


and by comparatively short portages 
one can go great distances. This is 
the popular way to travel in the great 
wilderness areas of northern Canada. 
HEN it comes to traveling in the 
Rocky Mountain section, however, 
where distances are too great to be 
covered afoot and where the streams 
are too rough to navigate, the saddle and 
pack horse come into being, and I must 
confess that of the three forms of travel 
I have outlined, open to the real out- 
doorsman who wants to leave the 
“wagon and auto road and get into the 
country, back of beyond, I know of 
nothing in the way of a vacation trip 
that is more interesting than a pack 
horse trip in the Rockies. 
A few years ago we planned a trip 
into the Taylor Peak country. This 
section lies just northwest of the north- 
west corner of Yellowstone Park. The 
Taylor Peaks are very rugged, and al- 
though none of them are very high, the 
whole range of peaks is from 10,800 
to 11,800 feet in height and the country 
around them is very interesting. There 
are a number of streams and small 
mountain lakes and it is an ideal coun- 
try in which to camp. 
The day arrived when we were to 
start on our trip and we began to pack 
our outfit and get under way. How- 
ever, our party had grown and as we 
needed three more pack horses than we 
had originally expected to use, there 
was nothing to do but break in three 
new ones. Just let me remark right 
here that breaking in a few broncs for 
pack animals isn’t always so easy, al- 
though it is interesting for the by- 
stander. I would not recommend pack- 
ing eggs or any of the kitchen outfit 
on these new horses either. 
We packed old Diamond, Wampus 
and Chubby, but when we sarted on 
Babe the fun commenced. She reared 
up on her hind feet as soon as we 
started to tighten the cinch, so we put 
a heavy halter on her and tied her up 
short with ropes between two trees. 
Then we put some one’s vest over her 
head for a blindfold and started all 
over again. This time she let us cinch 
on the pack saddle and everything went 
along fine until we put on the pack 
cover and started to throw the diamond. 
She started to rear, found she couldn’t 
and then just laid back on the ropes 
until we thought she would hang her- 
‘self.. We tried to bring her out of it 
with a smack or two with a rope end, 
but there was nothing doing, and it was 
not until we slipped a small rope under 
her tail and started to tighten it, that 
she came to her feet. We finally got 
her packed and then started in with the 
other two and had to go through almost 
the same performance, alhough there 
was enough variety to keep it from get- 
ting monotonous. 
E turned the three old puck horses 
loose as they would follow, but 
we lead the three wild ones. Our trail 
led up Taylor’s Fork, a branch of the 
Gallatin River. This is a fine trout 
stream, but as it was late and we wanted 
to make camp above the forks of the 
creek, we kept right on, although it 
was a tempting sight to see a nice 
trout in some deep pool as we rode by. 
The country leading up to the peaks 
is a land of rolling hills, covered with 
timber and big open parks. 
BOUT two hours’ ride from the 
mouth of the creek we came to 
what used to be the headquarters of 
the Nine Quarter Circle Ranch. This 
outfit at one time ran over 20,000 cattle 
in southern Montana, but the low price 
of cattle and several other causes had 
made it impossible for them to continue 
and the corrals and fences were in a 
bad state of repair. The meadows 
where they had formerly put up hay 
were also badly run down. 
There was an old caretaker on the 
place, an interesting old chap. He was 
well known to all of us, and as he wel- 
comed us so heartily, and it was late 
afternoon, we decided to spend the night. 
We spread our blankets out in the 
yard, as most of the cabins were rather 
dirty from their long period of in- 
occupancy, and their paneless window 
frames made them look like grinning 
skeletons. We unpacked our outfit, 
stored some of it in the old saddle shed 
and told Old Tom, the caretaker, to 
help himself to what he needed from 
the cook outfit. We hobbled some of 
the horses and turned others loose, for 
one soon learns which horses have to 
be hobbled and which ones can be 
trusted to stay around, which they will, 
as long as some of the horses are 
hobbled. This question of keeping 
horses around and still allowing them 
to have sufficient range to keep in good 
condition is the problem that has caused 



The pack train crossing a flower-laden meadow. 
335 
