Baker county traffic jam

[webfoot]

I assisted with a Baker county traffic jam yesterday. Something like 250-300 cow calf pairs marched up the road for about 8 or 9 miles. I don't know what time they actually got on the road but i know they started assembling them in the field at 7:30. It was around 3:30 when the tail end left the road and turned up into the hills. Those who think it would be lots of fun to go on a cattle drive. It is nothing like Hollywood. It is 99% how slow can your horse walk. The speedometer on my quad mostly said 1 mph. Occasionally 2 mph with frequent dead stops. There was 4 guys horse back with 6 dogs.

Here they come. I am sitting in my driveway to keep them from turning down it,

Note the pickup sitting waiting for traffic to clear.

When there was a little over a mile left to go I worked my way through the herd. The leaders were a good half mile ahead of the tail end. I parked here to turn them off the road on to a two track which leads them up into the hills.

A couple other pictures I took

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

And then the calves that want ti run back from where you started from..

 

[Faster horses]

Thanks for the pictures. You live in some steep country!
That first picture should be framed...

 

[webfoot]

Thanks for the pictures. You live in some steep country!
That first picture should be framed...

There is a sign along the road which is actually on my property. It says to look out for the bighorn sheep. That should have been a hint about the steep ground.

 

[Faster horses]

We took a trip to Oregon years ago, we were interested in John Day Oregon. That is STEEP country. Our daughter knew people who ranched there and she related a story the wife told her. "I look out the window to see if there is anyone at the top of the hill as they pretty much have to move cattle that way. When I see someone, I know they will make it to the ranch in 2 hours. I plan my mid-day meals around that." Of course that was before cell phones.

 

[webfoot]

We took a trip to Oregon years ago, we were interested in John Day Oregon. That is STEEP country. Our daughter knew people who ranched there and she related a story the wife told her. "I look out the window to see if there is anyone at the top of the hill as they pretty much have to move cattle that way. When I see someone, I know they will make it to the ranch in 2 hours. I plan my mid-day meals around that." Of course that was before cell phones.

A neighbor to me in college was from John Day. Between his dad and an uncle they were the biggest landowners in Grant county. He was the only one in the next generation who wanted to ranch, so the majority of the land got sold off. There is some steep country there but there are much stepper areas. I knew an other guy in college whose family place was in the siuth east corner of Washington around the confluence of the Snake River and the Grande Ronde river. That is very near Hell's Canyon. He talked about loosing cows from falling off the hills. Take a pretty brave soul to ride that country.

 

[webfoot]

This is a water trough we installed up on the BLM back in 2019. We installed 5 troughs on a line which BLM had put in. You will notice it drops fall not far from the trough. The second picture looking over that edge. You wouldn't want to trip there. That road at the bottom is the one we drove the cows up last week.

 

[Faster horses]

Why was it installed so close to the edge on one side?
Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[webfoot]

Why was it installed so close to the edge on one side?
Inquiring minds want to know.

BLM had the plumbing set up there. Why do they do anything? What do they know about anything? Actually the narrow one lane road is just to the left of that picture. Much farther that way and it would be in the middle of the road. Actually neighbor C runs cows up there and operates the troughs. I don't know that he allows this one to fill. That round plate has a shut off under it.