Exhausted, in 6 Feet of Snow, I was Done! | Engels Coach Shop
Well this is a little different setting for a video You can tell I'm sitting here by my fire The lights are out We've got a pretty strong wind today so evidently something blew down We've been without power for about a half hour or so I've been kind of twiddling my thumbs deciding what am I going to do I've been sanding on these wheels I have all four of them done They're ready to go into the paint room but I would would like to put them in in that heated room for about a day and let them acclimate temperature-wise before I paint them so I had kind of planned on sanding on the front and rear axle while I visited with you today some but you know if you like to go camping or if you've ever gone camping sitting around the campfire is really a pleasant time to visit and tell stories You know there was a while back that somebody sent me a picture of a little car and I think maybe it was a Dodge Colt or something I can't really tell from the picture but there's big bull elk mounted on the top of this little car and you can see a couple guys in there and I'll show it to you here but that just came back to mind as I was sanding and so it got me to thinking about hunting and I used to do a fair bit of it Well October to November is hunting season here in Montana of and it ends up usually about the weekend of Thanksgiving In my day I used to do quite a little bit of it and most of it was horseback I've done some backpack hunting but but Rick Bischoff that you have met with the Luminary Shopps, who's my brother-in-law he and I and a third friend Richard had enough gear, horses, saddles, pack
saddles, mules that we became kind of the Three Musketeers and we went hunting every year About September 15th the back country in the wilderness just north of Yellowstone Park in the combination of Absaroka mountains and the Beartooth mountains known as, surprisingly enough, the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness it opened up for early pre-season rifle season for elk so we had first initially planned on going in in 1988 but that was the year that Yellowstone Park burned up so we got delayed and we started going in in 1989 Well the three of us became kind of the nucleus of these hunting trips and word got around what we were doing and pretty soon it was well, is it possible if I come along? How about if I come along Well there was another businessman here in town He was just kind of a neighbor to me
here and he wanted to come along and hadn't a lot of experience in horseback riding but he said, you know if you let me come I'll sure enough be the camp cook Well you can't hardly beat that You know when you get back in the back country to have somebody cook when you come back from hunting all day that's just pretty nice He did a little hunting too but his main concern was being the camp cook So that was pretty nice.
Well his name was Jim and he came in a couple times and we would come back to camp and meals would be ready and we'd have cakes and brownies and he was just quite a hand at cooking around the campfire Well a number of years later he and I went up to a lake called Lily Lake and it's actually in the and it's actually in the northern part of Wyoming on the way to Cooke City but we're in the state of Wyoming Well this was hunting season and it was cold, we were probably I don't know maybe 0, 10° F in there somewhere and he and I decided we would ride up and go hunting Well we had about 8 miles or so before we crossed into the Montana border and where we were actually legal to go hunting so we started out about 4:00 in the morning and rode till daylight and we were in Montana and so we rode past Big Moose Lake and I think there's Reno Lake up there and we rode all day and there was maybe a foot of snow and we we headed kind of north and a little bit west and pretty soon we came along Kersey Lake and then there's an outfitters cabin up in there that takes dudes up there in the summertime and we hit the highway just short of Cooke City maybe about an hour before dark We had ridden all day and we looked back and it was about probably 25 miles we had covered that day well when we hit the highway we were still 15 miles from our pickup and trailer in the camp Well this was the main highway that gets shut off in the wintertime so occasionally there was a snowmobile that would come by because it was snowmobiles only from the junction of Chief Joseph Highway into Cooke City so we had about 15 miles of riding to go and like I say, Jim was
not attuned to, or accustomed to riding horseback We got back, and it was dark and I'm going to guess maybe 9, 10:00 I don't really know that for sure in my memory but Jim was tired We rode probably close to 40 miles that day and it wasn't really any big deal to me because I was accustomed to riding horses but not so with Jim We got back and the next week he was moaning and groaning and oh he hurts and it was fun, but boy it hurt and he was hobbling around and I would give him a hard time well he and I continued to do winter events I liked to snowshoe and he liked to cross country ski so we would do this just locally here We'd both shut down after work about 5:30, 6:00 and go out and snowshoe and do some country skiing for a couple hours at night Well we got this harebrained idea to go up south of Red Lodge There's a trail head called Lake Fork Trail and from the actual trail head there is a location up there it's called Lost Lake and it's 5 miles from the trail head We thought we would take some cross country skis out of his encouragement and go up to Lost Lake and then another three miles or so above that was a lake called Black Canyon Lake and this was middle of wintertime of course Well the road was barricaded a couple miles ahead of the trail so instead of five miles we were looking at 7 miles to get up to Lost Lake So I'm on cross country skis now as well and Jim, he's in his element because this is what he thrives on, is cross country skiing So we quit work about 5:30 and we get up there at the trail head or close to it, about 6:30 to 7:00 in there and we're headed up country and it is up all the way and he takes off into the lead like he's just born to it and of course you know me, now I'm the one that's struggling I can navigate on snowshoes I've done a little bit of cross country skiing but now I am not in my element We go for a couple miles and he finally says well I'm going to go on ahead and I'll see if I can't find us a camp spot and kind of get us ready So he takes off and like I say, we're, who knows what now, 8:00, 9:00 at night and he takes off and I'd been up horseback to Lost Lake and this Black Canyon Lake and Keyser Brown, you all this country up in that area but it' been on the back of a horse and so I knew where I was going so he took off anyway and I'm just kind of plodding along and we've both got our backpacks on because we've got our sleeping bags and our gear and our fishing equipment cuz we're going to go fish this Black Canyon Lake Yeah right Well he finally comes back to find out where I am at and I'm probably another mile to
go yet and so he encouraged me you know, come on, you can make it, you can make Well he had got up there and already had dug a pit in the snow that was probably 4 to 5 feet deep We're in some snow country now, 5, 6 feet deep By the time I got there it was dug out and he had a fire going and needed some more wood hauled in and I mean to tell you I was dog tired It was one of those times that if I could have just curled up and gone to sleep I'd have sure enough died that night if it hadn't been for Jim He had it dug out had a fire going Pretty soon he had supper kind of go and of course we were eating dehydrated and we crawled into this snow cave and threw a tarp over the top of us and it's pretty comfortable If you've done any snow camping in the winter time you dig a hollow hole into the ground and covered over with bough branches or a tarp or something and you're pretty much snug as a bug in a rug So I crashed that night and I thought sure enough I am not going anywhere Well the next morning I actually felt pretty good so we went and cross country skied up to Black Canyon Lake All we brought was an axe We're going to go ice fishing right? So we started chipping a hole hole in the ice and pretty soon our two foot hole in diameter became a 3 ft hole and a 4 ft hole and a 5 ft hole Ended up being the ice on this lake was 4 feet thick and we were laying on our bellies getting down there to the end of the hole and he says now when you hit that last bit you got to go lickety split because it's going to come splashing up at you So he's holding on to my feet and I'm down there head first into this hole chopping the hole and sure enough as soon as you break that last little bit of ice that water just comes up like a artisian well and I'm just splashing away trying to get that hole open and pretty soon the water is up at ice level What an experience We fished and we fished and didn't catch you blooming thing but you know that whole trip, when we got back he was turning the tables on me I was feeling pretty tough I was sore.
I was tired. I was beat. He turned the tables on me and I had my just reward but when you're back a camp and the misery is over and you think back like I do now that was really really a fun trip Jim and I had some fun times together He's no longer around these days and I kind of miss him sometimes but he was an avid outdoors man In his element, he shined when it came to cross country skis When I was in my element it was a little different deal if I was a horseback but we got along well together and had some good times but it was one of those times that if it hadn't been for Jim I'd just curled up and called her good I think I'd gone to sleep and you know what that means Well I don't know how long I'm going to sit here in the dark sitting by my campfire in the shop Seems like I should ought to go do something I could go set a post at Farewell I could maybe do a little bit at the store but it takes power to run my air compressor Kind of a different day They'll get it back on eventually You just got to wait it out So when it does I'll get back to my painting I guess this is literally a fireside chat telling stories Lots of memories around a campfire Hope you've had those too Thanks for coming along.
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