Day 6: June 22, 2000
Lunch ride & cattle herding (at Laramie River Ranch)

I woke around 7:45pm, still pretty tired but eager to get some breakfast before the ride. Walendo got up not much after my shower and we both made it for some cereal. It turned out the bulk of the people were going on the shorter ride; we had about 7 people in our group, with Krista leading. They were short some wranglers because Skye was off and the neighbors needed help rounding up cattle, so it was a nice excuse for Krista to get to take us out. (Bill thought he'd get to go, but something changed at the last minute.) On the ride up, I talked with Dave, one of the people who had arrived the day before. They've been coming to this ranch for three years now, and they had bought some property about 15 miles up the road where they're building a house. They have a horse (horses?) and they'll use it as a vacation home and then eventually they'll retire there. He was a very pleasant man, easy to talk to. He asked how long I'd been riding and seemed surprised to hear that I hadn't really ridden before coming to the ranch. He said I handled the horse well and looked comfortable on the horse, which was really nice to hear. I was really glad that I felt strong again and enjoyed the bit of trotting we did. My legs seemed to have recovered with the afternoon and evening break. I was really enjoying the ride -- again the weather was beautiful, a few more clouds but still warm and sunny with a breeze. We rode right by a big herd of buffalo, about 800 head. It was a scene right out of Dances With Wolves. We also saw an elk and another jackrabbit. It took about 2 hours to get there, an easy, pleasant ride.

The picnic lunch site

At the lunch site, they again had a great setup, with picnic trees in an aspen grove and an open area for the fire pit. They made us buffalo burgers, which were delicious, plus brownies and then Chad made us something called a chocolate burrito, which was really more like coffeecake roll with chocolate filling, very good. He also baked apples and there was something else I can't remember. He's amazing. Walendo and I talked more with Dave, who told us they were building one of the kit log cabins we'd been looking at when we were in Jackson. He said they'd picked out a layout they liked and then made some modifications. The kit was $42,000 and then it cost another $10,000 for the modifications. He said he thought that was fair because they had extended some parts of it to make a bigger covered porch. He said some people end up paying three times more than the basic kit price, so you had to be careful. Their house had all the outside stuff done and they had just finished the electrical and plumbing work. He was hoping it'd be done by the end of the summer. It was interesting to hear about it -- more fodder for our idea of building a house in this general area. Dave said they're hoping they'll look back in 10 years and say, "We're so glad we did this 10 years ago." That was an interesting thought.

Naturalist Chad with Morgan & Garrett

After lunch, we walked around a bit and checked out the river nearby (La Guarde River). For a bit we sat with the two kids who were on the ride, Morgan and Garret. They were good kids. We whittled some sticks and played with Christopher (Bill & Krista's one-year-old). After I had whittled my stick to a point, I went over to the coals and used the stick to write with charcoal. I found a stick with a flat area and wrote "Hi Morgan" on it. She liked it, I think. She took it and went over to the coals and wrote "Hi Ellen" on it too. That was nice. As we were getting back on our horses, she came over to me and we talked a little more. It was nice making that little connection.

The group split up into two, one going the longer, faster way, another going the shorter, slower way. Walendo encouraged me to go with the faster group even though he would take the slower way, which was nice of him. I did want to go that way so I could trot and lope some more. It was just Vicki, Penny, Jeff, and Cara, so I felt like I was riding with "the big girls." When we started trotting, Vicki said "How's your posting coming?" and then she said, "It looks pretty good." That was nice. Later we did some loping and I didn't have my foot in the stirrup right when we started and I never recovered, so I was twisted the whole way. Still, I didn't feel like I was bumping around as much as I'd expect, so that was encouraging. I wished I could have gotten my foot set so I could have practiced more, but so be it. Vicki came over later and suggested that I try holding the reins in my left hand because she'd noticed I was twising a bit. I'm not sure if that was because of the loping problem or in general, but I didn't mind getting the advice -- I switched hands. Most of the ride I wasn't holding on to the pommel anymore, I felt like I could move with the horse pretty easily. (By the end of the all-day ride, I had to lean on the pommel to get myself up on the "ups" just because my legs were so tired.) I really enjoyed that ride home, not too long and I felt strong all the way.

One of the cabins behind the Lodge

Walendo got back shortly after us. He wanted to read and take a nap, and I wanted to collect some flowers for my sage bundles. So off I went in back of the ranch, collecting a bunch of different kinds. Walendo got me the twine from out of the car before going up to the room, so when I got up there, I was ready to go. I made a bunch of little bundles mixing different kinds of flowers and sage. I ran out of the best kind of sage in the middle, so I went back out to the front to collect more. When I got back, Walendo was snoozing away. I was exhausted as I finished up, so I joined him and again we napped together. (We're quite good at it by now.) I liked how the sage bundles came out -- now we'll just have to see how well they dry and how well they work as a bathroom ornament, or as incense. We woke about a half hour before dinner, got washed up and read a little and then went down for the meal. It was fried chicken with mashed potatoes. Neither of us were that hungry, though.

Laramie River and Lodge

Afterward, we took a little walk so I could take some more pictures. I took a few nice shots of the grounds but quickly we got inundated with mosquitoes so Walendo headed back in. I stayed to take a few more shots, a few nice ones looking at the back of the ranch, but got eaten up like crazy so I rushed in as quickly as I could. I figure I earn some more stripes as a photographer by braving mosquitoes for the sake of photos. We spent the rest of the evening up in the room, with Walendo reading and me writing this journal. Walendo's continuing to struggling with his eye, which still doesn't seem to be getting much better, and his cough, which is also sticking around. He's been putting his eye drops in regularly, but sometimes he says it makes his eyes sting and feel more blurry. It's a bummer that he's still not feeling well. Poor sweetie.

Tomorrow is our last day. It's gone so quickly! It's the breakfast ride, so we have to get up early. Better get to bed soon.

Previous   (Laramie, WY)

Next   (Breakfast ride & team penning)