My Summer In Yosemite

Welcome to Yosemite Trails Pack Station, my name is Julienne and I'll be your guide today. There are just a few things I need to go over before we head out on the trail. We want to make sure the saddle horn is in line with our horses mane and not falling over too far to one side or the other. If it does lean, you can use your weight like so (graphic demonstration here), and if that doesn't work, please call me over and I'll get off (woo!) and fix it for you. We'll also be crossing a couple of streams today.. if your horse does want a drink, he/she will put their head down so you can just loosen the reins and let them drink as much as they like. (If you fall off here, it's your own damn fault) When they're done, they'll just lift their head up and you just need to give them a little nudge and they'll walk on through. You want to keep your horses at a walk at all times.. the trail can be very narrow and we want to keep you safe as well as our horses. (yeah right) So if there are no further questions, let's get on our way! (o/~I'm back in the saddle again.. o/~)

This was one of the views from one of the rides I guided during the summer. Through the first stream you crossed, this was the view you had if you looked over to your left. I didn't have too many people fall off at this point.. but oh well.

My, what an experience I had in Yosemite. I wouldn't have traded it in for the world, but it was damn hard work. We had to get up at 6:30 in the morning for 7am feeding and saddling the 20+ began at 8am with usually about 3-4 guides working each day. There were 3 different rides during the day: 5 1-hour rides, 1 2-hour ride, and 1 5-hour ride that took you to the big redwoods at the Mariposa grove. The picture above was on every ride. During June it rained fully hard and I had to take a ride out in the pouring rain.. I don't who the hell these people were that wanted to go out, but it sucked! The views and the riding made up for the hard work we did. At night we'd go riding bareback under the moonlight and on the road we'd see the sparks from the horse's shoes hitting the rocks. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

*Pictures*

Spurs!

The horses the guides rode were usually the younger horses needing training so we always rode with spurs. This picture shows me with my spurs on along with Elaine (center), my good friend who worked there with me. (Jenn worked as a receptionist there too!) On the left is Rebecca, a wild and crazy high school girl who came up to help out for a few weeks. The picture also shows the trailers that we had to sleep in with no electricity. I was pretty medieval that summer.

Berta Star

This is a picture of one of the horses I rode near the end of the summer. She's a beautiful bay mare about 8 years old who tends to go off quite often but the ranch still keeps her because she throws beautiful foals. She's all dressed up and ready to go in my saddle, and here's another pictures of her in the buff.

Sunburn

Sunburn was my absolutest favoritest horse at Yosemite. She's a 4 year old dun Paint and as sweet as any horse can be. (Though on the trails she's slower than molasses 'cuz she takes advantage of all the people who can't ride. Smart, eh?) She's definitely a sweetie. Here's another picture of her head.. Isn't she adorable??

Drafties

These 4 girls were the draft horses that pulled the wagon rides that the ranch also offered. In the picture from left to right are: Sue, April, Sally and Casey. I stayed in the trailer less than 10 feet from their corral so they basically kept me safe at night from strange people like the guy in the picture, John. He was kind of strange.. he worked their as basically the maintenance man and talked to a person named Charlie as he walked around. He'd go over with Charlie the chores in stuff he had to do and what order he was going to do with, etc. Sometimes I think we all need a Charlie in our lives to keep us organized. Here's another picture of Sally and April all dressed up and ready to go.

Katie!

Katie was a cow dog belonging to one of our bosses, Bridgitte. She'd accompany Bridgitte on all of her rides, chasing the squirrels and getting wet in the streams. Why is she included here? Cuteness..

Well, that's it for pictures. I had a fun time there but there wasn't much to do. The ranch is located south of the park on the outskirts of a town called Fish Camp, pop. 76 (no kidding!). The closest town was Hick Town (aka Oakhurst) were we went to experience any type of modern civilization. Jenn and I would have fun at night--our favorite past time was to go around with a flashlight, pointing them at horses and giggling as they would squint and nicker at us. Ahh..cheap entertainment (it goes hand in hand with me being a cheap drunk). We're easily amused, can you tell?

[Home Sweet Home | Personal | Friends | Fun Links! ]

Tell me how bad my summer sucked:jsrha@ucdavis.edu

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page