Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Playing Cowboys and Indians



This past summer I worked in Jackson Hole Wyoming. I worked on the Teton Wagon Train and Horse Adventure as a "wrangler."....which basically means that I got paid to ride horses in the Tetons, camp, eat lots of dutch oven food, and sleep under the stars. Rough...I know :) It was fabulous.







Mom, Dad, and Sara came up for a week in July. One night of the camp there is an indian attack...does the indian on the right look familiar??











The conditions were rather rugged. The mosquitos were awful for a few weeks. Each night around dusk there would be a loud buzzing noise and an entire black cloud of mosquitos above my head...and attacking me. Alyssa, my co worker, and I decided to combat the annoyances by hiding from them. We looked stupid, but atleast it kept them out of our ears.







...did I mention it was rugged? The camp ran from Monday to Thursday, but I had to stay on the mountain for a few weekends with the horses. 11 days is a long time to go without a shower. Have no fear, I'm a "Clark," and I created something that comes in as a close second. This is what I call a "Cowgirl Shower" All you need is a horse water bucket, a stump, tarp, some bubbles, and a song!













The wildflowers were the most beautiful ones I've ever seen.












If you remember back to the family reunion...my trivia "did you know" was that I carred a 44 Ruger for my job....well, here's the proof. Because our camp is in the grizzly bear recovery zone, the crew "packs heat" (as they say)...just in case we need to scare away any friendly visitors.

I was on the mountain for 7 weeks and at the Bar T 5 chuckwagon dinner for the remainder of the summer. I drove the teams of horses up a canyon each night with guests for a chuckwagon dinner.

This is Randy...the goofiest horse I've ever met. He's a half draft, so he's big...he doesn't quite know what to do with himself...kinda like an awkward deacon. He enjoys only getting up half way in the mornings.

In addition to all of my western adventures, I did manage a few other things. I went to one of my companion's weddings....and even caught her bouquet. I actually caught Rachel's too just the week before! It must be a sign! :)

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