Howdy from the Ranch

This weekend we interns traded in hiking boots and windpants (sigh) for cowboy boots and jeans. The reason? We took a jaunt to Three Peaks Ranch, the NOLS ranch that horsepacking courses and re-rations run out of. After a two hour ride from Lander through wide open spaces, we were treated to the leftovers of an asado — a lamb roast and celebration — from the night before. Then off to bed; ranch life starts early.

5:30am. Yeehaw! The day began with a truck-and-trailer drive out to the trailhead for a 6 mile horseback-ride in to Big Sandy Lake. Now I’m not one to place blame, so I’ll just say that a certain camera was left in the truck all day. As a result, the picture below is of the generic variety. But you get the idea.

The ride itself was beautiful. There were four riders: Kate and I (team intern), and Pat and Liz, our fearless wranglers and leaders. We brought along 2 extra horses to carry in food and gear. When we got to Big Sandy Lake we met up with a rock climbing course, and a really efficient re-ration ensued. Tip of the hat to their leader Jared Spaulding for being on his game and captaining a great re-ration. The students had high energy and all good things to say about their course thus far. They enjoyed fresh apples and oranges, and gave us a box of garbage in exchange for about 200lbs of food. You can’t win ’em all..