the winds picked up and the farther south I traveled, the stronger they got. By the time I got to Chinle, Arizona, I was bucking about a 30 mile per hour side-wind. At least it wasn’t a headwind. I was pleased that my truck and trailer handled the winds very well, although my fuel mileage suffered. Since I was passing through the town, I stopped in Chinle to see an old friend I hadn’t seen in 38 years. It was a nice visit. I decided not to let the horses out of the trailer, because I was afraid that after several hours in the trailer, I wouldn’t be able to get them back in without assistance. I’m sure my short stop in Chinle gave them a bit of a rest.

A couple hours further along, just south of Sanders, Arizona, I heard what sounded like a shotgun blast and knew immediately it was a tire blowout. One glance in the side mirror told me the left-rear tire on my trailer had exploded. This was the second blowout on the trailer in less than 500 miles, which, incidentally, was a blessing in disguise, I suppose. Due to the previous blowout I was imminently prepared and had the tire changed in less than 10 minutes. However, it was a clear sign that even though my tires appeared to be almost new – almost no tread wear – they were past their safe useful age. As I got back on the road I called my nephew, who has an auto shop in Eagar, and ordered four new 10-ply trailer tires. They’ll be installed on Monday. Another unexpected, but necessary, expense.

I arrived in Eagar about 5:45 pm. Even though the horses had been in the trailer for almost 12 hours, they were still riding quietly. I pulled into my 20 acre parcel in Eagar and let them out of the trailer. I tied them up to the trailer to let them settle down a bit, brushed them, and fed them a little, then released them. They really enjoyed the freedom offered by 20 acres in which to run. They all took off at at gallop to explore the place. I enjoyed watching them go.

My four horses getting acquainted in Eagar after a 12 hour trailer ride
My four horses getting acquainted in Eagar after a 12 hour trailer ride

Dad had our new mustang corralled there, so I took a good look at him. He’s about 15 hands and stoutly built. Not the prettiest animal, but just what we need on this trip. He’s a mite skittish, so I’ve been working a bit on getting him used to being handled. The story behind him is that he is a 7 year old mustang gelding that was “cowboy broke” and acquired by a fellow here in Eagar. The horse was hard to catch and the fellow got tired of having to rope him in a corral every time he wanted to ride him. So, when he heard about our endeavor, he gladly donated him to the cause. Dad got a Bill of Sale for him in my name, got his Coggins test and vaccinations, had him shod, and so he’s added to the remuda. He’s called “Jimbo.” I’ve been working with him the last day or so, getting him settled down. We’re up to him letting me catch and halter him….as long as I have a bucket of grain in my hand. That’s progress enough for two days.

Yesterday I finished my new batwing chaps. I don’t plan to sell this pair. You might recall that I made a pair of chinks, a pair of batwings, and a pair of Arizona Shotguns, to see which I wanted to take on this trip. I had selected the Arizona Shotguns and so I gave the chinks to my dad as a birthday present last year. I decided to sell the batwings, so I advertised them for sale. A fellow responded and liked them, so he bought them and asked if I had any more for sale. I mentioned the shotguns and he wanted to see them. Long and short is that he bought them as well, then ordered another pair of batwings. It was nice to have the unexpected extra money for the trip kitty. I used some of it to buy leather for another pair of batwings – for me this time.

Riding in the Telephone Road area southwest of Eagar, AZ
Riding in the Telephone Road area southwest of Eagar, AZ

We also took a short ride yesterday. My brother-in-law took us up to a place known as Telephone Road, where we rode for just short of five miles. It was a pleasant ride. It gave me a chance to try Ranger on a snaffle bit, since I don’t want to ride him in a bosal for the pack trip. He did well.

I also used the ride for a test of the new function on westerntrailrider.com that allows my followers to view a real-time map that will show our location and progress on the trip. It worked like a charm. I was exceptionally pleased when I got back to my folks’ place to find a map of our recent trip on the website. Just click on the “Trail Map” button on the menu.

Today, Dad and I finished the fence on the property in Eagar. We stretched the last of the four barbed-wire strands, did all the wire ties, then installed the wire stays. It is a good-looking fence. I missed a real opportunity to get a good picture of my Dad building fence at 81 years old. I’m grateful to him and my mom (who held posts for him) for building the fence. The parcel makes the perfect place for all our horses to become acquainted and work out their pecking order before we actually start the trip.

Our farrier also showed up today and shoed all five of the horses, but we decided to leave the mule barefoot.

This evening I made arrangements to meet with a US Border Patrol Agent (I need to get permission to disclose his name), who will be riding with us for several days as we pass through the Chiricahua Mountains. He’s part of their mounted patrol and is very familiar with the trails in that area. I have no doubt he’ll prove to be a valuable friend and guide for us while he’s with us.

On Monday Dad and I will take a drive down to southeastern Arizona to take a closer look at some of the areas through which we’ll be riding next week. While we’re in the area, we plan to visit the USFS offices in Clifton and Douglas to see what intelligence on the trails we can gather. We will also visit the Douglas USBP office to let them know our plans and get advice on routes and water sources in that area. Should be a very full day.

We’re having a tough time picking out a route between Safford, Arizona and the upper Eagle Creek area.  The maps don’t show any designated trails that connect those areas. We’re pretty sure there are trails, but if they’re not on maps, we can’t find them or know where they lead if we trip onto them. If we don’t get further information from a reliable source, we may have to change our route slightly and follow the Gila River to the San Francisco River, then follow it to the Blue River and trail north up the Blue until we get to familiar areas, where we’ve packed before.  If any reader is familiar with the area between Safford/Morenci and the upper Eagle Creek area, we’d love to hear from you – tony.henrie@westerntrailrider.com.

Several unexpected expenses have blown up my trip budget, so my funding has become very tight. We are concerned about being able to handle further unexpected expenses on the trail, such as extra feed (should there be less grass than expected), fuel for our drivers, vet care for emergencies, etc. I have started a GoFundMe account to try to raise a little buffer money. If  you would like to contribute, here’ s the link: www.gofundme.com/westerntrailrider .

Tomorrow is a “Day of Rest”.

Happy Easter, and may we all remember that it’s not about the Easter Bunny.

Western Trail Rider is back up and running!

Thank you Andrew and Jan at Fifth Mission Marketing, Provo, Utah, for getting westerntrailrider.com back up and running!

As many of you know, my website has been only partially functional for quite some time now. After several updates by Word Press, phpbb3, and Coppermine, the three programs pretty much stopped talking to each other. Additionally, the forum suffered a brute-force spam attack in December, after which I shut down the forum, comments, and other functions. I had to manually delete over 5,000 spam members and comments. After that I attempted to update the site and get if functioning properly again, but simply made matters worse. I ended up losing the ability to administer the forum at all and thought I had lost the content we had accumulated on there over the past two years.  I finally gave up and decided to hire a company to get things working again. I’m glad I did.

One day before I head south to begin the big Mexico-to-Canada pack trip, the westerntrailrider.com is finally back up and running. All the prior data has been restored, and everything is functioning.

We have added a new item on the menu. Anyone who would like to may click on the “Trail Map” button and see a real-time map of our progress on the first two legs of the trip. We’re still tweaking a couple of details, but this has me very excited.

So, if you are a long-time member who has been waiting patiently for me to get things fixed, thank you for your patience and please come back and participate in the forums. Post your favorite pictures of your trail rides on your own gallery album.  If you are a new member, or someone just looking, come join in the fun.

For those who regularly ride trails in the western US, who enjoy documenting their trail rides, please join us and start a blog under the Western Trail Rider banner. I’ll also provide you with a WTR email address for your blog.

My goal for Western Trail Rider is, and always has been, to make this website the place to come to for information on equine-use trails, particularly for horse and mule packing, in the western United States. While every state and national park has its own website, for the lesser known trails on public lands, there is very little documentation and information about them is hard to come by. Many of those trails are disappearing, due to lack of use. Many trails that have existed for more than a century are no longer passable for horses, many can no longer be found at all. This website is dedicated to preserving such trails for future generations. I invite everyone who feels the same to come, join in, and help.

Now, having gotten the website working again, and issued the above invitation, don’t forget that I will be on a 1,000 mile pack trip (the first two legs of our Mexico-to-Canada pack trip) for about the next couple months. I expect to be back to the real world around the end of June. I probably won’t be posting much on my blog for a while.

Then again, the big ride was the whole impetus behind Western Trail Rider in the first place.

Excellent!