National Outdoor Leadership School, WY USA, Sept 2015
/Middle Fork Lake, see Movescount on mobile for the movie of this day's horse trek: Middle Fork
Here are some of my pictures from my NOLS course in the Wind River Mountain range, located in beautiful Wyoming, USA. This was the Horse Packing course that I took (4 days on the ranch, 10 in the Wind River Mountains) and was my "proof of concept", where I wanted to demonstrate to myself two things: 1) that my interest in horses and riding could be maintained for more than one day, 2) that I could finish this course. Phew, I did! Most of my cohorts on this trip grew up with horses/ranches/farms or were current owners and wanted additional/supplemental training for taking packed horses deep into the mountains. Most of them, as you would imagine, were also avid campers. In fact, my tenant-mate had recently spent each weekend for one month camping by herself, up and down the mid-Atlantic section of the Appalachian Trail. A very quite and nice person who was a champ with horse gear, her horses, her gear and her Physics (she taught at one of the Maryland Universities). And then..there I was, having been on 2 horses in 12 years and camping 15 years prior...
Yeah, this location is must visit!
Gerald "jerry" the banker
Bucky and me at the highest pass we travelled during this trip. Bucky was the smartest horse and preferred lugging packs with our gear v. human packs. Sweet horse.
Our tent for 2 weeks! Cozy at 0˚ C. With the proper gear that is, not with my tent mate. Note what we are sleeping on--the horse pads. Yes, the very same horse pads that provide cushion and comfort to the horses, shielding them from the harsh edges of the saddle and pack saddles. Horses, like humans, sweat all day through their skin. These pads, after 3-4-5 hours of riding, get pretty soaked with horse sweat. The preferred approach is to air them and dry them outside, and we try that, but mostly, we just put them into the tent floors. After a long day you can't imagine how much more comfortable these horse pads are than those synthetic, thin, sleeping bag pads. Why bother! During the first days, I dared asked, "but won't the smell of horse stank be intense"? The response---after 2 days everything you own and even your being will smell like horse. Nobody will notice, the smell. However, the comfort was supreme. Delicious even!
