The Second Day and Another Ride

As you might have guessed during a Cow Girl Up week there are opportunities to ride everyday.  On Tuesday half of us headed off for the full day ride.  The full day ride means loading up the horses and heading north towards Eureka, MT, and Canada.  

The morning started off gray and misty. The weather was predicted to be rainy and chilly so we layered up to face the worst and hoped for slightly better.   I need to admit that I did go down before breakfast that first morning to help with feeding and saddling.  But after watching their routine and being told that I only needed to brush where the saddle went I decided that if that was their standard of morning grooming, they didn't really need my assistance.  From then on I spent the time before breakfast visiting over a cup of coffee. This was the early morning view off the lodge porch.
 

After breakfast, we lined up to pack our own lunches.

Then we headed down to the barn to catch our rides out to the National Forest area we were headed to.   The wranglers loaded nine horses in the stock trailer, six for the cowgirls and 3 for our cowboy wranglers.

There are wild turkeys wandering all around the ranch.  The plentiful supply of half digested grain  might be the attraction.  One of the wranglers had caught one of the young birds out in the goat pen and brought it over to visit with us before releasing it.

We had plenty of time to visit the turkey while the cowboys replaced one of the trailer tires.  Better now than 20 miles down the road.

Young turkey tail feathers.

Okay, I know that some of my friends drive big diesel trucks but I found the dials along the side interesting. 

Waiting to check cinches, put on bridles and mount up.

If you are tired of cowboy pictures just move through these......but More pictures were requested and I got most of mine from this trip out, as you will see.

You can see the effects of past fires/

Some of you may recognize that faint cleared line that runs across the mountains.  That is the Canadian/American border.

And sure enough as we rode a little farther along we cam right up to one of the order markers.

And it was another opportunity to rest a moment....

Then we turned left and followed the fence for awhile.  The border patrol board some of their horses at the ranch (They only use Mustangs, FYI) So I asked if the Border Patrol ride the fence line sometimes.  They do ride the border but I was then told that the fence doesn't actually sit on the border so the patrol isn't really monitoring the condition of the fence.  Apparently the actual border runs down the middle of the vehicle track.

 

This is a picture taken from me riding in Canada.

The only time it tried to get rainy and misty on us was as we stopped for lunch.  It was a bit chilly for awhile.  In perspective, lunch was suppose to be very pleasant on this overlook above the very large water reservoir. The water level in the fall is let down so that there is room for the winter snow melt come spring.

 

The horses get their break, too.

And cowboys get breaks.  Allen went through college on a rodeo scholarship.  Watching him carefully get up off the ground is a reminder that call kinds of athletics can take a toll on knees.....

 

Back at the lodge and after dinner we got to listen to a presentation on local wines and wineries complete with a wine tasting.  Here wwe are listening politely to presenter and sipping her samples. She kindly left the sample bottles with us.  And well some of us had made a wine run into town earlier so......see below....

 

The staff are off at 7pm and the Cowgirls are left unsupervised in the Lodge. :=)   "Lets, turn up the music and there will be danceing!"  ....and a lot of laughter...

Often during our evenings of self entertainment, we wondered where the Nanny Cam might be hidden but apparently there were none.....

One of the young cowboys stayed after the wine tasting to share the music and dancing.  Only 6 of us actually stayed up in the common lodge area after the wine presentation. As the evening went  along and more of the wine bottles began to get empty it became apparent that our little cowboy was "Sh#t faced" as he admitted himself.  The mother in some of us decided that he needed an escort down the very dark and not so short ranch road to the bunk house the boys used.  He did get safely home in one piece. (We found out later he has been found sleeping in the driveway...so our instinct to make sure he got back to the bunk house was sound.)   The best part was as we were walking back towards the lodge, Allen drove up from dropping some of the wranglers off at the girls bunk house above the barn/office and met 6 women walking, some more steadily than others, down the dark road.  I at least had thought to pick up the flash light from our room before heading out on the adventure.  So there was one flash light, 6 women and multiple puddles in the road....and peals of laughter....

But no cowboys were injured or lost on this adventure.

FYI this trash can is much deeper than it looks....and two of us weren't even drinking after the wine tasting....lolo      But Wednesday brought another day and another ride!