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

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6/9/12, Holback River Canyon, WY - I’m currently 11 miles southeast of Holback, WY and having a great time.

I started the day as a guest of Jim and Christina, where the lads and I had most of a day off. Doc liked the spring grass so much, he had a little bellyache this morning.  I gave him some Bannimine for pain while Christina walked him for about 20 minutes. He seemed fine after that.

Christina and Jim - Good folks and great hosts!

I was just about ready to harness up when Lloyd showed up. He has been following my blog since the first adventure in 2008 and was hoping to catch up with me.  According to his card, Lloyd is a ‘Nomadic Explorer’, traveling the country for the past eleven years in an RV.  It was great to meet him.

Christina accepted my offer to ride for a while this morning.  She was great to have aboard, spending about 3 hours on the wagon until Jim picked her up at lunch while I was stopped at a lodge, eight miles down river. 

After years of travel, Lloyd Treichel finally meets the team.

The weather was a little cool and ‘iffy’ today, so I put the front canvass on for the day’s journey. The canvass is looking a little rough and before this journey is over, I’ll have to replace it with a hard front, with drop down plexiglas windows, similar to the door construction.

The lodge marks the entrance to the Hoback River Canyon. The 17 miles to the town of Hoback is very scenic as the road follows the river as it winds through the canyon.

At the entrance to the canyon, this plaque is mounted on a rock. The story goes that the church service was going great until a herd of buffalo showed up.  Then everybody picked up their rifles and left to go hunting!

Stopped for lunch.

There were several really nice camping spots in the first couple hours of travel down the canyon, but I wanted to put a few miles behind me first. Traffic was light and very considerate.  In the first few miles, the road crossed the river about six times, as we wound down the canyon.  Large formations of red rock adorned the river, with occasional glimpses of snow covered mountains farther down the canyon.

Beautiful country to travel through. Far better than the dry desert landscape that dominated so much of the travel in the preceding weeks.  My timing was perfect for moving down river. Yesterday, the road crew just finished repaving most of the canyon.  Just think of the traffic delays I would have caused!

Looking outside right now, I see a light snow has began to fall. I’m only at 6500 feet elevation here, but snow is not uncommon this time of year.  Last night, it snowed on the mountains down to about the 8000 feet elevation.  If it ends up snowing a lot, it’s nothing we can’t handle.  I have plenty of feed and water, blankets for the horses, lots of propane, food and plenty of time.  Sooner or later it will melt off and we’ll be on our way. But, if I run out of coffee, we’re traveling in snow!

The trailer is filled up, so I have a half dozen bags of grain stored in the cabin of the wagon. It’s a slight inconvenience, but it’s like being reassured with an extra gas tank on a long car trip.

Tonight, we’re parked about 1/4 mile off the highway, next to a small stream on a glen of mountain grass.  So Doc doesn’t try to consume 200 to 300 pounds of grass in one night, I only have the fence set up to about 2/3 it’s full size.  At night, I separate one of the three horses to another electric fence on the back of the wagon. This ensures I still have a horse penned up if I loose one of the two fences.

If I take a stem of this spring grass and put in in my mouth, I can actually taste the sugar in it.

Every other night, I fire up the hot water heater for a shower.  It’s not quite as easy as hopping in the shower at home but it works out pretty good.  I try to get everything set up so as soon as I hop out of the shower, I can jump in bed and hit the hay.  It takes an additional 15 minutes to get get things ready, but it’s worth it. 

As predicted, there isn’t any internet signal tonight. In just a few minutes, I’m going outside to shuffle the horses between pens, turn on the electric fences and get ready to settle in for the night. This was a really nice day and I expect another tomorrow.  Goodnight!