All photos courtesy of Carl Perry.
The 2019 Mid Valley mule packing clinic was once again a well attended event. We had 7 pack mules and 1 donkey that were practiced on. The donkey was brought by Kathy Dollarhide. All the kids took turns of tying the box hitch on the little donkey. Of course after the first round they had enough of packing. We were lucky to get them through the first hour and a half. This is how you start our future packers and I’m proud of Kathy for allowing us to pack on her little donkey.
There were 26 adults participating in learning the art of tying the box hitch knot. There were 9 different trainers. We had two rounds of one hour and a half each session. We had complete newbie’s to long time forgotten packers. Everyone wanted the hands on experience of packing real live mules. I believe mostly everyone had their fill that day of tying the box hitch. Some actually wanted more time than we could offer but there is always next time.
The event was a free to the public workshop including a hosted lunch from our very own Dutch Oven Group. We had 13 dutch oven cooks graciously donate their time to prepare the superb lunch and desserts that were gobbled down timelessly. The room was filled with groans of “I ate too much”!! That is the voices we want to hear after a Dutch Oven Gathering (DOG). With the few extra people that popped in we served about 50+ people.
This was no easy task and took a tremendous amount of cooperation and talent in all phases of the words backcountry horsemen. Our members know how to pull together when the education segment of our unit has it’s calling. I didn’t have to ask twice for volunteers. They just came, out of the goodness of their hearts and I couldn’t have pulled this off without them. Thank you, everyone.
(Click to enlarge and view slide show)
Backcountry Horsemen of California - Mid Valley Unit
P.O. Box 1709
Modesto, CA 95353-1709
Questions about the Mid Valley Unit? Ask Doug Dollarhide, bootsandspur@att.net
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