Another Darwin Candidate

[Non-Typical Solutions]

5 minutes ago, Outdoor Writer said:

Speaking of mules...here's a snipit from something I had posted on FB a while back........

"This involves the hunt with Harvey Hickman, Bill Jenkins and Don Wheat mentioned in my other messages.

With horses and mules borrowed from Dobbin, Shupe, Harvey Hickman and I were tasked with hauling all the major camp gear, setting it up and cutting enough firewood to last us a week. So at the Vallecito trailhead, we packed a slew of horses. I think we wound up with about six pack horses each. So off we went up the Vallecito trail with Harvey in the lead and me following. We got as far as the cliffs where the trail quickly drops off to the river on the right side. That's when disaster struck.

The second horse in my string was hauling our heavy 16'X20' wall tent, and she rubbed up against the cliffs, causing the tent to slide down on the river side. The horse toppled off the trail and landed on a small rock shelf. Its butt was sitting on the rock while its front legs were draped over a dead tree that was lying there. The tent was under the horse's belly.

Fortunately, the horse was smart enough to stay put or else just too damned scared to move. The lead rope from the first horse in the string had pulled loose, but the one from the third horse was still attached and nearly taut as that horse struggled to stay on the trail and not follow its stable mate down the cliff. As I jumped off my horse and tied it to a small tree (the only one in sight!), I yelled at Harvey, grabbed my knife and cut the lead rope.

Harvey had to ride about 50 yards before he found a safe place to tie up his pack string. He then came back and took the rest my string to a safe area. All this time, the scared horse remained still. Now our mission was to figure out a way to get both the tent and horse salvaged without sending either 100 ft. down into the river. Obviously one of us had to go down there to get it done. I decided Harvey should be the dumb one. LOL

We tied a rope around the single tree on the trail, and Harvey took the other end with him and lashed it around the tent before undoing the pack lashing so we could tug the tent back up to the trail. All this time, the scared horse remained still, not realizing her turn was coming up. Once we got the tent retrieved, we plotted our next move.

Again, the dumb one climbed down and tied the rope around the horse's neck, I held it taut and wrapped around the tree. The horse was almost facing into the cliff, so at first we tried to simply pull on the rope and hope the horse would jump its way back up to the trail. Nope. Even with the tugging, all this time, the scared horse remained still.

The dumb one decided to put Plan B into action. He decided to remove the horse's safety net by climbing back down and kicking the dead tree out from under the horse's front legs. Worked like a charm. The horse bolted upward and scrambled up the rock face back to the trail. We proceeded to repack the tent on it. All this time, the scared horse remained perfectly still.

Later that week, we headed back down to pack and haul some other gear, along with Wheat and Jenkins. Bill's wife had made us enough frozen goodies to fill two huge coolers. One had dozens of burritos in it. We packed them on a mule that came with an explicit warning to Harvey and me from Dobbin; Do not tie it to a small tree less than six inches around. So off we went to camp.

When we arrived, we began unhooking the pack string one by one. Unfortunately, Bill never got the warning memo. He grabbed the mule while we weren't paying attention and tied it to a tiny fir tree. He undid the pack lashing and a minute later all heck broke loose as the mule tore the tree out of the ground and headed back toward the trailhead with burritos and other edibles flying everywhere. Harvey finally caught up to it about three miles downstream from camp. On the way back, he salvaged what food he could."

Good story.....memorable experiences where we unknowingly have a brief encounter with death............!!!!

[Outdoor Writer]

6 minutes ago, Non-Typical Solutions said:

Good story.....memorable experiences where we unknowingly have a brief encounter with death............!!!!

I've had a few experiences on horseback and in bush planes where I thought one of those encounters was inevitable. 😲

[Edge]

We could ask MulePackHunter Mike about animals going off cliffs and into bottomless ravines...but he probably doesn't want to talk about it.

[Outdoor Writer]

1 minute ago, Edge said:

We could ask MulePackHunter Mike about animals going off cliffs and into bottomless ravines...but he probably doesn't want to talk about it.

That ain't fun.

On one summer fishing trip with a family in tow, our wrangler was leading the string of pack horses at the beginning of the line and I was bringing up the rear. We were on a narrow trail with cliffs on one side and a steep drop on the other. It was raining. The wrangler was about go around a sharp bend when a backpacker with a bright red poncho appeared in front of him. The wrangler's horse and the first one in his string jumped sideways toward the steep drop. Wrangler got control, but the pack horse went bye-bye. We were able to recover our gear because the trail eventually switchbacked to within 30 feet of the now-dead horse. 

[biglakejake]

that okie youngster Ben Johnson is probably the best horseman i ever did see.  i remember stopping a spooked bull hard with a cow call and thinking "thats like Ben Johnson as Capt Tyree in the movies" lol.

 

 

[Edge]

2 hours ago, biglakejake said:

that okie youngster Ben Johnson is probably the best horseman i ever did see.  i remember stopping a spooked bull hard with a cow call and thinking "thats like Ben Johnson as Capt Tyree in the movies" lol.

 

 

One of my favourites. He was an Okie but a Zonie too, retired to Mesa.

[10Turkeys]

1 hour ago, Edge said:

One of my favourites. He was an Okie but a Zonie too, retired to Mesa.

I've talked to 4-5 people that have met Ben or knew him, all say what a great guy he was.

[Bill@roofer]

10 minutes ago, 10Turkeys said:

I've talked to 4-5 people that have met Ben or knew him, all say what a great guy he was.

Absolutely  .I got the pleasure to ride with him and many other famous cowboys as a kid. I grew up in William's and worked at hat ranch.for the summers. Every summer I got to go on the Bill William's pony Express ride. And I went on several poker rides threw out the superstitions with him .He was very good freinds with my uncle Charly Davis who was a professional  rodeo clown. Known as Clancy the clown. When I was real little like between 3 and 5 . We lived on Gene Autrys Ranch and my Real dad and his brothers where all ranch hands. And rodeo was every weekend my dad Joel Davis was a 4 time champion  bull rider. 

Sure brings back good memories.  Sitting by the campfire watching all those  Cowboys that I wanted to be just like. sing old folk songs  and whittle anything they could. Telling stories and waiting for the dogs  to start barking treed.. then running  threw the desert on horseback in the middle of the night. Fun times and got to meet John  Wayne when I was in high school. At the state fair. He bought a Hereford bull I had won Grand Champion on .

[Edge]

The ol lady and I were hired to pack into some inhospitable country for some archery hunters from this site.

I had a weeks worth of their supplies and gear on pack horses and I urged them to take a days worth of goods on their own backs since they were hiking in ahead and I know how things can happen.

One of the pack animals had a melt down less than half way in and threw gear all over a mountain side. By the time I had everything collected, we had no choice but to spend the night on a hill so steep you could barely stand on.

Man were the boys at the cabin glad to see us the next day. Guess maybe they had to spoon that night before since we had their sleeping bags.

[Outdoor Writer]

15 hours ago, biglakejake said:

that okie youngster Ben Johnson is probably the best horseman i ever did see.  i remember stopping a spooked bull hard with a cow call and thinking "thats like Ben Johnson as Capt Tyree in the movies" lol.

Ben Johnson was cool. He played Chris Callaway in one of my favorite movies, SHANE. 

[Outdoor Writer]

11 hours ago, Edge said:

The ol lady and I were hired to pack into some inhospitable country for some archery hunters from this site.

I had a weeks worth of their supplies and gear on pack horses and I urged them to take a days worth of goods on their own backs since they were hiking in ahead and I know how things can happen.

One of the pack animals had a melt down less than half way in and threw gear all over a mountain side. By the time I had everything collected, we had no choice but to spend the night on a hill so steep you could barely stand on.

Man were the boys at the cabin glad to see us the next day. Guess maybe they had to spoon that night before since we had their sleeping bags.

I was on a moose/caribou hunt in n. BC way back when. My Slavey indian guide and I took off on horseback from the main camp with one pack animal loaded with a 10x12 tent, our sleeping bags, cooking gear and enough food for two days, even though we would be spiking for a week if needed. The plan was for the outfitter to air drop us more supplies from his Super Cub. Unfortunately, on the day he was to arrive, a storm moved in where he couldn't fly. We were already down to bare minimums such as flour, coffee, sugar, lard, packaged soup, potatoes, etc. So for two days, we ate fried potatoes, soup and bannock. On the 3rd day, I killed a moose about 4 miles from camp. After skinning, we cut out a couple ribs and the flap meat from a rear leg. The meal that night, flap meat staked and roasted next to a fire and baked potatoes, was  the best of the trip. We did the ribs the following night. The next morning, our supply plane showed up, while we were breaking camp to head to the caribou country. 

Edgar

[Non-Typical Solutions]

12 hours ago, Bill@roofer said:

Absolutely  .I got the pleasure to ride with him and many other famous cowboys as a kid. I grew up in William's and worked at hat ranch.for the summers. Every summer I got to go on the Bill William's pony Express ride. And I went on several poker rides threw out the superstitions with him .He was very good freinds with my uncle Charly Davis who was a professional  rodeo clown. Known as Clancy the clown. When I was real little like between 3 and 5 . We lived on Gene Autrys Ranch and my Real dad and his brothers where all ranch hands. And rodeo was every weekend my dad Joel Davis was a 4 time champion  bull rider. 

Sure brings back good memories.  Sitting by the campfire watching all those  Cowboys that I wanted to be just like. sing old folk songs  and whittle anything they could. Telling stories and waiting for the dogs  to start barking treed.. then running  threw the desert on horseback in the middle of the night. Fun times and got to meet John  Wayne when I was in high school. At the state fair. He bought a Hereford bull I had won Grand Champion on .

Sounds like a great place to grow up, do you know any of the Mejia clan from Williams?

[Outdoor Writer]

I forgot to mention in my moose hunt story that it was one of those "close encounters with death" mentioned earlier. The story was published in Petersen's under the title of "Rainy Day Moose."