The Wagonteamster Channel has it’s first video production - Journey To the Valley Of the Wild Horses

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7/11/12, Avon, MT - Definitely a day of downs and ups, but in the end a really great day.

After breaking camp, I set my sights on a roadside artesian spring, a mile and a half down the road. Everything was going great until I got about 200 yards from the spring, then I heard a ‘thump, thump, thump’.  Looking back, I saw that one of the wheels was about to fall off the trailer. It looked like I lost a couple of lug nuts and the remaining three were about to come off.   On closer examination, the lug holes were worn out and the rim was no good.

Not to worry, I had a spare tire.  After tying the horses to some small trees, I jacked up the trailer and swapped tires.  Things looked pretty good, so I pulled ahead to the spring and filled up the water jugs.  One thing I forgot - back in Pinedale, WY, I had swapped out a slowly leaking tire for the spare. I thought I had the slow leak fixed, but I guess I hadn’t. A 1/4 mile down the road - ‘thump, thump, thump’.

The tire was completely deflated so I had to use my last can of fix-a-flat to get it to seal with the rim, so my ‘el cheapo’ 12 volt compressor could complete inflating the tire.  Instead of a hole, the tire has a small slash in it.  It took my last three tire plugs to plug it. After remounting the tire, I thought everything was great. It lasted two miles before it went flat again.

Not to despair, shortly after I finished shaking my head, Ron showed up and offered to mount my good tire on my good rim.  By the time lunch was over, I was back in business.

I stopped at the general store in Elliston for some supplies.  Everybody I met was fantastic.  The owners even threw in a free pound of ground elk meat.

Right next door, was the local bar and grill.  Some patrons bought me a burger and a beer for lunch. Real nice people!

These three very nice people bought my lunch at the Elliston Bar and Grill.

Elliston may not be very big, but it’s sure full of some great people!

As I continued my journey westward, I was astounded at the pretty countryside. There was about a 50-50 mix of open grass parklands and stands spruce and lodgepole pine. A lot of old ranching homesteads dotted the countryside.

An old ranch, near where I’m camped tonight.

On the western side of the Continental Divide the country is a lot greener than that on the eastern side.  It’s a place of rolling hills dotted with thick clumps of timber.

This old ‘Beaverslide’ which stands about 30 feet high was used to build huge stacks of loose hay. These large haystacks were once very common throughout the Northwest, some of which are still made today.

I have a very nice roadside camp tonight.  The playpen is setup in a field of thick, belly deep, green grass.

I’ve had several visitors tonight, including two local ranchers and Heather and her mother Kate. All of my visitors either have driving horses or have driven horses in their lifetime.

With good pasture and a creek running right next to the corral, the horses are in fat city.

The highlight of my day was definitely all the help and wonderful people I met in the town of Elliston. Even though I only went 12 miles further down the road, the shorter than normal road was paved with some really good people.