WYOMING WILDERNESS

My husband and I recently completed a horseback riding trip from Cody, WY to Jackson, WY. All total we rode 100 miles guided by folks from the Double R Ranch out of Cody. We crossed two passes and traveled through WY wilderness following a trail that was used by early trappers. I have no idea how those people survived and lived in this country. We didn't exactly have all the comforts of home but we also weren't without.

We had two-man tents that were set up for us at the first camp by the time we arrived. After that though we learned how to set up and take down the tents and how to pack our bedrolls and cots. We also had a privy set up for us at each camp and we had the availability of taking a shower two days out of the eight we were on our trip. The shower was really something. The water was heated on the fire to our desired temperature and then poured into a small rectangular bin. A hose was placed in the bin and then connected to a small battery generator and another hose was connected to the output of the generator and a hand sprinkler nozzle was at the end. The shower stall was made out of tarps with two mesh panniers for the floor. You just squeezed the nozzle and got a nice stream of warm water. It was quite refreshing after several days of no bathing and much better than an icy dip in a stream!

We each had our own trusty steed and in addition there were mules and pack horses for hauling all of our gear. There were 28 head of stock total. At night the horses and mules were let loose to graze. The lead horses and mules had bells around their necks and the ones who had a fancy for flight were hobbled. All night long the tinkling and dinging of the bells could be heard throughout camp. Evidently horses don't need much sleep!

There were gorgeous wildflowers all across our ride. No garden can compare to the one put together by Mother Nature.

And gorgeous sunsets!

We enjoyed open air dining and food never has tasted so good.

Ron, who was the owner of the Double R and our cook, did all of the cooking over an open fire.

Ron also had his daughter, Rachael and two wranglers, Bill and Shorty, helping him in camp and with guiding our group. There were 7 guests in the group.

We had three different camps that we stayed in. Each time we moved from a camp we were up at 5:30 a.m. Ron cooked breakfast and then the camp was broken down and packed. It took us until 9:30 a.m. to get everything packed onto the mules and begin the ride to the next camp. After 8 days of being on a horse I was sure glad not to have to get on another one again. But it was a great trip with great scenery, some fishing, some wildlife viewing and best of all we only had rain one day and no snow...it did get down to 24 one night though! Mom