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

Wagonteamster

WAGONTEAMSTER .COM

10/1/12, Topaz Lake, NV - (Coord. N. 38 deg, 48.219 min; W. 119 deg. 36.444 min)

In spite of the fact that the lads had to climb 1300 feet in elevation, this was a nice travel day, one in which I met a lot of good people.

After breaking camp this morning, I stopped off at the feed store across the street to fill my water tank. The lads then pulled the wagon back to the main highway and once more started south. I knew I had a large hill to pull so Doc was dressed up in his harness waiting to go into action.

5 miles down the road, I was about to start climbing the first hill, so I put Doc out front, where he could lift his tail in a proud salute and start leading the boys up the incline.

Near the summit, there was an across the road cattle guard.  I had a lot of help getting the wagon across.  After leadin the team through the go-around gate on the opposite side of the road, the wagon was hitched to a truck and pulled across. This cut the time in half required for me to get around the obstacle as I didn’t have to hitch the lads up to a chain to pull the wagon across. Going up hill, I would have had to dismount the evener, instead of pulling directly off their heel chains. 

All day long people stopped to chat and offer whatever assistance they could.  This is a real friendly part of the country. 

In the afternoon’s travels, I had a visit from the Nevada Highway Patrol.  I found the Patrolman very courtliest.  He indicated that the station had received a lot of calls from motorists that were a little upset that their commute had been delayed for a few seconds while they went around me (my heart grieves for these poor people who arrived home 5 seconds past their normal time).  From the number of waves and smiles I received, those people that were upset definitely were in the minority and were not representative of the people that passed me during the day.

After a lot of pulling, the lads finally reached the summit, 6000 feet above sea level.

Throughout the day, I had a lot of people offer assistance and a place to stay.  Among them was Mary, who dropped off a large bag of grain and had several bales of hay for me. Since the trailer had a full load of hay, I had to decline that, but she said she would swing by in a couple of days and top me off.  Thank you very much.

Tonight the lads and I are camped just below the summit on a piece of BLM land.  They’re content with their grain. alfalfa and water and all of my comforts have been met.  I’m off to a hot shower, so I’ll post again tomorrow night, probably from back in California.