Mustang 'n' Cowboys

EDITOR'S NOTE... If you would like to start at the beginning of TnT's First Pack Trip into the Sierra Nevadas, click on the September link in the Archive area. This trip started out as a 14 day trip. However, since they had to wait till the very last (because of their work schedule) to get their wilderness permit, they were not able to go in on Saturday, September 2. Starting on Sunday brought it down to a 13 day trip. After having to leave Maggey at The Lake of the Lone Indian, their trip ended up being a 9 day trip. They came out on September 11. It is a good thing that they came out when they did. Coal ended up at the vets office two days after they got home. He was diagnosed with colic and had to stay five days with Doc Pipkin in Bakersfield. Tony called every day and went over to see him on Saturday. Cahlibur and Belle were okay. As soon as they reached home on DAY NINE, Travis called the Rock Creek Pack Station and hired them to go in to bring the gear out and check on Maggey. They said that if Maggey was okay they would bring her out. Because one of the other scheduled pack trains needed another couple of mules to carry more gear than was anticipated, there was a wait until the weekend to start. Then one of the packers hurt himself somehow. It ended up being two weeks before they were free to go in. A week after Trav's first called to the pack station, one of the other packers had brought back word that Maggey didn't make it. She had died real close to the spot where Travis had turned her loose. When Trav got the word that she hadn't made it, he called the Forest Rangers to report that she had passed away near a body of water. In the picture above she is standing on a little hill with her back feet...even though she was small, she was perfectly shaped! I still cry when I think about her too long, so I will close this post, remembering her through her colt, Clancey. Janey Loree