Youths learn wilderness skills

Last Saturday, 15 young equestrians showed off their newfound backcountry packing skills, practicing the timeless techniques required to guide stock animals deep into the wilderness.

Ranging in age from 8 to 17, they were five months into the Northwest Montana Backcountry Horsemen’s seven-month 4-H packing clinic, the first of its kind in the Flathead Valley.

Parker Cameron, a tall 17-year-old in blue jeans and brown cowboy hat, dismounted after a couple of practice laps leading his pack mule around the corral at the Flathead County Fairgrounds.

Cameron started riding horses at age 5, but this was the first time he had an opportunity to work with pack animals.

“It’s sort of been us learning together,” he said, glancing over at Raindrop, the horse he has ridden for the past five years.

When the clinic was announced, Cameron jumped on the chance to build the skills necessary for an extended trip into the backcountry. When he’s ready, he said he will plan his first trip to one of the Swan Mountain Range’s alpine lakes.

“There’s something peaceful about it,” Cameron said. “It sort of combines my two favorite things: being in the woods and being on a horse.”

Rick Mathies, the Northwest Montana chapter’s treasurer, explained that the clinic arose from the desire of many of the chapter’s members to expand their goals to a new generation.

“As we surveyed the new members, that was one of the main things they asked for,” he said. “We thought this was a good way to reach two generations at once.”

The Northwest Montana chapter was founded last year by former members of the Flathead Valley Backcountry Horsemen — the original chapter in an organization now numbering roughly 13,000 members of 175 chapters spread throughout 28 states.

The clinic kicked off in January, with participants meeting one day each month through May, and will culminate in a summer packing trip into the backcountry for those who pass their evaluations.

With last weekend’s rains taking a break during the April class, the young riders had a chance to practice their packing skills — balancing and tying together several styles of 30- to 40-pound packs, properly attaching them to their mule, then steadily leading the pack animal behind their horses.

Next month, they will be evaluated based on their mastery of a chosen skill level. The highest skill level requires planning and completing a four-day backcountry sojourn with four pack animals in tow.

“They’ve come a long way,” Mathies said, smiling under a white handlebar mustache as he watched a young student confidently lead her mule along the muddy track. “I can’t tell you how fast these kids pick this up.”

The Backcountry Horsemen of America started in 1973, when Roland Cheek, Dennis Swift and Ken Ausk — three valley residents fond of hunting together in the Bob Marshall Wilderness — saw a need to protect the image of horsemen. The Bob had been designated less than a decade earlier, but already signs of overuse and resource damage were beginning to emerge.

Mathies and the other leaders of the new chapter said they see recruitment of new horsemen and horsewomen as an important part of that mission.

“The Backcountry Horsemen exists to ensure the use of trails in the backcountry and to keep the trails open,” Mathies said. “If people haven’t been in the backcountry, when they get to see it they’ll want to protect it. You have to have some sort of emotional connection to it.”

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.