Clean Up Ride

In spite of the overwhelming positive response we have received from most all of our guests, we have always wanted to offer a trip which would more closely represent our lifestyle exactly as it was during the turn of the century.

Little Horn Cow Camp
Little Horn Cow Camp

"Its too bad people couldn't spend a night or two in the Little Horn Cow Camp so they could see how it was," Dana would often remark when he would relate stories about his teenage years as the rider in the Little Horn Camp.

Cowboys like "Dick Babbion" and "44 Bill" have all left their mark on those of us who experienced their tenure at the cabin. To us, it's quite real. The cowboys of my father's generation, and his father before him, are nearly all gone now. Most are just a name in a story Dad would relate about his childhood in cow camp. I guess we too will someday become just a name in a story, and then, over time, events which seemed so important to us, becomes nothing at all.

Ben and his friends
Ben and his friends

Now I realize that seems terribly empty but, to me this is the appeal of the Little Horn Cow Camp because it is here the stories and names live forever. Every time I step through the kitchen door and hear the creak of the aged wooden floor under my boots, I always expect everything to be exactly as it was the first time I saw it at age nine. It always is.

Cowboys and their faithful helpers.
Cowboys and their faithful helpers.

In the dim light from the hissing gas lantern, my mind can see Dave Fuller in his old denim apron and brown leather bedroom slippers shoving another stick of firewood into the massive Monarch cook stove as he turns out another batch of horse-hair pad pancakes. Boy, could those things soak up the syrup. I watched him for years and could never figure out his secret. Sometimes he used milk, sometimes water, sometimes bacon grease, sometimes butter, and sometimes eggs but it never seemed to matter, they always tasted like horse-hair pad pancakes. Dave is gone now; he lost his battle with colon cancer in the spring of '99, but within the century old log walls of the Little Horn Cabin, he will live forever.

Here is what we have: we are offering five spots for guests to accompany us on our CLEAN-UP RIDE as we re-ride the entire permit about two weeks after our September cattle drive. We will likely spend two nights at the Lake Creek Cabin, two nights at the Little Horn Cabin, and a night or two at the Double Rafter in the valley.

There will be many miles in the saddle but, if the September cowboys have done their job, there shouldn't be many cows. I do think you will find this trip quite unique because you will experience things few people will ever see. Again, we must limit this trip to five guests so this trip is going to fill early. Don't wait.

Third Crossing
Third Crossing
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