Bureaucracy.” Nevertheless interesting since none of our horses were branded.
Our chores finished, we drove on some twenty miles north and east from Big Piney on hard surfaced roads. Then continuing more than forty-five miles on bumpy, winding, corrugated dirt roads, we followed the Big Sandy River to a huge alpine meadow, shown on the map as the“ Big Sandy Opening,” and situated in the heart of the Wind River Mountains. At this point the U. S. Forest Service has wisely posted signs prohibiting wheeled vehicles, of any kind, from further encroachment into the
primitive area.
Without delay we unloaded and saddled the horses. Next the three pack horses were fitted with pack saddles and loaded with approximately seven hundred and fifty pounds of camp gear, canned goods, other food supplies, bed rolls, cameras, fishing equipment, a tent, camp stove and a dishpan, allotting approximately one third
of the cargo to each horse.
SEPTEMBER, 1966
With diamond hitches securely tied on the packs we mounted and set forth on the last fifteen mile lap toward our destination. During the first few minutes on the trail the horses were restless and anxious to work off the nervous fatigue of the long truck ride. They soon settled down to the task at hand as we ascended the steep, rocky trail, carved by the U. S. Forest Service through a maze of fallen logs, massive boulders and granite cliffs. We climbed steep mountainsides, then descended into equally precipitous canyons. The trail took us through dense, conifer forests, past picturesque lakes, around swampy bogs and over delightful alpine meadows, profuse with a wide variety of semi-acquatic plants in full flower.
We forded the East Fork River three times in ice cold water, lapping at the horses’ bellies. The horses cautiously picked their way through slick algae-covered boulders imbedded in the river bottom sand. Finally, we passed a huge waterfall cascading over the ever present granite boulders, to emerge into a vast, open meadow through
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