Mountain Update, Burnt Timber, March 3 and 4, 2012

I want to start this post with a reminder to click on the photo to make it bigger.  Once you click once you can click again and it will get even bigger.  It will be important to do this on this post.  Most of the photos were taken at a big distances, so for you to see the horses well, you must zoom in.

The morning of the second day we met Lori Graham and her husband Jimmy at the PMWMC in Lovell.  They were going to join us for a few hours in the morning.  Are plan was to hike around Turkey Flats and see what horse we could find.

We spent 5 hours hiking around Turkey Flats.  I will share what I found in another post.   Lori and Jimmy headed to the Dryhead.  We decided to stay a little longer and then went up the Dryhead as well.  After spending some time there we decided to go back up Burnt Timber.

It was around 3 pm when we arrived at the bottom of Burnt Timber.  There was still plenty of light left in the day so I wanted to see if we could find more horses.  I drove up the mountain to  where we had seen Teton (Diamond) and his band.  They had moved on and were no longer around.  The snow was getting pretty dip past that spot.  The ATV was having some trouble going further.  I decided to turn back because of the time left before dark.  Getting stuck in the snow in the dark was not something I wanted to do.

I head slowly back down the mountain.  We had not gone far when we saw several horses at a distances.  It was starting to get dark, but there was still enough light to make out who they were.  It was Jackson’s band.  Some of them were there, but it seemed that some were missing.  I looked again and realized that there were some new additions as well.

The new additions to the band were from Cloud’s band.  They were Dancer (Cloud Dancer), Jasmine and Ingrid (Inocentes).

I looked around for the rest of Jackson’s band and found Firestorm and LeDoux to the left of Jackson a couple hundred feet away.

I could not find Ingrid’s (Inocentes) foal Lynx, Galena and Lander, Heritage, Brumby, Kalahari or Kaycee.  I watched them for about 45 minutes and still did not see the rest of the band.  There were a lot of dips in the land, it could have been easy to miss them.  Jasmine seemed to really like Jackson.  I watched them interact a little bit.

I needed to go, it was getting dark, but I hated leaving without seeing the other horses.  I was worried about where they might be.  I wondered if Cloud was OK.

On the way out I saw Grijala and his band again.  This was the third time this trip that I had seen this band.

I made it down from the mountain and got in the truck just as it got dark.

The next morning we were at the bottom of Burnt Timber by 7: 45 am.  I wanted to find Jackson’s band again before we had to leave to go home.     I was worried about the missing members of his band.   Ginger Katherns and Lauryn joined us.  I had filled them in the night before on what I had seen.

Once again I headed up Burnt Timber and once again I saw Grijala and his band.  But this time they were quite a bit closer.  They were on a hill right next to the road.

We spent a few minutes with this band again.  But Jackson’s band was on our minds, so we continued to head up the mountain.

Jackson and his band were in same area as the night before.  I was happy to see them again.  The sun was shinning and we could get a clear view of who was there.

It seemed everyone was there!  There was quite a distance separating them.  On one hillside were the newest additions to the band.  Lynx was there too!

Jackson was in the middle of everyone on another hill-side.  Not looking all that concerned about the new arrangements.

Firestorm was over on the same hill as the Jasmine, Dancer and Lynx, but down lower.  Not with them.

One the other side of Jackson to the left on yet another hillside was Galena, Lander and Kalahari.

Brumby,  was clearly disgusted by the new arrangement and was by herself down the hill away from everyone.

Was Brumby pregnant?  She looked very round.

We watched this band for quite a while.  Little Lynx got up from his nap.  We were able to get a good look at him.  He looked a little thin to me.

Jackson did not look like he had been in a fight.  What had happened?  How did he get those mares?  The four of us continued up the road for a while.  We were running into deep snow.  We helped Ginger put chains on her ATV.  I then reluctantly decided that I needed to head back down the mountain.  I really wanted to stay.  I wanted to see more horses.  It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, but I had to leave to go home.

I will let Ginger tell you about Cloud, I am sure she will have an update soon.  But I will say that I heard from them, and he is OK.

As we headed down the mountain for the last time of this trip we saw 3 horses at a distance.  One looks to be Jasper, Jackson and Galena’s 3-year-old son.  I am not sure of the other two.

I looked for Lakota again just as I was nearing the bottom.  We saw Two Boots, but no Lakota.  Two Boots was alone, but he looked really good.

I saw this little rock “house” on my way down and thought I would share it.  It was about 2 feet wide.  There are some really interesting rock formations here in the Pryors.

We loaded the ATV on the back of the truck for the last time.  I was feeling sad.  I had hoped to see many more horses than I had.  I was glad I had seen the ones I did.  I am already planning my next trip.  I hope I can get further up the mountain next time so I can see around enough to spot more horses.  Until then I have my memories that will hold me.  I will update you on the Dryhead and Turkey Flats on my next post.

Sandy