Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Anybody here?

Don't understand why this forum gets so little use. Of all the outdoor/hunting/fishing boards I've seen on the 'net, this is the only one I've found that has a place for horsemen/packers. Doesn't anyone saddle up before deer and elk season rolls around?
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<br>Came home yesterday from a few days in the mountains. Dropped down to lower elevations where the trail crew had been out, and we could get around. Helped the Forest Service packer bring 9 mules loads of junk out from an abandoned mine, then did some riding on our own. The shortest ride was 4 miles (in and out from the mine) and the longest ride was 16 mountain miles.
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<br>Can't get to any lakes yet, and the streams are still running to high to fish. Season doesn't open in the streams for another week anyway. I'll be home for a few days, then gone again. That's how I spend my summers.
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Bob MC. What part of the country are you located in?
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<br>Here in Colorado, we can't do alot of mountain riding until late June due to snowpack. Usually the high lakes aren't accessible until early July.
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<br>So until then it's mostly flatland riding. We can get on the Air Force Academy and make about a 6 mile ride through some hilly country, but not too rugged.
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<br>Anyother place you go is crawling with mountain bikes and ATV"s. SO I try to limit myself to wilderness areas. Most of the Bikers and ATV'ser's are pretty courteous, but you get some that are pretty bad. It's tough to handle a pack string, or just a saddle animal with some joker behind you reving his engine, or meet a biker coming down hill that has his head down watching the trail instead of what's coming up.
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<br>I plan to take this young mule out east and do some prarie riding on a ranch that I hunt antelope on. 47000 aceras of flatland should work a sweat up , but not work her too hard.
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<br>I gave up on horses about 30 years ago. I decided I needed something at least as smart as I was.Which isn't hard to do.
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<br>We had some fun discussions here last year about riding up on elk versus humping your butt up mountains.
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<br>I'm kinda gimped up, so I ride as much asI can and then get off and do some stalks. I figure if God wanted you to walk, he wouldn't have invented stirrups.

saddlesore; like you I ride more than I walk these days. I'm pushing 64, so the old grey mare beats shanks mare. I like a good saddle mule too, but these days I am riding and packing 2 BLM mares from the "adopt a horse program".
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<br>My house sits at 2975 feet in very northern California, not far from Oregon. I have the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area practically in my back yard, and I can be at trailheads in the Russian Wilderness and the Trinity Alps Wilderness in an hour or less.
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<br>Like you, we are limited by snow conditions early in the season. The last 2 years have been pretty dry however, without a big snowpack. We did have a lot of wind last winter and there are blowdowns everywhere. We made the trip over in the Salmon River country earlier this week primarily because we knew a trail crew had just pulled out of there and we would be able to get around better than we could closer to home.
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<br>We set up camp at an old abandon homestead at about 3100 feet. We had our choice of a couple of trails well below the snowline. The longest ride was up to Big Flat, 8 miles one way and practically all uphill in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. Big Flat is about 5080 feet, and we were still a couple of hundred feet below snowline. The trail crew hadn't been all the way through, but we didn't encounter anything we couldn't handle. It was a good trip!

We are a might higher here. I live at 7650 Ft.
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<br>I correspond with a fellow out in your country by the name of Hal Novak. There is forum www.mules.org/forum that few mule folks around the country get on. Not as many members as this one, but some nice folks. Not many frm out west here, quite a few from east and sourth. Another one is www.ruralheritage.com. A lot of harness working folks and teamsters/ farming with horses type there.
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<br>Ever get down to Bishop over Memorial day for the mule days there? Quite a gathering, good entertainment. We use to go every year when we were showing mules. Got burned out, so we just use them for pack trips, trail rides local work. I'm getting into more driving now. I'm raising a team of halflinger mules at present , but they will also be saddle and pack when needed. I figure by the time I can't ride anymore, I'll have a good team to drive and I can get into some country that has road closures to motorized vehicles. I guess it will be sorta like road hunting, but from a wagon. Better than a wheel chair!!
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<br>I looked into the BLM horses quite awhile ago. They have a program here at the Canyon City prison that lets inmates work with them to halter break and gentle down. They do a pretty good job, but the horses are auctioned off, and some of the granola crowd tend to bid them up more than they are worth..
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I would say you are a tad bit higher than we are here. The highest point in the Marble Mountains isn't much over 8,000 feet. This country isn't nearly as high as the Sierra range, but it gets there real sudden. Steep country!
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<br>I haven't been to Bishop Mules Days in many, many years. I missed the first one ever held, then made it to the next 3 in a row. Haven't been back since. That was when I lived down south from here, over 30 years ago.
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<br>Here are links to a couple of photos of the mares I am riding and packing now. The first is Nelly.
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<br>http://communities.msn.com/Backcoun...snw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=116
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<br>And this is Sis. They come from the Black Rock Desert country of northwestern Nevada.
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<br>http://communities.msn.com/Backcoun...snw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=159
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Pretty nice looking horses. If they come out of that Nevada country, they got to be tough. I worked at the Nevada Teat Site about 100 mles NW of Las Vegas for about 4 months of every year from 66 through 92.
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<br>There were always about 200 head on the site, spread out, Theys ure had to go a piece between food and water, Never seen a skinny one or one with bad feet though. Did see two that had broken legs from the ground shock of an underground nuclear blast.
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<br>Quite a few wild burros also, that would lay out on the roads on cool nights. Sure beat the hack out of a lot of government vehicles when they were hit.