Cinder pup greetings on the way to the cook tent They’ve been teaching the ways of backcountry hunting camps to all sorts of people since 1994. And owners Cody and LeRee Hensen are no strangers to the deal. Packing Mules With the Royal Tine Guide School Cody Hensen, owner/educator at Royal Tine Guide School photo credit: Nicole QualtieriĪ friend of mine clued me in to the Royal Tine Guide School‘s weekend course, set up for folks like me looking to learn the basics. With my own little horse coming along in her training, I knew I needed more than a refresher to feel prepared to pack her for the coming elk season, summer fishing trips, and beyond.Ī weekend course on packing mules and horses with the Royal Tine Guide School seemed to be just what I needed to get back on the right track. Since then, I’ve added big-game hunting to my skillset, and I’ve been itching to combine my horsemanship with my huntsmanship in the backcountry.īut it’s been a few years since those collegiate days weighing out loads and setting a pack-saddle on a mule. The last time I packed a mule into a wild place was in 2007 for a packing and outfitting class at Colorado State University. GearJunkie’s Nicole Qualtieri spent a weekend digging into the American West’s take on how to pack mules and horses with the Royal Tine Guide School. It’s up to us and the National Park Service to preserve that.Packing mules and horses is a tradition as old as domestication of the equine sort. “I think our forefathers saw the mechanized world coming, and they had the foresight to set some of this aside. “As long as we have wilderness, we’ll have packers, and we need young packers like Jill to carry on the legacy to future generations,” Elwood said. I went to professional farrier school in part because I wanted to be recognized as a packer.”Įlwood said Michalak possesses the mettle of a packing pro she regards the trade’s traditional roots with deep esteem, she possesses all of the skills and knows how to use them, and she understands the importance of maintaining public lands and wilderness. “In order to be a packer, you have to be a leather worker, a farrier (horse-shoer) you have to know first aid and take care of your animals if there’s an accident. “A lot of packing is about tradition, and to be recognized as a good packer, you have to respect the tradition,” Michalak said. The Glacier pack crew adheres to Decker-style packing, which came into vogue in the western United States in the early 20th century and continues to reign supreme for packing purists. Wrapped like a package, the bundle is tied with manty rope and lashed to each side of a Decker-style packsaddle. She bundles her cargo in heavy canvas tarps called manties, swatches of which generally measure about seven feet by eight feet wide. On any given day, Michalak loads her pack string with wooden planks, fuel tanks, saws, pulaskis, canvas sheets, rope, and other tools. They’re kind of an odd couple, but he follows her everywhere she goes.”įinally, bringing up the rear is Tate, a cranky mule who’s apt to stop walking whenever the mood strikes him. “She’s a fat girl and he’s a skinny, donkey-looking thing. “Mike and Kate are in love,” Michalak said. In Mongolia, she worked as a packer with Cossack golden eagle hunters, and in Australia she packed in the Snowy Mountains, the highest mountain range on the mainland continent. “To be able to use my packing skills to help people was just so rewarding.” “That was a phenomenal experience,” Michalak said. Known as the Free Burma Rangers, the aid group relies on pack strings to deliver medicine, supplies and humanitarian support in regions where other aid organizations cannot go. Impressed with her savvy, Eubank invited Michalak to come work for his volunteer services organization in Myanmar (formerly Burma). When Michalak’s mules bolted and broke loose, Eubank helped the young packer wrangle them back in line. Army Special Forces operative named Dave Eubank. While packing on the Hoh River Trail in Olympic National Park, for example, Michalak met an ex-U.S. She learned to pack working for an outfitter in Alaska, and put herself through college at the University of Alaska Fairbanks while packing across the western United States, working for outfitters spanning the High Sierras to Mount Whitney, tracking along the Pacific Crest Trail on week-long trips and opening a portal that revealed packing opportunities across the globe.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |