Driving Part VI

Day 6 – June 22, 2010

We picked up where we left off yesterday at Mickey Adam’s (the end of the driveway). I should mention that the very tail end didn’t make it to Mickey Adam’s yesterday, the calves got tired at the back and the cows wouldn’t stay with their calves so they ended up stopping a ways back. That worked out ok though because we were able to make a split in the heard and my crewand I moved them forward, leaving another bunch of riders to pick up the cattle herd behind us.

I liked today’s ride, it is almost always an easy day where the cattle gather decently and go up the trail easily, plus the distance to travel is not that far. I don’t know the actual distance of today’s ride, but I don’t think it’s more than a few miles. We moved from Mickey Adam’s to Bloom Springs. The drive includes going through a highway underpass. Some years the underpass can cause real big problems if the cows are not strung out and trailing good. What happens is you have a big wad of cows that aren’t paired with their calves and you come to the underpass and all of the swallows come flying out (they build their nests in the corners of the underpass) and scare the calves who don’t want to go forward anyway and then you get a big run back and the day is pretty much finished and you have to pick up the pieces the next day. Our cows didn’t do that today though; they moved really well and we finished riding by 9:30 a.m.

Sorry, I forgot to bring my camera today so no pictures. But be sure to check out all the photos on my previous posts!

Driving Part I