Fort Howes. wow. Fords, fires and flu

["Steph Teeter" <steph@endurance.net>]

Truly one of the most beautiful rides in the country. Classic
Montana country - long high grassy meadows - pines, juniper,
sandstone rock formations in unexpected places. We galloped
across the meadows, rode through a prairie dog town (very
indignant residents), climbed up and down pine covered bluffs.
Jan and Bill Stevens are the ultimate ride mangers. The ride
goes through their deeded ranch land (homesteaded by Bill's
great great grandfather in 1883) and Custer National Forest.
Steak dinner Friday night, pig roast Saturday night - a community
event. Awards are top notch. Great trails, with plenty of water.
It is just a wonderful ride. And Khruschev finished first and
BC on the hundred - he is awesome and I'm very proud!

And ... probably one of the most challenging ride 'experiences'
I've had. The 100 mile course was the easy part... 

Things started getting interesting around Missoula, our truck
(Ford 550) was getting cranky about shifting. It's a manual
transmission. We had to replace the entire clutch mechanism
3 months ago. We camped in Bozeman, and drove on the next
morning - Thursday. The shifting kept getting worse and by the time we got
to Billings it was a real struggle to change gears. We located
a Ford dealer, they looked at it but couldn't really tell us
what the problem was until they put it up on racks and opened
it up. So we figured we'd drive on to camp (150 miles) park
the trailer and take the truck in the next day. We made it
to camp but it was pretty tense. 

As we got closer to camp we noticed rumbling, and lightening 
flashes  off in the hills... pretty serious looking lightening, but
no rain. Hmmm, pretty dry out there. We got everthing set up,
horses taken care of, just settled down in the shade (it was
103 degrees!) with a cold beer, chips, and salsa, when Bill drove
down from the house - looking pretty worried. Several fires
had broken out on their land and the surrounding Nat'l Forest
from the lightening strikes. He needed some help. So of course
I volunteered John and myself (no way I'd miss out on some
excitement) - and Randy Winters joined us too. Bill loaded up
his truck with tools -polaskis, Mclouds?,shovels, water, burlap
bags, FS rations, radios... and away we went. It was very very
hot (actually got up to 106) and the wind was strong. We started
on the fire where it straddled the road. The wind was blowing
up the hill, but the fire was moving pretty quickly down too- it
was very hot, and the understory was dry. We used the tools
to dig a line below the fire, beat the flames that crossed the
line with web burlap bags, and kept moving along the edge of
the fire. In places were were able to get a jump on it and do
some back burning above the line we had dug. At one point
I was feeling pretty sick - the heat and exertion - and my
face and arms were getting singed. Drank tons of ice water
and got a second wind. Lary Kanavy and John Alexander
(from Virginia) and a few others joined us after a while
and it was much easier to keep it under control.
We worked the fire until past dark, finally met a FS crew 
with a water truck and pump and they got it under
control. It was very intense! Very hot, very smokey,very humbling 
to see the fire blow up when it hit a pocket of dry wood or
a pitch filled tree. Bill was great - knew exactly what to
do, encouraging and efficient. Back to the house, showered, 
ate, exhausted, and not exactly ready to think about riding 
a 100 miles on Saturday!

On Friday John drove the truck to Billings and I spent the
day getting ready for the ride and visiting, feeling a little
tired from the day before, but Khruschev felt great and I
figured that was what mattered. John was going to crew
for me and he is at his best when things get tough. John
returned from Billings late afternoon in a rental car ... not 
good. The transmission was going to have to be replaced in the truck
and they wouldn't know until Monday how long it would
take ... oh well, there are worse places to be stranded.

Great steak dinner Friday night - just about the same time
that a major thunderstorm rolled through - complete with
hail and rain. Shelter under the roof and tents though.
All set for the next day, early to bed, set the alarm for
2:45 (4:30 start) and woke up around midnight with major
stomach cramps... I was sick the rest of the night, wondering
if I could even do the ride. Endurance. It ain't easy, right?
John got Khruschev saddled for me while I whimpered in
the trailer. I had managed to keep some water down by 
start time, so figured we'd give it a go.

This ride is so incredibly beautiful and scenic that I was
able to get my mind off my stomach and focus on the
course. I felt pretty grim after the first loop, but drank
some more water and packed a granola bar and on we
went. That was the worst of it, and by the end of the
day I was much better. Pretty weak and spacey but
not sick any more. John was sooooo great. I just got
in, gave him the horse and concentrated on eating and 
drinking. Khruschev was on, we did our steady thing,
stayed near the front, and really poured it on for the final
15 mile loop. This was a big test for me and Khruschev.
I'm pretty conservative and rarely push for a win. But
I figured we had to prove ourselves. He was awesome,
still had a lot left at the end. wow.

So tomorrow we find out how long we'll be staying at
the CircleBar Ranch... hopefully the truck will be ready
on Tuesday. Bill said he had some branding to do - maybe
even a few more forest fires to put out- stick around!

Steph