Category Archives: Great Western Trail

Blog posts regarding my planning and preparations for my Mexico to Canada horse pack trip

Great Western Trail, Tack and Gear

Some questions from a buddy…

I recently received an email from a friend who posed several questions to me about our pack trip gear and some other things. As I typed out my responses I realized this information might be useful to others. I decided to post it as a blog post (he requested his name not be used). I reconfigured the email to take less space here on the blog.

On 01/25/2016 4:46 pm, [my friend] wrote:

 Tony,

 Your blogs are great and I enjoy every one — many thanks. Kinda curious about your mustang plan, whether you’re calling upon WWMR in Loa or whether there’s time for you to buy one from the feds and soft break. That sounds tough given your 7/4 deadline, but I kind of suspect you’d prefer to DIY.

 I’ve been following your gear notes carefully. Here’s something that might interest you: Cavalry Bed Rolls by Ellis Canvas Tents out of Durango, CO.

 http://www.elliscanvastents.com/collections/bedrolls/products/cavalry-bedrolls

Their concept looks good, but I think the system can be simplified and improved. First, the foam mattress adds unnecessary bulk. A Therm-A-Rest offers as much or more padding but weighs less and goes flatter. Second, it would pair nicely with a simple wool surplus military blanket with sheet. This combo would roll up smaller than the foam and sleeping bag getup, and sleep comfy, too. Throw it open in the morning to air out while you’re eating and packing, then zip, roll as a unit, and lash on. Good for a variety of climates right down to cold.

Given any thought to your brand for your Eager acres/ranch?

[end of email]

Thanks for the email and the compliments on the blog posts. I’ll try to post at least one per week until I get through the “pack trip chronicles” and hope I can keep people interested.

I’ll answer your questions in order.

I made the decision last year that at least one of my Missouri Fox Trotters was not going to make the rest of the trip. My mare, Lizzy, got a lot of rub sores from the pack saddle rigging, due to her long-strided, swinging walk. Additionally, both my Fox Trotters began to lose significant weight on their backs toward the end of the trip, making their already prominent spines stand out even more, which caused both to get sore-backed and raised a calcium deposit on their backs. You can see it in the photo gallery below on Ranger.

 The only horse that came out of the first leg of the trip unscathed was Jimbo, my mustang.

Ranger, my "free" mustang.
Ranger, my “free” mustang.

That being the case, I decided that I would look around for mustangs to replace my Fox Trotters. At length I decided to take Ranger with us on the second leg of the trip and just replace Lizzy. So, I’m looking for one mustang. I have spoken with West Taylor, who is helping me watch for a good one. 

Yes, I would prefer to be able to pick one out from the BLM pens and break and train it myself, but I just don’t have the time to do it. Not only that, but I just don’t bounce as well as I used to, so I’m not excited about having to break a bucker at this time in my life. Training is another matter. I can do that…if I have time. There are plenty around that have been saddle broke and are being sold cheap (in fact, Jimbo was given to us free) by folks who thought they could handle a green mustang, but have since changed their minds, so I’m watching for a good one. Jimbo turned out not only to come to us without price, but in turn, has turned out to be priceless to us. He’s a good, solid, reliable horse. That’s just what I need when we start down into the Grand Canyon.

What I can’t afford is to have an unpredictable horse that might, at some unsuspecting moment, buck either myself or my dad off. There is simply no leeway for that. So, that’s why I have been talking to West Taylor. I don’t have time to be breaking a new mustang and he’s pretty good at what he does, exceptional, in fact.

So, we’ll see what happens. Fact is, I’m short one horse right now.

Your suggestions for the gear are all good. Those bedrolls do seem very convenient. We have looked at them, but at length decided to go the way we’ve always done. That is simply laying out a ground sheet, tossing our bedrolls on top, and using a canvas tarp over top of the beds. Here’s why: We use one of the canvas tarps that go over our horse’s packs as a ground sheet and another to cover us. The canvas is waterproof when in contact with water, but breathes, which keeps our sleeping bags dry (a plastic tarp causes moisture to gather from your own body moisture and makes a wet sleeping bag). We use air mattresses that create almost no bulk when packed and yet allow us to sleep much more comfortably than the roll-up foam mattresses. Foam is a better insulator than air, but our air mattresses are so thin that it’s not an issue.

Additionally, we don’t have to have a canvas bedroll that would just be one more piece of canvas to pack around, adding extra bulk and weight. We try to make as many gear items do at least double-duty as possible. The “cowboy bedroll” as they are called, can only do one thing, protect your bedding.

Our beds, airing out in the morning.
Our beds, airing out in the morning.

For those who are wondering, the canvas we use for our pack covers and bed ground and top sheets are 15-20 oz tight-weave canvas that has been treated with a waterproofer. The brown canvas tarps sold by Tractor Supply are excellent for this use. They breathe when dry, but when dampened, as with dew or rain, the weave tightens and becomes waterproof, but still breathes. It can wick water through if something is touching it, but that’s normally not a big issue. We have found that once the weave tightens up, the canvas stiffens and we can simply kick up under it and it will form sort of a dome over our sleeping bags, running the water off and keeping us dry. We just have to make sure the top sheet is wider than the ground sheet, so that water running off the top sheet runs onto the ground and not onto the ground sheet and under our beds. If we are expecting rain we also normally put up a plastic rainfly to protect us from the bulk of the rain water. This system has served us very well for many years. We have always preferred sleeping out, rather than in a tent.

As for the idea of using the cowboy bedroll with a simple wool army blanket and a sheet, that would be fine for summer at lower-to-mid elevations, but I found out last year that it can get mighty cold at 9,000+ feet, even in mid-summer. While we realize that the old cowboys often did with a lot less than that, you can bet every one of them would have jumped at the chance to trade their wool blanket for my sleeping bag on a cold night! I took my light summer bag last year to save on bulk and nearly froze when we were at elevation in the Chiricahuas. One night our canteens froze before we went to bed and I was nearly froze solid before morning! I Had to trade out my light bag for my heavy bag once we got to Dick’s place on the Blue River. I was much more comfortable after that.

WTR logo
WTR logo

Last question was about a brand for my place in Eagar, AZ. Yes, been thinking about it. My daughter Amy designed one a while back. I still haven’t decided. She designed a pretty nice logo, as well, which I plan to put on my horse trailer as soon as I get time/money to refurbish it. She also made me a few T-shirt transfers with the logo on it. I guess I should make a few T-shirts for the trip!

Thanks for your questions. Maybe this information will help someone else along the way in their packing experience.

Great Western Trail, Tack and Gear, Western Trails

Days Two and Three

For the next installment of our travel log of the first leg of our Mexico-to-Canada trip, I’ll cover days two and three. We had originally planned to take rest days on Sundays and one weekday. As things turned out, we were behind schedule from the start, so we eliminated the weekday rest, but our Sundays were spent in rest, relaxation, and thanksgiving.

This first Sunday of our trip was particularly restful, not only for us, but for Clancy and the horses as well. It allowed us all to recoup our strength and recover from muscle soreness of the first day’s exertions. We hadn’t intended to stay Sunday at the Bar-M Ranch, but when we woke up on Sunday morning, it was raining outside. We were glad for the blessing of having been able to spend a restful night in beds in the Bar-M bunkhouse.

Shortly after Dad and I got out of bed, Jesus dropped by with breakfast for us, compliments of Araceli. It just doesn’t get any better than that for a 3,000-mile horse pack trip! We asked Jesus if we could stay over another night. He acted like he was surprised we would even ask and replied that of course we could stay.

Dad relaxing at the Bar-M
Dad relaxing at the Bar-M

Dad and I spent the day just relaxing. We held a short religious service, to thank the Lord for having blessed us to be able to make this trip as father and son, and to ask for his continued help and blessing. Clancy spent most of his day just laying at my feet. He was pretty sore and tired from yesterday’s mileage. The pads on his feet weren’t as tough as they might be, since most of his life prior to the trip had been spent in places with grass and mud, rather than rocks and cactus.

We learned from Jesus that the ranch was owned by a family named Keifer or Cafer. It comprises over 40 sections of deeded land. The family also owns several other ranches in Arizona and New Mexico. We were appreciative of the generosity of the ranch in allowing us to cross their land, using their facilities, and staying in their bunkhouse. This stop, after our first day of the trip, was truly a blessing to us. It made a lot of difference to us going forward. Without that day of rest, I’m not sure Clancy would have been able to make the rest of the trip. The generosity and warmth shown us by Araceli and Jesus was truly a breath of fresh air in our day and age, here in the United States.

Bar-M Ranch, northeast of Douglas, AZ
Bar-M Ranch, northeast of Douglas, AZ

By the end of the day, the weather cleared up. The horses looked good and Clancy had recovered and didn’t appear to be sore anymore. That evening Jesus dropped by and brought some cookies for us. He passed on Araceli’s goodbyes and told us he and she both would be leaving early in the morning. Araceli had to head back into Douglas for work and he would be heading to another ranch to look after about 800 yearling calves that required some work. We said our goodbyes and settled-in for another restful evening.

The following is from my journal for Day Three (Monday) of our trip. I was already starting to lose track of time, as my journal has the date as Tuesday, April 13. I wrote the entry on the morning of Tuesday, April 14, 2015:

04/13/15   Tuesday   Half Moon Valley, Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona

Leaving the Bar-M ranch
Leaving the Bar-M ranch

We made 16.5 miles yesterday. No major mishaps. Horses are getting settled-in and becoming trail-wise. We passed through some tough country with the ground covered with volcanic rock and thickets of mesquite and catclaw. We were very glad to have good, heavy chaps.

We made the 4-5 miles to highway 80 around 2pm and were trying to find our way through the fence, when Jesus drove by on his way back to the Bar-M. He stopped and talked a bit and let us know we had missed the only open (unlocked) gate for several miles (actually we had hit the fence line probably a quarter mile east of the gate and turned the wrong direction. He told us there was no other open gate heading west for many miles). We decided to lower the fence where we were and travel along the highway shoulder to Rucker Canyon Road. It was providential that Jesus met us there, because farther along, the fence had been rebuilt and we would have had a tough time with it. [Jesus had another ranch hand with him and they helped us lower the fence and stood on the wires while we got the horses across.

Traveling alongside I-80, just west of Boss Ranch Road
Traveling alongside I-80, just west of Boss Ranch Road

At that point the fence was quite old and the wires were loose. We simply unclipped the ties with our fence tools, lowered the wires, had Jesus and his hand stand on the wires while we crossed, then retied the fence wires to the posts, leaving it in better condition than before. About a half mile further on, the fence had been newly rebuilt and the wires were “high and tight” and would have been nearly impossible for us to cross it. We passed several gates along the way, but they were all we padlocked.]

We crossed the fence, said our goodbyes to Jesus and headed on. A bit later we had to re-set the pack saddle on Daisy. While doing that, Jimbo spooked and ran off, with Ranger tied in tow, and Daisy and Lizzy following (we were left standing by the fence with Black and Honey). It looked bad for us, but they stopped about 100 yards away and [when I approached them] Ranger came to me. I got them all caught up and we walked back to where Dad was. We got everything settled and went on. That was the only mishap we had yesterday.

Jimbo is getting more confident and trusting and less skittish every day. He’s going to be a great trail horse.

Joel Tanner and Cody Winn, USBP Agents at Boss Ranch Road
Joel Tanner and Cody Winn, USBP Agents at Boss Ranch Road

A couple miles along, we came upon Boss Ranch Road. We found an unlocked gate there, so we decided to cross teh highway. It was a good decision. Just after we closed the gate, two USBP agents, pulling a horse trailer, stopped to talk. One was Joel Tanner, whom we met at the border (he was one of the two who stopped by our camp on Day One), and the other was Cody Winn. Cody was able to give us some instruction on the best trail for us to get up into Rucker Canyon. We took his advice and ended up in Half Moon Valley to camp.

We passed Boss Ranch and got permission to cross his range. He wasn’t happy about it at first, but warmed up to us after a few minutes (he was concerned about our stock transmitting disease to his stock. After I assured him we had current health certificates and were not from the area, he relaxed a bit and gave us permission to pass).

Clancy kept up well and showed no foot soreness. I put booties on him as we left the ranch, but they seemed to bother him, so I removed them. Turned out he never needed them. Once we got camp set up and laid our beds out, Clancy settled down right between us and never moved again the rest of the night.

Camp at Half Moon Valley
Camp at Half Moon Valley

Dad slept like a log, but I had a lump right under my back that made it hard to sleep. I decided that I’ll take my heavier sleeping bag once we get to Eagar. I didn’t get cold, but cool enough to keep me awake at times.

All the horses are well. No sore feet, no sore backs. Our gear is performing well. The DeLorme Explorer is posting to our website as it should.

My Phillips Formfitter pack saddles are doing well, but you really have to make sure the manties are packed well and are exactly the same weight and loaded exactly the same way, or the saddle will turn. We had to re-set Daisy’s saddle, packed with 100 pounds of feed each side, four times yesterday. It turned on her three times. Luckily, she was calm and did not react. We also had to re-set Ranger’s, packed with 50 pounds of feed each side twice, but his didn’t turn, just started leaning. I don’t think that would be such a problem if the saddle bars were fixed, rather than able to swivel. However, the value is in that they can adjust to the horse’s back – so they fit about any conformation – and they move as the horse moves. We have had no sore backs even with heavy loads. (Note: we found later that the Phillips Formfitter saddles were turning due to the extra saddle pad we had put under them. Once we removed the extra pad, they stopped moving on the horses’ back. The problem was not the saddles, but that we had over-padded them.)

My solar panels set out to charge my iphone
My solar panels set out to charge my iphone

The GoalZero solar chargers work well. We have been setting them up to charge in the mornings. I have been afraid to mount them on the pack horses for fear of losing or breaking them (our original thought was to mount them on top of the packs on the pack horses, so that they were charging our gear throughout the day, but we had been passing through some pretty dense thickets and it seemed unwise to try it).

I have been using the GoPro Hero 4 Silver camera to record portions of our ride, but have only used the hand-held extension (selfy staff) as a mount. I don’t see the value in mounting it on my head or chest, because we wouldn’t get anything but what’s ahead of me and nothing of ourselves or pack train. I have resisted the temptation to mount it on a pack saddle for the same reason as the solar panels. maybe later on, when we are better settled on the trail.

Had some cell coverage yesterday. Joshua [Jensen] said he and Al [Smith] will meet us Wednesday, rather than Tuesday, so he can get better prepared. That will give us a rest day tomorrow. Today I think we will only need to make about ten miles or less, so it shouldn’t be a tough day. Hope not, anyway.

Day Four coming up.

(End of journal entry)

Again, I had lost track of the days. This was written on the morning of Tuesday, April 14. Joshua and Al met us in Rucker Canyon the following evening.

Just for interest, those of you who are readers of Louis L’Amour western novels (as my dad and I are) will recognize some of the names of places we passed through during this portion of the trip from the novel, High Lonesome. We camped in Half Moon Valley on Monday night and passed through High Lonesome Canyon the following day, drawing water for our canteens from the creek that flows through it. You’ll see some videos of that area with my next post.

I failed to mention a couple things that happened during that day that were significant to us. The route from the Bar-M to I-80 was cross-country. There was no road that went the direction we needed. We just headed out across the low, rolling hills. Being ranch land, fences are a fact of life. Most of the fences we came across were old enough that we were able to find places where they were down, where we crossed. One fence we crossed under in a dry creek bed, where we were able to lift the wires high enough for the horses to pass under. Others we took down, passed over, then repaired the fence. We took with us fencing tools and several bags of fence clips. We always made sure to leave the fence in better condition than we found it in. Each time we had to cross a fence it cost us 15-20 minutes and brought with it the risk of the horses getting tangled up with each other and in the fence. It also meant Dad and I had to dismount and remount, tie the horses, keep them from getting tangled up, and work on the fence. Being a couple old farts, that was significant additional labor to us, what with our heavy chaps and all. Crossing fences was a real headache.

I mentioned that we passed through thickets of mesquite and catclaw. Catclaw is commonly known as “wait-a-minute” bush. It grows about four to six feet tall and is covered in thorns that look exactly like cat claws. The horses’ coat offers some protection for them, but even they try to avoid the stuff. For us, the thorns grab, then break off in the skin, which then gets infected like a sliver. We were both very grateful for our heavy batwing chaps. The mesquite thickets are just as bad, except that they grow much taller than the catclaw. The mesquites had needle-sharp thorns about two inches long. I even had a couple of these penetrate my chaps. We saved some of these for tooth picks. Pushing our way through some of these thickets, too large to go around,  was tough work. We stayed to stream beds (called “washes” to westerners) as much as we could, when they headed the right direction, but even that was tough going.

Here’s a short video of the area south of I-80. Here’s one of the area north of I-80 , on Boss Ranch Road, heading into the Chiricahuas.

Most of the land down there where we were crossing is volcanic. Even where the land is relatively flat, it is very tough on the horses, due to the fist-sized volcanic rocks that cover the ground. It wasn’t so bad once we got into the Chiricahuas, but we were lucky to get past those first two days of travel without laming a horse.

Stay tuned for more.

 

 

 

Great Western Trail

Entries from my Journal, April 11, 2015

As I typed up my last blog post, about the first day on the trail for Dad and me, I read through my journal entries for that day. It was pretty amazing. While I easily recall all the things that happened that day, my memory of many of the small things and the emotions attached to them has faded a bit. Reading my journal entries for that day really took me back. I thought it might be worthwhile to make a post of my actual journal entries for that day. Maybe some of you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Saturday, 11 April, 2015 :

Saturday – About 10 miles north of the US/Mex border (written after we reached the Bar-M ranch Saturday evening).

The trip down [from Eagar, AZ to the US/Mexico border] yesterday was uneventful. The horses [in the pasture] met us in the morning and pretty much put their heads into the halters. We had the trailer loaded with all our [horses and] gear and ready to roll by 10:30am.

Aaron (nephew), Kelly (brother-in-law), and Tina (my sister) rode with me. Dad rode with Jean and Dick (Dad’s best friends, who helped haul us to the border). We arrived and made camp about 19 miles east of Douglas, AZ, right at the Mormon Battalion Monument, about 300 yards from the fence marking the US/Mexico border. Dick and Jean dropped the horses off and left. Aaron, Kelly, and Tina got a hotel in Douglas and drove my truck. Dad and I slept in the trailer.

This morning Dad and I got up around 7:00am and started packing up. Aaron, Tina, and Kelly, and little Paxson (my grand-nephew), returned and brought us breakfast about 9:00am. We watered the horses out of a 65 gallon drum we had in the bed of my truck. We got packed and were on our way about 11:00am.

We had some minor trouble with the horses as we got started, but things got better throughout the day. The mustang, Jimbo, is a solid horse, but he has an extremely high and quick flight response. He broke away from us five or six times, but always came back. We ended up having to re-pack him a couple times.

Our first experience with Decker-style packing was successful. I like it because of its versatility, but so far, I think panier packing – or crossbuck style – is easier.  We packed 200 lbs of alfalfa pellets – Equidine – on Ranger and on Daisy (the borrowed mare) and about 130 lbs of gear on Honey (the mule) and Jimbo (the mustang). They all carried their loads well and showed no tender backs this evening.

The mare, Daisy, is giving us a lot of trouble. She is extremely “mare-ish” and causes a lot of disruption with the other horses. She is pretty ornery and disrespectful to us as well. We have had to discipline her aggressively several times. She has been so ornery this evening that we had to separate her from the other horses, for fear one of them might get injured tonight.

Jimbo is very skittish, but is improving quickly. Dad and I both think he’ll be our best horse by the time this ride is over.

Ranger was packed heavy today. He caused no trouble at all, except that he likes to come up to see me at the front when we stop, and gets tangled up.

I rode Lizzy today and she did very well. She still needs a lot of work, but she’s coming along. She was leading the way and had us going 6.2 miles per hour at one point. Our average speed was 3.4 miles per hour [for the day], not counting our stops and breaks.

Black seems to be doing ok, but I worry about him. He’s a small horse with a heavy load.

Honey is the same as always. Gets into trouble, won’t stay still when you need her to, causes trouble with the other horses. Dad has a real bond with Honey, but I could do without her. She carries her load well, but she’s a pain in the keester.

Clancy (my Blue Heeler dog) started getting tender today about three hours into the ride. I put some booties I made for him on his front paws, and it seemed to help. He is very sore and tired tonight. I’m worried he may not make the trip and wondering what to do about it. I hope he recovers quickly and his feet toughen up.

Dad and I did ok. Dad went down a couple times fighting horses, but is ok.

Things got easier as the day went, though. We changed up our horse strings and that helped. We started the day with me riding Lizzy, as I said, leading Daisy and Ranger. Dad started riding Black, leading Honey and Jimbo. I’m not sure what was happening, but Jimbo kept breaking loose. I think Honey was being an “ass” to him and causing him to bolt. Finally, after having to repack Jimbo the second time, we changed to me leading Jimbo with Ranger trailing. Ranger is so steady he will follow any of them without a problem. Dad ended the day leading Daisy, with Honey trailing. That configuration went smoothly. We may continue with that tomorrow.

This evening, at a bit after 5:00pm, with about 9-1/2 miles behind us, we came upon a ranch house. We decided to stop and see if we could water the horses and fill our canteens. We planned to then go on a mile or so, before making camp. The people at the ranch, Aracely and Jesus, not only gave us water, but invited us for dinner, provided us a corral, and let us stay in the bunkhouse. It was all perfect timing, because a windstorm came up as we were unpacking the horses. We had a lot of trouble unloading all the horses, but Lizzy and Jimbo.

I am starting to bond with Ranger. He comes to me now, and follows me around. It’s mostly because I feed him, I know, but it’s nice. I’m enjoying riding Lizzy. because I love the way she moves-out with enthusiasm – ears up and covering ground fast. I have to hold her back, so the other horses don’t have to trot to keep up.

So far, we have found cattle watering tanks every several miles, but our canteens went dry about mile 6.6. We need to carry more water that is accessible while riding. Most of our canteens got packed in paniers this morning.

Dad and I are tired this evening, but happy. We expect that things will get easier as we go, and as we start to develop a routine. Hope so.

 

Great Western Trail

Day One – Mexico-to-Canada – The Chronicles!

Ok. Finally. I’m going to do it.

I still haven’t finished going through all the video footage. I still haven’t learned how to trim, edit, and finish the videos with the software I have. I still don’t have all the photographs organized…But I’m just going to get started. Blow by blow, I’m going to lay out for my readers the first leg of our Mexico-to-Canada horse pack trip.

Last April, I packed up my rig here in Salem, Utah with all the gear I had spent so many months, even years, assembling and preparing, along with two horses of my own and a borrowed mare, and headed south toward Arizona. Health certificates were all in place, plans all laid, and the trip had finally begun.

I arrived in Eagar, Arizona on Thursday, April 2, 2015, after a long, 11 hours of driving. Upon arrival, I let the horses out on my place there in Eagar. They really stretched their legs on the 20 acres and looked like they enjoyed the freedom, after the long ride in the trailer. See the video.

Dad and I spent the following week doing work on the place, getting it ready to hold the horses. Dad had spent the previous week building a corral and putting up fence. He even got Mom out there helping place fence posts! He and I finished up stretching the barbed wire. We also got water connected from the city and installed a spigot for the trough. We made a few purchases of last-minute stuff. We also made a trip down to Safford, AZ to sort of scout the route we intended to ride and to meet Joshua Jensen and Al Smith, whom we had invited to ride with us through the Chiricahua Mountains. Lucky thing we did that, because we were able to set up with Josh a means of resupplying ourselves with horse feed during the trip. During the week I made contact with the US Border Patrol supervisor at Douglas, Arizona to let them know what we were doing and when we’d be in their district. She was a great help in getting permission from the local ranchers for us to pass through their range.

Dad had acquired a new horse for me during the previous week, as we were still one horse short. It was a 6 year-old mustang named Jimbo. He was given to us for free. The story was that the owner had gotten tired of trying to catch him up every time he wanted to ride. Seems the horse was hard to catch. The owner decided to give him away. We took him, because we were desperate, despite the visions I kept having of this little mustang galloping over the hills in the distance with our packs on his back. Turned out it was one of the best decisions we ever made. I talked about him a bit in a previous post, so I won’t go into our acquisition of him here.

Heading for the border
Heading for the border

We had to move our departure back a couple days, in order to meet the schedules of our drivers, who would take us to the US/Mexico border and drop us off. As things worked out, that was also a blessing in disguise, as you will see.

 

We loaded up five horses and Honey the mule and departed Eagar on Friday, April 10. We arrived at Douglas, Arizona in the afternoon the same day, after a six-hour drive. We then headed about 19 miles east on Geronimo Road, a dirt road, to end up about a mile west of the San Bernardino National Wildlife Preserve, and about 100 yards north of the Mexican border.

Camped at the border
Camped at the border

Our drivers then dropped Dad and me off, helped us set up a rudimentary camp, and headed for a hotel in Douglas. They returned the following morning to help us get packed up and see us off on the great adventure.

Dad and I arose on April 11, almost early enough to see the sun come up and started the ball rolling. We fed and watered the horses and started pulling out all our gear and laying it out for packing. We did our last bit of separating gear into “take-this” and “don’t-take-that” piles and then moving things to separate piles for each pack horse. Even though we had practiced and worked on learning how to “manty-up” packs for our Decker pack saddles, it was still a learning experience as we started doing it for real. Even with the help of my brother-in-law, Kelly, and his son, Aaron, it still took us most of the morning to get packed up. We had a pair of US Border Patrol Agents drop by to visit for a few minutes. They were going to ride with us for a ways, but got called away at the last minute.

We packed up the pack animals first, making sure each pack was well-balanced. Two of our pack animals were carrying 200 pounds each of Equidyne Alfalfa Pellets, to supplement our horse feed while we passed through the dry, nearly grassless desert of southern Arizona.  We didn’t worry too much about that, though, as we would be feeding about 120 pounds of the feed per day. I had purchased four new canvas/mohair pack saddle pads for the trip, to protect the backs of our stock, but looking at them as we packed, Dad and I decided to add a regular saddle pad to each pack animal’s back on top of the new pad. It just seemed to be a good idea to give their backs extra protection. This turned out to be a mistake, which I’ll address in a later post.

Right there at the US/Mexico border fence
Right there at the US/Mexico border fence

We finally got mounted up and ready to go by about 10:30am. We rode the 100 or so yards to the border fence and took some photos for posterity. It was quite a feeling to be standing there with our horses tied to the US/Mexico border fence, ready to begin this journey we’d been thinking about and planning for so long. It was hard to believe.

Starting at the Mormon Battalion Monument
Starting at the Mormon Battalion Monument

I started out riding Lizzy, my coming-four-year-old Missouri Fox Trotter mare. She was green-broke at the time, but easy to handle. She loves to lead out, so it was a good choice for keeping the rest of the horses moving and strung out. I was leading Daisy, our borrowed Quarter Horse mare and my Fox Trotter gelding, Ranger. Dad started out on his little Quarter Horse, Black, who is a grandson of Doc O’Lena, leading our mule, Honey, with our spooky mustang, Jimbo, bringing up the rear.

As we started, we took the opportunity for a few photos at the nearby Mormon Battalion Monument, before heading out. I have to say, even nearly a year later, that was a very exciting time for Dad and me, particularly as we turned from the dirt road and headed up Silver Creek Wash. We were now making tracks on the ground that looked just like those that might have been made over a hundred-fifty years ago over that same ground.

Heading down the road
Heading down the road

We headed northward, following the wash, generally, for maybe half-a-mile or so, before finding the wash bottom so rocky in places and so deep in sand in others, that it seemed to be making the horses work hard. We left the sandy wash and tried the low rolling hills, as we followed alongside the wash, which was our guide to Indian Creek Wash. The latter would take us on toward the Chiricahua Mountains. We quickly returned to the wash, however, as we discovered the mesquite thickets were impossibly thick and tough to pass through. After a couple more miles we came upon a ranch road, just a two-track that showed no used in a long while, which took us on northward.

Purple flowers along the trail
Purple flowers along the trail

As we passed through the desert, we were surprised at the brilliant colors of the tiny little flowers along the trail, purple, blue, yellow, white, it was quite beautiful. The photographs just don’t do justice to the brilliant little flowers. We also found a lot of “Loco Weed”, a noxious weed cattle sometimes become addicted to, when other feed is scarce, that eventually causes them to lose their senses and can be fatal.

On the trail about 5 miles into the trip
On the trail about 5 miles into the trip

During the first few miles on the trail, we had some trouble with the pack horses. While it didn’t take long for them to begin to settle into the trail routine, we found our Decker pack saddles kept sliding to one side, even though we had meticulously weighed each pack and balanced the load. I had ordered the saddles with single, rather than the double, cinchas, and now I was regretting it. We had to stop and resettle the packs on the QH mare and my FT gelding several times within the first three miles or so.

Each time we had to stop, something would happen that would spook our mustang, causing him to pull away and break the pigtail that tied him to the Honey, our mule. The spooky mustang would then trot around and stay just out of reach until one of us would get lucky and snag his lead rope. We went through this routine five or six times in the first five miles or so. We also had to resettle his pack a couple times. At least he didn’t leave us and head off across the hills, like I had imagined. It didn’t take the pack horses long to realize they could easily break free by giving a good, sharp tug on the lead rope, breaking the 1/4″ hemp pigtail. Still, we stubbornly stuck with the pigtails, preferring that the little mustang break free than pull Honey over or break her pack saddle rigging. Still, each time, we would catch the mustang, reattach all our pack animals, and get back on the road. After several of these frustrating episodes, we realized that the solution to the problem was to lead the mustang and put my gelding behind him. After that, we had fewer break-away issues with Jimbo that day.

Our first watering stop
Our first watering stop

About five or six miles into the trip, we started watching for any indication of water for the horses. Our Delorme InReach Explorer GPS, combined with our USFS maps were pretty accurate in showing us where the water troughs and windmills were located, however, we had no idea whether any of these actually had water. In doing my planning, I had located water holes along the route about every five to ten miles and planned the travel accordingly. It was critical that we find water at least twice per day for the horses. What a relief it was to come to our first water hole and find it was a well-maintained and the water was clear. In fact, there were trees and shade as well. We stopped and took our lunch break there…about 3:00pm or so.

Here’s a video I took at the five-mile mark of the trip.

By this time, Dad and I were getting tired. We had both struggled with the horses, but Dad, at 80, had gone down a couple times after getting bowled over by moving horses. He was ok, but it was pretty scary for me. The horses were still sorting out their pecking order, and our borrowed QH mare, Daisy, came in season due to the stress. She was the worst of the bunch. She missed no opportunity to bite, bump, or otherwise attack, the other horses. Additionally, she was disrespectful to Dad and me, causing us to have to severely discipline her a time or two, before she learned that it was not wise to push us too far. In the days that followed, we began wishing we had not brought her. Additionally, our mule, Honey, normally the bottom of the pecking order, discovered she could buffalo our spooky mustang, Jimbo. She pushed it to the limit, which was what was causing him to break away. Eventually, after a few days on the trail, my FT mare took over as the Queen Bee of the group and things settled down a bit.

During our break, dad tied Jimbo to a metal pipe under an old windmill. It didn’t take long before Jimbo had tangled himself up and was getting upset. As he moved around, he dragged his pack under a piece of barbed wire that was just high enough for him to get under and rip the plastic tarp covering his pack to pieces. That was going to be our rain fly! Oh well. This is Arizona, right? Took us a while, but we got him untangled with no injuries to anybody or any horse.

After about an hour we mounted and headed back out on the trail. We followed the GPS map and found another ranch two-track that got us headed toward the juncture of Silver Creek and Indian Creek, hoping to find a decent campsite with water somewhere in that area. A few miles further on, as we began watching a storm gather on the western horizon, we came upon a small ranch. There was a house, barns, corrals, and some horses and cattle. We didn’t intend to stop there, thinking that we would try to make a few more miles before making camp, but we thought we’d stop by and see if they would mind us watering the horses and filling our canteens from their water.

In the corral at the Bar-M Ranch
In the corral at the Bar-M Ranch

I dismounted at their gate and walked to the house. I knocked and was greeted by a young Hispanic woman. I told her Dad and I were on a long horse pack trip and asked if we might water our horses and fill our canteens from their water hose. She invited us to do so, while looking at us like she was trying to figure out just why we were there. About that time her husband came out of the house and it was apparent he did not speak English. I simply broke into my fluent Spanish and started a conversation. The ice immediately broke and we were not only invited to water our stock, but to join them for dinner!

Jesus led Dad and me to a corral, where he helped us unload the horses. As we were doing so, a strong windstorm blew in, causing us problems with the horses as the wind made the barn panels rattle and bang. We had a particularly tough time with the QH mare, which by now we had nicknamed “that stupid mare”. Jesus let us put up our horses in a corral with a nice water trough, and we got them fed.  We separated “that stupid mare” and put her in a separate corral to ensure she would not injure any of the other horses during the night.

After taking care of the horses, I asked Jesus if he would mind if we threw out our sleeping bags in the barn for the night. He looked surprised and asked us to follow him. He led us to a bunk house with beds, a stove, bathroom, and shower…and hot water! Just what the doctor ordered for the first night of our big adventure. We washed up a little and headed up to the house for a wonderful shrimp taco dinner and excellent conversation.

Ahhh! Our first night, courtesy of Jesus and Aracely at the Bar-M
Ahhh! Our first night, courtesy of Jesus and Aracely at the Bar-M

In our beds, we slept quite well that first night, as the storm wailed outside. We had made only 10 miles. Not many miles, but we learned a lot that first day.

As this was Saturday night, we expected to take a rest day on Sunday, so we figured we’d just take our leave of Jesus and Aracely in the morning, go a few miles, find a decent place to stop, set up camp for Sunday, and take our rest. That’s not quite how things worked out.

Stay tuned for the next installment: Day Two.

 

Great Western Trail

Making and Breaking Camp On the First Leg of Our Mexico-to-Canada Horse Pack Trip

As I was looking through the video footage of last year’s first leg of our Mexico-to-Canada horse pack trip, I found a video we did, documenting our process of making camp one evening. It was Day Four of the trip and we had only been able to make 10.5 miles that day, due to rough terrain and having to do a couple miles of bushwhacking to make our way from one trail to another, where there was no connecting trail. This was in the foothills of the Chiricahua Mountains, southwest of Texas Canyon Road. It was rough country and slow going.

By the time we made camp that day, we were bushed and so were the horses. We had come across a nice pond about a quarter mile back, so the horses were well-watered. Dad and I still had plenty of water in our canteens, so a dry camp didn’t bother us.  The terrain was pretty rough, so we settled on a small knoll with enough flat area for a comfortable bed for us, a little grass for the horses…and some cholla cactus we had to watch out for. This was a lucky spot for us. We found a small gun-cleaning kit and an insulated vest someone before us had left. That vest was lucky for me, because I had lost my heavy coat earlier in the day during a mishap (story for another post) and that vest proved to be a real blessing to me later on in the trip.

Those of you who are readers of Louis L’Amour western novels, as Dad and I are, will recognize the names of some of the places we passed through that day from the novel High Lonesome. We spent the previous night camped in Half Moon Valley. We bushwacked our way through High Lonesome Canyon, passed by High Lonesome Spring, filled our canteens in the stream, made our way past some old mining prospects, and on over to Texas Canyon Road.

Half Moon Valley, looking north
Half Moon Valley, looking north

We found that over the first week or so of the trip, we developed a division of labor to maximize the use of our time, whether we were packing up to depart camp, or just ending the day at a likely looking camp site. Not that any assignments were made, we just sort of fell to doing whatever there was to be done and sort of developed a system that worked.

Every morning we rolled out of bed about 5:15am, except Sundays (our rest day). After handling our morning ablutions (which did not include shaving), Dad would start cooking breakfast. While it was heating, we would feed the horses and lay out our beds to air out. By that time breakfast would be ready and we would eat. We would then start packing our beds and gear. I would pack up four manties, ensuring they were within about two or three pounds of each other in weight. They contained things like horse feed (80-pound bags of Equidine pellets), sleeping bags, and some odds and ends. Dad would normally pack up the two sets of paniers and start saddling pack animals. In the paniers went things like food, clothes, cooking utensils, first-aid kit, etc.

Once I had the manties ready I would pitch in on the saddling. Once we had all four pack animals saddled and ready, we would begin loading manties onto the Decker pack saddles. It normally took both of us. Then we would load the paniers onto the crossbuck pack saddles. Finally, once all four of the pack animals were ready, we would saddle our riding horses and make a final search of our camp for leftovers, leaving our camps clean and as little disturbed as possible…with five horses and a mule. No matter how we tried, or what adjustments we made, we never made it out of camp before 9:00am. There was one day we thought we were going to get off by 8:45am, but then a fellow traveler stopped by camp and we talked for a half-hour. Oh well, it was worth the delay.

Every evening, we would select a likely camp site. We would look for enough flat area for a bed, no more than a gentle slope for the horses to be kept on, and water. We didn’t necessarily camp right at the water, but we looked for a water source we could easily access, where we could water the horses evening and morning and refill our canteens. Most of the way we found water holes or stock troughs every five miles or so. The longest we went without water was about ten miles, between the Chiricahuas and San Simon. However, we learned by sad experience that we needed clean water for our canteens, even though we had a good filter, for the very expensive filters clog easily. We were normally successful in finding a running creek or a running well at a stock tank every day or so for that.

After selecting our camp site,  we would unload the pack horses, starting with the one packed the heaviest. Each horse would then be allowed to roam free to graze or be tied to a tree, while we continued with the other horses. Finally, we would unsaddle the riding horses. All our gear would be placed in a pile, configured such that we could access the items we would need for camp. The pile was a defensive measure against weather, so that we could cover our gear in case of rain. We always covered our gear, but we were especially careful when we expected rain. From there we would begin unpacking the manties and paniers, so we could feed and brush the horses.

Our bedding, perfect for viewing the stars
Our bedding, perfect for viewing the stars

Once the horses were fed and cared-for, we would begin unpacking our gear for the evening. Dad would dig the food and cooking gear out of the paniers, while I began the process of laying out the beds.  We took no tent, preferring to sleep out under the stars. For a ground sheet we used one of the manty tarps, made of about 15 ounce canvas. On top of that I would toss our sleeping bags, clothing bags, coats, air mattresses, and personal “doc kits” on top of the ground sheet.

By that time Dad usually had our meal ready – we had a choice of re-hydrated vegetable stew or creamed corn (both got pretty old after a month), so we would sit and eat and rest for a few minutes. We seldom had sufficient energy left for a camp fire, so after dinner we would spend a couple minutes blowing up our air mattresses, rolling out our sleeping bags, and crawling into them. We would pull another canvas manty tarp over our beds to guard against dew and rain.

After a few words between father and son about the enjoyment of the day, we would drift off to sleep.

Watch the video.. It’s long and boring, but it is reality. This is what we did.

Great Western Trail, Tack and Gear, Western Trails

Posted a couple new videos to my youtube channel…

I just posted a couple new videos to my youtube channel (it’s under “Tony Henrie”).

The first is a blurb about our experience on the trail with regard to horse packing with both Decker-style pack saddles and manties and with the traditional crossbuck pack saddles and paniers, sometimes called Utah Paniers.

We found manties to be more versatile when packing odd-shaped items or a lot of odds and ends, but we found them to be a lot of extra work in comparison to using paniers. Our choice for the style of packing we do:  Paniers and crossbucks.  Our Decker pack saddles are configured to use either paniers or manties.

The video was taken about 19 days into the trip. We were near the Double-C Ranch, south of Clifton, Arizona in an area they call the Black Hills.

Link:  https://youtu.be/bScARJuW-zc

The second video is a short view of a steep portion of the Crest Trail in the Chiricahua Mountains, coming down through the Painted Rock passage. The video really doesn’t give much of a true perspective on just how steep that section of trail was. Keep an eye on how short the switchbacks are. The grandeur of the view off both sides of the Chiricahuas from the range’s own backbone was really something to see. I had to take the video with my iphone6, because my GoPro Silver ran out of battery about ten minutes before we descended this section.

This was about Day-6 of our trip. Many thanks to our guides, Joshua Jensen and Al Smith. We never would have made it through the Chiricahuas without their help.

Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQOxxNXNplQ

I have been reviewing and preparing to edit the all the video footage from our trip. This is not going to be an easy project. I expect it will be easier once I figure the software out. I’m also finding it hard to edit the videos. I just want to watch it all!  Even the slow, boring parts hold meaning and excitement for me. Don’t worry. I’ll cut them down to a reasonable size and still catch all the best parts.

Stay tuned.

Great Western Trail, Website Management

Happy New Year 2016!!

I spent some time yesterday with my journal, reviewing the past year. It has been a productive year for me. During 2015 I realized a number of personal accomplishments and goals that have opened a number of opportunities to me. I’ll list some of them.

  • I became an NRA Certified Firearms Instructor (NRA Basic Pistol)
  • I became a Utah state certified Concealed Firearm Permit Instructor
  • I became a licensed Armed Private Security Officer in the State of Utah
  • I became a certified PACSCO instructor for training Unarmed and Armed Private Security Officers for licensing in the State of Utah
  • I became the Director of Training for Bedrock Protection Agency
  • I obtained a Private Investigator Agency License in the State of Utah
  • I became the Private Investigator Agency Licensee for Bedrock Investigations
  • I started Mountain Enterprises, LLC, registered in both Utah and Arizona, to be the parent company for my business enterprises
  • I started Guardian Personal Firearms Training, as a firearms training business for the Utah Concealed Firearm Permit courses and other defensive firearms training for private security officers, individuals, and families
  • I registered Western Trail Rider as a business under Mountain Enterprises, LLC
  • I made and sold my first three pairs of chaps
  • I started improvements on my property in Arizona with an eye toward hay production in the future
  • I finished outfitting and preparations for the Mexico-to-Canada horse pack trip for Dad and me
  • Dad and I made the first leg of our M-T-C trip, from the US/Mexico border to Eagar, AZ – 355 miles in 28 days.
  • The most important thing of all, is that my wife and I saw our youngest daughter off to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon). She’ll be serving for 18 months in the Argentina-Mendoza mission.

Suffice it to say, I have been very busy this year. I expect to be even busier this coming year. I have always been very goal-oriented. Keeping a journal has helped me in accomplishing my goals and fulfilling my dreams and desires. Documenting my goals and writing about my victories and failures helps me keep track of my progress…or lack thereof, during the year. Just like everyone else, I make a lot of goals and have a lot of dreams, most of which fall by the wayside each year. Not that they go away, but that either the opportunity did not materialize or I failed to put forth the necessary effort to realize them. As I have aged, I have seen a lot of my dreams come to naught and many of my former desires I no longer wish for. And, surprisingly, a few new desires crop up here and there. Still, looking back through my journals it is plain to see that I have a few interests, dreams, and desires that have persisted throughout my life. These are the ones I have begun to focus on since I retired from government service several years ago. One of these is my love for horses and horse packing. Another is my desire to have a small farm or ranch.

The most important things in my life have always been God and family, yet I often find myself selfishly putting other things before them. As the scriptures tell us, one cannot serve God and Mammon (or worldliness) at the same time. Over the past several years, this has been on my mind a lot. How can I serve God and also support my family and myself? Are my desires and dreams incompatible with service to God? I don’t think so.

I have come to the conclusion that God intends for us to be happy in this life. That doesn’t mean life is intended to be easy, but that we are intended to have joy in this life by making the most of what the Lord gives us to work with. I believe God loves us. I believe He knows “the end from the beginning” – that He knows all things past, present, and future. I believe all things are under His control and in His power. I believe also, that God gave us our Free Will, and that he does not dictate our actions. We have the ability to choose our way and make our own decisions. It follows, then, that whatever opportunities and challenges come to me, ruling out problems I bring upon myself through my own mistakes and unwise choices, are, in fact, given me of God. Which opportunities I choose to follow and how I choose to respond to challenges is my God-given prerogative. My improvement of those opportunities and challenges, therefore, is my service to God. Giving my best effort in all things good pleases God. This is what I believe.

I also believe that as I please God by giving my best effort to improve what he has given me, He will increase my opportunities as my ability to improve them increases. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think God cares much about whether I make a lot of money in this life. I do believe, however, that improving the opportunities He provides me can result in monetary success as well as spiritual growth. My desire and efforts should be in good service, and let the chips fall where they may.

God has been good to me.

I have but one New Year’s resolution this year and that is to put forth a better effort in everything I do. I want to be more efficient and effective in the use of my time in all aspects of my life. That means I will put forth better effort in my employment, in developing my business prospects, in keeping up my website and blogs, in keeping up my family and church responsibilities, and in improving my own health and personal conditioning. By doing this, I expect that the opportunities I have been blessed with in the past several years will begin to bear fruit in the coming year and going forward. I believe this will be pleasing to my Lord.

Some things I hope to accomplish during 2016 are:

  • First and foremost, to see that my daughter is supported to the best of my ability on her mission
  • Secondly, to see that Dad and I make the second leg of our Mexico-to-Canada horse pack trip

After those two:

  • Put in10 acres alfalfa on the place in Eagar
    • Get the well repaired and functional
    • Get irrigation established
    • Improve fencing
    • Get a barn put up for hay and tack storage
    • Buy 4 calves to start on the place
  • Get regular firearms training classes scheduled and working in Utah and Arizona
    • Get more NRA Instructor certifications (work toward becoming an NRA Instructor Counselor)
    • Design and offer advanced defensive firearms courses
  • Improve the Western Trail Rider website
    • Take and document at least 3 horse pack trips during the year, other than the M-T-C ride
    • Completely document the M-T-C ride and all preparations with my blogs, video, and photographs, product reviews, etc
    • Recruit/approve at least 6 individuals to keep blogs under Western Trail Rider
    • Increase follower and subscribership on Western Trail Rider to 1,000 and views/clicks to 300 per day
    • Create a way that outfitters and suppliers can advertise their services and products on the website that will improve their exposure and help the website

So, there it is. That’s my list of things I wish to accomplish over the coming year. There are a few other personal and employment goals, but I’ll keep those in my personal journal.

Good luck with your goals and planning for the coming year and have a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Welcome 2016!

Great Western Trail, Uncategorized, Western Trails

So, Dad and I were talking the other day…

Dad and I got on the phone together on Christmas Day last week and talked a little about our upcoming pack trip. We’re talking about the second leg of our Mexico-to-Canada pack trip. I have been putting together a route plan and trying to figure out the best time frame to fit it into. Dad made that a lot easier.

Dad was born and raised in Panguitch, Utah. Panguitch, being steeped in pioneer tradition of the LDS faith, holds a Pioneer Day Celebration every year on or about July 24th, the day the first group of Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, under the command of Brigham Young.  Dad graduated high school there in Panguitch, and to this day his graduating class has a reunion every other year. In 2014, twenty-one of his classmates showed up out of a graduating class of thirty-nine. Since he graduated high school in 1952, that’s a phenomenal statistic!  Well, last week Dad had a request. He wants to arrive in Panguitch at the end of the second leg of our pack trip, so that he can attend his class reunion and the Panguitch Pioneer Day Celebration.

Well, that’s not too hard. We just figure out the total mileage, our anticipated mileage per day, and estimate the time it will take us to get from Eagar, Arizona to Panguitch, Utah, then simply track it back to determine when we need to depart Eagar to make it happen. Piece of cake!

So, here’s the figuring. The route we are planning has us departing Eagar, AZ and traveling almost due west, following US Route 60 to Show Low, AZ. We figured to follow the highway for that portion for a couple reasons. Firstly, water in that part of Arizona is pretty scarce, so we’ll need to have water delivered to us daily for that portion. Secondly, there is always grass growing alongside the highway, which will help our stock stay in good shape as we start the trip. Thirdly, in this area of Arizona, there are a lot of fences and few trails and the travel time we will save following the highway, rather than backroads, will be important to us later on in the trip. US Route 60 is the most direct route we could take from Eagar to Show Low. It has a wide easement and no travel restrictions, such as fences.  It also routes us around the White Mountain Apache Reservation, which is not particularly friendly to horse travel on their lands.  This route Just makes sense, despite our preference of following trails or backroads. It’s about 49 miles from our starting point in Eagar to Show Low by that route.

At Show Low, we will turn south and join the Mogollon Rim Road, which travels along the top of the Mogollon Rim, generally in a westward direction. For those unfamiliar with Arizona, the Mogollon Rim is the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau that drops off to the south, creating a steep drop in elevation of up to 4,000 feet in some places. It runs across central Arizona for about 200 miles. The Mogollon Rim Road follows most of the rim. We will be following this road just for a few miles.  Just west of Show Low there is a designated foot/horse trail that follows the same direction, just a bit closer to the actual rim. This is what we are hoping to be able to follow. We should be able to find adequate water and feed for the horses along that route, but if not, we are close enough to a decent road that we can have feed brought when needed. We will follow this route for about 100 miles before we join the Arizona Trail and head north again.

IMG_1297

The Arizona Trail is a designated trail for non-motorized travel that crosses Arizona from Mexico to Utah. I am a supporting member of the AZT, which has a very active association that maintains the trail. The trail is fully documented by GPS for mileage, water sources, elevation, etc, so there are few surprises there. This is the route the boys from “Unbranded” rode from Mexico to Utah. We will join the route just north of Payson, Arizona, between where you see Pine and Tonto Natural Bridge State Park on the AZT map. From that point, there is no guesswork in the mileage. It will be 220.5 miles from there to the south entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park.

Crossing the Grand Canyon on our own horses is the Crown Jewel of our entire trip. Dad and I have dreamed of this since I was in high school. This is where things get a bit tricky. The earliest the GCNP will allow camp reservations in the park is four months in advance, and if you don’t reserve that far ahead you simply will not get a reservation. Additionally, you cannot stay a night in the park without a camp permit, particularly with horses. The regulations regarding horse travel in the park are quite reasonable and they are strictly enforced. Horses must have been fed weed-free feed for two weeks before entering the park, they must have a current negative Coggins test (one year), and a current health certification within 30 days from a veterinarian. One must also have a reservation for one of the two horse camps within the canyon itself in order to be able to stay overnight in the canyon.

Additional regulations include travel hours on the trails. From the South Rim, private individuals with their own stock must depart no earlier than 1:30pm, to avoid conflict with the outfitters coming out of the canyon with their mule strings in the morning. Heading up the north side, private individuals must depart no earlier than 10:30am. The mileage from the South Rim to the Phantom Ranch at the bottom is 7.4 miles, and from there to the north rim is another 14 miles. Due to the late departure from the South Rim, it will be necessary (a happy necessity, I might add) that we stay one night in the canyon. We hope to be able to secure a reservation at the horse camp at Phantom Ranch.

Once out of the canyon, it is another 12.6 miles to the GCNP northern border. Add that to the 14 miles from Phantom Ranch to the North Rim and it is pretty likely we will be staying another night in camp somewhere before we arrive at the park border, requiring another camping permit reservation.

In talking with the park rangers last spring, I found them to be very helpful, in fact, surprisingly so, with regard to our plans to cross the Grand Canyon on our own horses. They suggested that I make a reservation to camp at the Mather Camp Ground on the South Rim for a week, which would give us some leeway on our arrival date. We will be traveling by horse for about 370 miles and trying to hit a particular date on our arrival at the GCNP. That’s like hitting a full-court shot at the end of a basketball game. If we are unable to secure the camp reservations we need or if we are delayed and can’t make the date of our reservation, they were fairly confident they would be able to fit us in at some point while we waited in camp at Mather. As things turned out this year, we decided against going on after the first leg of the trip. For the second leg, this coming year, I will try to get reservations for one night at Phantom Ranch and another night up on the north side somewhere. I will reserve a site at Mather Camp Ground, which has hookups, bathrooms, etc, on the South Rim for a week in advance of the primitive camp reservations. If things work out well, we will have a few days of rest for us and the horses before tackling the Grand Canyon.

2013-04-29_13-28-33_320Once we leave the GCNP, we will continue on the Arizona Trail another 66.4 miles to the Utah Border. At that point we join the Great Western Trail. The GWT is a network of multi-use trails on government land (Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, and state lands) that stretches the rest of the way from Utah to Canada. It is not well documented and there is no private association that helps maintain the trail system, other than volunteer organizations, such as the Back Country Horsemen of America, which has several chapters in Utah. At this point we are again back to our own reckoning as to the trails we will take and the mileage from point to point.

Our route from the Utah Border will take us northward up Paria Creek to the mouth of Willis Creek. We will follow Willis westward up Willis Creek Canyon, toward Bryce Canyon National Park. Our plan is to join the Grandview Trail below (east of ) Bryce and follow it around the southern end of the Paunsaugunt Plateau, then back northward to Red Canyon. If time allows, we will take a day to ride Bryce Canyon, as well as Casto Canyon and Losee Canyon on the west side of the plateau. By this time we will have joined Casto Road, which is a dirt road that leads right on into Panguitch. Estimated mileage from the Utah Border along this route to Panguitch is 88 miles.

The total mileage, Eagar to Panguitch, as close as I can figure, is about 560 miles. For insurance, I added a fudge factor of 25% to the miles that are not exactly documented by the AZT Association. That brings the mileage, on the long side, to about 620 miles.

During the first leg of our trip we learned a few things that are helping us on our planning for this leg. Foremost, we learned we can plan on an average of 15 miles per day. Some days are better, but some days are worse. When we did our original planning, we figured we would be making 20-25 miles per day after the first week of breaking the horses and ourselves in to the trail. Not so. We had also planned for two rest days per week. As it turned out, we rested only one day per week, trying to make our time schedule, because we found we were averaging only about 15 miles per day. This year we will plan for 15 miles per day and two rest days per week. With that in mind, our total travel time should be between 41 and 43 days, barring any long delays or mishaps. Traveling five days per week, that makes it between eight and nine weeks total travel time.

Scheduling all that out on a timeline, with us arriving at Panguitch on or about July 20, has us arriving at the Grand Canyon on or about June 29. That, in turn has us departing Eagar, Arizona, to embark on this momentous journey, on Monday, May 23, 2016.

That just happens to be the date of Dad’s 82nd birthday.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

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Great Western Trail

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!!!

Great Western Trail, Western Trails

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!