What, only one mule!

The packers life is, without a doubt, one of the best there is. It is too bad that here in the west that that life is confined to the summer. When winter sets in, so does the snow and everyone goes back to some "fall back" job - school for the students and saddlery or something else for the non-students. It seems that no matter what the job at the pack outfit it is always exciting; and, something which you yearn to do. It might be the toughest job that you've ever done in your life - shoeing stock, wrangling, packing up camp, loose herding stock or driving stock trucks - but for some strange romantic reason seldom does a packer not wish to return the following summer.

From left to right: mule, "Salty" Peters

Charley Gilmore on the trail.

Somewhere in the backcountry Charley Gilmore seems to be having quite a time. What the heck is that load on your first mule Charley? From lumber to hay, 225 pound stoves to every conceivable configuration of pot and pan, dunnage to dynamite and sides of beef to fresh watermelons and cantaloupes; anything that could be packed, the packer would find a resourceful way to not only get on his mule but somehow get the load balanced and tied down with that famous Mt. Whitney Packers diamond hitch. Let's not forget that a well tied down load in the morning is no guarantee that it will last the entire day! The "best tie loads of mice and packers" often loosened up with the heat of the mule and the day. It always paid to check those loads throughout the day. I remember once, while pushing stock 15 miles from the mountain corrals of Whitney Portals down to the desert corrals of the Elder Ranch, I neglected to cinch up the saddle on my horse sufficiently and about one mile down the road, after the horse had worked up a sufficient sweat, off slipped the saddle and me! What an utterly embarrassing moment! By the time I caught my horse and got resaddled the other packers and stock were a half mile ahead of me and Irene, Tommy and Barbara got the laugh of the morning!