How do you pack a horse anyway? Better yet , how do you pack 2 horses?? Oh yeah, and ride another at the same time?
Whaddaya mean put a new roof on the outhouse?
It's where? The Warburton Trail?
Only one and half hours away on horseback you say. And you are going to have to cut the tin to size before you go and then pack it on your pack horse? ...and you also need a couple of 2x4s? Would that all be put on the same horse?
'Yup!'
'Tools, oh yeah, they go on the other pack horse.'
No power tools?
'Nope just saw, hammer, crowbar, nails, screws and a rachet.'
Whew!!!!
'Don’t forget lunch!!!'
I watched in wonder. How did those early pioneers do it anyway??
......
We left from Manning Park parking lot on a chilly September 15th morning. We loaded up, 46 carefully weighed pounds on each side of the horse. It was important that the weight be distributed evenly on both sides.
Rose Schroeder was leading - riding one, leading two - me in the middle with Topper, and Sharon Pickthorne and Elsa riding drag. The day started cool, but soon warmed up and we were in our shirt sleeves.
We walked out onto the Dewdney Trail in Manning Park. This is the same trail the early settlers used to find their way into the interior of BC - lovely groomed trails, green west coast forest, all familiar all beautiful. As we continued, the topography started to change. Got very rocky, lot of slides. The horses picked their way through slowly, conscientiously. I was impressed.
Colours started to change: greens, every hue of red, magenta, yellow and gold. The sides of the mountains looked like they’d been painted with a brush dipped in red. Everywhere you looked there was a full palette of colour. Devils Club, lupine, horse tail, salmon berry, bear berry, leftover alpine flowers. It was a riot of colour: unplanned chaotic beauty.
As we got further up, the trees became sparser, and on parts of the trail you could smell the blueberries. Yummy!! Mushrooms grow up there in abundance this time of the year. Knowing some mushrooms are poisonous, we decided not to pick any.
Being the newby...I was snapping pictures right, left and center.
We passed the Manning Park border into Cascade Recreational area after a lot of UP! So now we were truly on our way into Paradise Valley. On we went, UP and UP some more.
I was told we had to cross eight bridges and then we were there. The fourth bridge had a couple of holes that I could see troubled Rose, and I had an idea we’d be back to fix it. Heaven only knew how we’d get that accomplished.
We continued on into the valley. The woods opened up onto a spectacular golden meadow. We made our way down a gentle slope. My first impression was one of relief that we were finally here. We’d been riding over four hours. Then I was struck by the beauty of the location.
The province had built this cabin years ago so rangers monitoring the area would have a place to stay. The logs were all flown in by helicopter. No electricity. It had originally been thought to use propane, but it wasn’t feasible to take it in and out over such a long way.
“Hey Deb, don’t I get to say anything?” Sure Topper go ahead...
‘Well all I can say is I’ve never had to work so hard in my life, and those rocks.. yikes! I was really glad to see the end of the trail and hopefully get to put my head down into that grassy meadow. The first thing the girls did was unpack and unsaddle us horses, and we waited in paddocks while Rose and Sharon put up an electric fence to mark out two pastures. Deb went into the cabin to unpack the food. I got to go in the pasture with Elsa 'cause her and I traveled up together in the trailer. Everyone had to wear hobbles, including me. Oh boy!
It just wasn’t the same as when we practiced at home. The ground here was all bumpy and dippy; the first thing I did was fall on my nose. Felt pretty dumb about it and I didn’t want to have a repeat performance, so I tried to act cool like I wasn’t really hungry. Needless to say, I didn’t get much grass that first night. Deb came and got me and took me to the paddocks. There was a barn there too.
She had brought water, and made me a really nice supper of soaked cubes stuff with grain and oats. It was really tasty and I was hungry. Then she put on my blanket. Ah bliss! Now my tummy was full, I had on my warm, cozy blanket. Man was I tired. I had a really good sleep that night.
Back to you Deb..."
After feeding the horses we finally went in to have dinner. I’d made clam chowder and frozen it the night before, so we just heated it up on the little camp stove we brought and then gratefully put our feet up around a warm fire, chatting companionably about the day. Went to bed early that night - could hardly keep my eyes open.
Next morning Rose was on a mission. Had to fix that bridge and go to Warburton cabin and look at the roof on the outhouse she had been asked to fix. So we saddled up, loaded up the horses and were on our way to the fourth bridge. We tied out horses to the trees and surveyed the situation. I tried to look like I knew what I was doing. I even offered a word here and there.
Sure enough, before we could fix it, a couple of logs had to come out. Problem was they were spiked in. Sharon handed me the hammer and crowbar and the unfortunate truth was out. "You want me to what??"
Needless to say, my two BCH mountain gal pals had the situation under control. Rose headed on out to cut down a tree exactly the size of the log needed, while Sharon struggled to get the rotten logs out. So we had a hammer, crowbar, saw, axe, maul and shovel. There was a lot of sweating, not too much swearing, a lot of ideas, and bingo out came the old and in came the new. We threw on some dirt. It looked great, good as new. I was impressed by their ingenuity.
“Hmph! You might have been impressed Deb, but us horses were getting pretty bored just standing around. Couldn’t even eat grass 'cause you tied us short. We were glad to get going. Warburton cabin here we come!!!
Okay Deb, you tell it your way..."
Rose told us about a nurse named Mary Warburton who loved to hike the trails in this region. She lost her way on one of her trips, wasn’t found for over six weeks. She was about to slit her wrists because she was starving to death. But an old mountain man named Podunk Davies found her just in time. She said he looked like the angel Gabriel. (He had a white beard and long white hair.) An RCMP officer was on the scene and took her to hospital, where she fully recovered. Not to be deterred, she continued to go out trekking until one day she never returned. The trail and cabin were named in memory of her.
Again we are in a valley and I’m impressed by the depth of the quiet. The little cabin has a sod roof with trees and grass growing on it. Last year one of the walls almost caved in under all the snow. Apparently they get about eight to ten feet. A Back Country Horseman named Val went in and somehow….got it back up again.
Just down from the cabin is a beaver dam where we scooped up some water for the horses. We decided to have lunch after we tied the horses. We had cheese and salami wraps, chocolate, dried fruit. I wished I had brought my little camp burner to make tea. Maybe next time.
Rose and Sharon started measuring up the roof on the little outhouse, and discussed what they needed and how they would go about their task. I tidied up the lunch stuff….oh well !
Soon we untied our horses and started home, satisfied with the work accomplished. Then it was about taking down the electric fence and setting up new pastures. While the gals did that, I went in and started dinner. Tonight we would have lamb chops, baby potatoes, green peas and mint sauce. Finally something I knew how to do. Oh, oh, had to use the campfire for the lamb. It was really good - either that or we were really hungry.
That evening Rose entertained us with some cowboy poetry she had memorized. One was my personal favorite. It is called “Shoein Pigeye'” I was in stitches I laughed so hard. After all that laughing I was completely worn out, so we were all early to bed again.
Topper: "Next morning, and I mean early, Deb gave me another yummy breakfast. The girls put up a new pasture area. I watched with interest and could tell that nowhere at this place was there electricity. Hmm! They moved the fence everyday so that the pastures wouldn’t get overgrazed. Good idea, alright by me.
Then they took us out to the new pasture and put our hobbles back on. By now I’d found my hobble legs I guess, 'cause I wasn’t having any trouble moving around this time. I could even lope, well sort of.
Truth be known, I was feeling a little homesick and would really liked to have joined the bigger herd. There was a white horse name Rusty; he reminded me of Rango, and two other horses, KB and Molly, who reminded me of Rio and Brilly. I knew the electric fence wasn’t on so I just kinda moseyed over or under the electric tape and made my way closer to the guys.
I heard Deb call from the cabin 'don’t do that, get back there Topper', but she was pretty far away, so I pretended I didn’t hear her. That day she caught up with me though and I had to wear a bell every time we went out. I guess she thought I might get lost. But no worries - I wouldn’t leave my new pals. That is, unless something very interesting happened and I had to investigate.
Elsa was OK but she didn’t really care whether I was there or not, she just wanted to eat grass. So next day I decided to take the plunge and invited myself into the other herd's pasture. I wandered around casually, trying for invisibility. Rusty, who I thought liked me, told me in no uncertain terms to get off his turf.
I did as I was told and went back to the other side, but I was pretty disappointed."
Deborah: Well here we are back at Warburton cabin. My pioneer gal pals are busy re-roofing the outhouse. I’m the gopher, seeing as my forte isn’t exactly sawing, measuring or nailing things. As for Topper, he's just standing around with the rest of the horses tied to incredibly strong hitching rails.
"Let me tell this part Deb.
I couldn’t believe all the stuff they loaded on my friend KB. They had roofing material, tools and 2x4s, strapped down through the middle for good measure. That horse never missed a beat, even though the 2x4s kept thumping him in the butt. I wouldn’t have put up with it for a minute but that KB never batted an eye. I know that Deb's heart was in her mouth 'cause we were walking behind KB with everything just a swingin'. She was worried I might get bonked by the 2x4s or that everything was going to go flying.
To top it off ,we had to pony Molly who was carrying the tools. That’s also not something Deb and I are used to doing. We had to come over a bridge and down through some deep mud, where we got a little tangled up. Sorry ‘bout that Deb.
“Its OK Topper, all this is new for you too.”
You could sure see how quickly things could go wrong way out here. Watching Rose this morning, as she was tying on all this paraphernalia, I could tell that she saw this as a personal challenge and that she was up for it. She was very much aware of the height and awkwardness of the pack. She knew this might overwhelm KB and there could be a wreck. Everything she did was with approach and retreat so KB knew exactly what was going up on his back. One step at a time, she proceeded with caution and confidence.
This woman could only be described as 'emotionally fit'. When you ride with Rose you feel her confidence and savvy, which is a good thing when you’re not feeling much of your own. Yessirree!! Pioneer women, both of them.
Sharon, always by Rose’s side asking how can she help, what can she do, making suggestions, nothing too much trouble or bother. She also has endless energy. Sharon knows her way around a building site too.
At one point, I was sitting at the picnic table. I listened as they laughed and chatted, 'we need to make a ladder if we want to get up there'... 'where’s the crowbar?'...'let me get my tape measure'…'OK nail that in then use the ratchet'…'careful, don’t fall off the roof.'
'Too bad we don’t have some descent nails; its going to be really hard putting those screws in by hand.'
The hammer echoed through the valley.
Eventually, it was time to go back to the cabin. That evening after supper, Sharon regaled us with stories of her once-in-a-lifetime trip to Africa. Next night it was all horsey talk, something we all love endlessly.
There’s lots of other stuff to tell, but its time to think about leaving Paradise Valley. Shucks, just as we were starting to get the hang of this. Rose reminded us that last year at this time there was snow on the ground. Better getta goin'!!
Topper: "I really enjoyed this holiday with you Deb, but you know what you always say. Us horses are motivated by comfort. I can’t wait to get home. As to which ride was the hardest? The ride in or the ride out? Its kind of a toss up. I know it was hard on your knees going down, but it was hard on us horses too. At least we were going down. I thought we all did OK though."
As I look back on my week from my cozy bedroom at Twincreeks I am overwhelmed with gratitude and wonder at the terrible beauty I had just experienced. The grandeur of the mountains, the valleys so beautiful yet so deadly if you weren’t properly prepared.
I am warm and safe. No wild animals. I have electricity, vehicles, stores, telephones, entertainment, radio, hot water, to name only a few of the many luxuries available to me. I am once again reminded to be grateful.
How did those early pioneers do it anyway?
Well, I guess they did it with men and women just like my friends. Rose and Sharon epitomize the heart of the pioneer. They have a desire to understand the old ways and the energy to follow through to the end of a project and not be overwhelmed by it. Ingenuity, tenacity, the drive, to name but a few of the qualities that they needed to draw on.
The Back Country Horseman organization encourages these characteristics in their members. They have a strong motivation to preserve the environment for future generations. To make wilderness trails more accessible to the rider, to build new trails and maintain them. They work with government and recreational groups to promote awareness and understanding for a cooperative wilderness experience. They also promote educational programs in safety, courtesy and environmental awareness.
Maybe if I continue to ride with them some of that back country savvy will rub off on Topper and me.
For now I’ll stick close to Rose and Sharon. Maybe if I continue to ride with them some of that back country savvy will rub off on Topper and me.
'We don’t want a wilderness trail named in memory of us do we Topper?'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)