Early morning found us on horseback…
Well, everyone but me. I had a job to do…. I had to video our calves that will be on the Northern Livestock Summertime Classic sale that is coming up soon. I’m a bit nervous to do this every year… this is what buyers see on the internet, so I take a lot of video trying to get things right. Not too far away. Not too close. Square on sideways, if possible. Since these are calves, a lower angle is recommended. Lighting is important. If you’ve ever taken photos of a black dog, you can understand how getting the light correct with black calves is the same! The cowboys push the calves past me, I video, then we load ‘em all up on the semis for their trip up the mountain.
Semi’s leave first. Two horse trailers follow with our steeds. Vernon and I go pack our lunch and head up in the side by side. We catch up to everyone after reaching the top.
It takes a bit to then unload all the cattle and it’s noisy, calves and cows mooing for each other. Surprisingly, many find each other soon… all those moo’s sound the same to me, but they sure can tell the difference! We eat lunch, giving them extra time…
While we lean against horse trailer tires, Daniel says, “Are those all elk?” We all look, and a mile away, staggered along the hillside is a huge herd of elk.
While we were watching our cows and calves, a different herd of cows and calves has shown up! We munched away, peering through the fence, a “big screen tv” with “animal planet” on it entertained us.
Soon enough though, it was time to move our herd closer to the elk herd and we started off, interested to see how close we could trail by before they spooked and ran away.
They chose simply to bunch up and watch us go by. (They are bunched just to the left of those trees on the horizon. Double tap to enlarge the photo.) It was pretty cool. On we continued, at the base of the hill they were on, then we went out of sight, around the end of the hill. After pairing everything through the gate, I climbed in with Vernon in the side by side, leaving my horse to the care of the other cowboys who had to ride back to the trailers.
We came around the corner and the elk had spread out again, grazing the hillside. Not long though, and they bunched up again, keeping a wary eye on us.
Definitely, a trail to remember! (Again, very grateful for my little camera’s awesome zoom!)
Love it.
Unbelievable!!! Definitely a day to remember.
The vastness is amazing and green! What a herd y’all were being watched
Wow!