Ol' men of the trail

Many moons ago while cutt'n logs for Tom Hulett I ran into his brother John. He was one of those "men of the trail" I like to call'em.

Get a load of this.

John and an older cowboy once trailed 30 head of horses from Polson to Polouse, Washington by way of Wallace, Idaho. They sold the horses and then went on to Oregon. Com'n back he was alone and came home by way of the old Lolo trail from Idaho.

Once back years ago I did a whole story on John for the Pathfinder. John had a way with honest dry humor. Sez he, "When I came back from my cowboy journey all my friends were married and so was my girl friend."

When he'd tell a story about the Swan, he'd shift in his chair to make sure he was pointing the right direction. Pointing towards Upper Holland he sez he worked on that trail to Upper Holland and the Pendant and the Gordon Pass. Sez they had a big old horse to pull a compressor to drill so's to blast the rock. He wanted me to know Rudy Kaiser was a great guy to work with. These were the kind of men the Forest Service once hired.

When we got onto trapping he told me about his winter in the Bob. I believe it was over Smith Pass. He goes up in September, shoots an elk for the winter. Set up his tent and cut a pile of wood. He'd kept his horses there till the last thing.

One day it looked and felt like a big storm brew'n so he slept out in the open on his back. Dur'n the night snow began to fall on his face. It was a real humdinger. He knew he had to get the horses out fast. Then he snowshoed back up to his camp. Sez he caught 12 Marten on that gut pile.

Remember a while back I said John went ice fish'n on Big Salmon Lake? Yup, that was the winter. I've chopped enough holes through two feet of ice beaver trapping to appreciate his last swing as he broke through. Up came the water and to finish the hole you get wet. Tough go'n when it's below zero.

John once had a Jersey cow and gave me lots of rich milk. The wife even made butter from it. Sure do miss them ol' men of the trail. They had no Biology degrees but they had the best professor in the world, ol' Mother Nature.