A Student's Journal Day 11 - Royal Tine Big Game Hunting Guide Training School in Montana

A Guide School Student's Journal

DAY 11 - Thursday

Got to sleep a few minutes longer, but still had to get up and wrangle this morning. Started off learning the history, uses and parts of a sawbuck saddle, then launched right into sawbuck packing. We mainly worked with panniers and the single (one man) diamond hitch. After everyone pretty well got the hang of it, we did more review on mantying and Decker packing, then took another 5-hour ride, taking turns leading 3 loaded pack animals. We had a few rodeos and a good education - a pretty good day in itself, but we weren't done yet.

At 9:00 p.m. we wrangled the stock in again for night-packing experience. Started packing up at 9:30, but we weren't loaded and ready to head out until 10:30. About that time it clouded over again. We packed in the rain this afternoon, but fortunately it only drizzled tonight. The bad part is the cloud cover made it pitch dark. We definitely learned what night packing is like - didn't get back till 3:00 a.m.! No one rolled any saddles, but we had lots of too slow adjustments that kept us out a long time. Good experience. We learned the importance of working quickly!

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