Settlement Canyon Gathers 2012

To help prove our point that the scrub oak is evil, here is a wonderful snippet of a story from Joseph. I'm sooo gladd that he reminded me of this event. Each time I think about it now, it makes me laugh.

"Well, the day after I came home from my mission, Josh and I went up to look for cows on Cassie and Joe (horses). We were trying to get though a thick patch of scrub oak and Josh said, "Just let the horse pick its way through," which I did, and we were going along just fine until the hood of my jacket got caught on a branch. It started to pull tighter and tighter until it was cutting off my air. I got Cassie to stop, but I couldn't get her to back up, nor could I dismount because the jacket was so tight. There was so much pressure I couldn't unzip it either. With no other options, I just gave Cassie a good kick, she ran out from underneath me, and my weight broke the branch I was hanging from."

I'm sorry Joseph, I know this must have been a traumatic near-death experience for you, but I'm laughing so hard right now that I'm crying!

Ahh, good times. Anyway, here is a summary of the gathering cows out of the canyon adventures so far this year, written by my lovely guest writer, Clayton Sagers. Enjoy.

Day 1 Saturday Oct. 6: Cameron, Joseph, Clayton (Joshua joined us later).

We unsuccessfully searched the canyon only to find two cows that weren’t ours. Followed them down the canyon and loaded them into the corral. Wish that someone would do the same with our cows.

Day 2 Friday Oct. 12: Joshua and Clayton.

Rain was forecasted throughout the day. We heard there was a group of our cows just past the second gate where the pavement ends. Just after opening the gate, we noticed them off to our right. Joshua took Goose, a new gelding, to round up the cows and start pushing them through the gate. Goose was slow and did not want to head the cows off, so the cows got away and headed up the canyon instead of down. I had brought Famous Shoes (horse) with us so that she could get exercise, and was ponying her while I was riding Comanche. To “pony” a horse means that you lead the horse on a lead rope behind you or beside you while you are riding another horse. The cows decided they were going to go up the side of the steep mountain to get away. I decided to ride up only to be apprehended by the dreaded scrub oak. I ride back down, tied Comanche to the tree and told Joshua to watch the horses, and that I will go on foot to drive the cows back down to the road. Famous Shoes is loose, because we know that she will not go far without the Comanche, who is her mom. I drive down two pair of cattle but another pair decides to hoof it up the road some more. After I get the pair turned around and heading in the right direction, I hear Joshua yell, “Clayton, your horse broke the reins and they are both heading towards the horse trailer!” Not wanting to lose the bunch I’ve just gathered, I continue to drive the cows down the canyon on foot. Joshua and I are eventually able to make it through the gate with all three pair, only to find that the loose horses had not stopped at the horse trailer but had apparently decided to run all the way down the canyon.

Joshua follows the cows down on horseback while I take the truck and trailer down the road to hopefully find the horses. I drive down, expecting them to be just around the next corner peacefully grazing, but as I got closer to the bottom of the canyon, the stress of finding them injured or not finding them at all intensified. When I got the campground at the bottom, I stopped to ask some campers. “Have you seen two horses?” The camper points and says, “Yes! One horse with a saddle and one without.” Just then, I turned to see both horses running down into the campground being chased by a sheriff in a truck. After much coaxing and running around the campground, we finally managed to chase them in a corner and catch them. After the sheriff determines that I am in fact the owner of these loose horses, he takes down my name and phone number. Kinda suspicious, but oh well. I put Famous Shoes in a nearby stall and started to ride back up the canyon to help Joshua with the cows coming down. I rode over to open the corral gate to let the cows in, when  Joshua asked if I had any wire cutters since Goose had managed to get barbed wire wrapped around his leg. It appears that someone had cut down a length of the fence and there was loose wire all over the ground. We cut the horse’s leg free with a rusty pair of old wire cutters; luckily, there was very minimal damage to his flesh. After fruitless searching on Center Ridge for additional cows, we decided to call it a night. We went home wet and tired.

Day 3 Saturday Oct. 13. Joel, Clayton, Joshua

The morning started out with the horses being shod. No real big problems. We then made our way up the canyon to look for cows. Sure enough, we saw a large group on Center Ridge. We would have to ride about a mile and half up Left Hand Fork, and then cut over and head south up Center Ridge so that we could push them from behind. This part again went smoothly with no real bumps. While on Center Ridge, we saw another group of our cows on one of those steep slopes. After much discussion, we decided that I would go down and try and push those cows down the canyon while Dad and Joshua would try to get the other group and push them down. I rode down the mountain, like the Man from Snowy River, but with less speed and minus the dramatic music. As I rode down, the cows ran up. As I rode up, the cows ran down. We played this game for a while until they decided they were going to go up the canyon at a dead run. I am convinced it is not as much the cows making this decision as it is the calves. To them, being pulled from the canyon is like children being pulled out of Disneyland. By this time my horse is asking me, “Seriously, are these critters really worth it?” They lead me across one hill, down into a gully and up another hill. They then head into an ugly thicket of scrub oak. We of course chase them for about 10 feet until I can no longer clear the branches. I then get off my horse, leading her through the oak jungle by breaking branches and trying to maneuver our way through the maze. Mind you this is all being done on about a 60% grade. Just as I’m pushing a large branch out of the way, I slip and fall, letting go of the reins.

My horse has had about enough of this crazy chase and decides to go straight down the mountain. I turn to panic mode as I remember the previous day’s experience with the law. I could just picture the sheriff saying, “This seems to be a bad habit you and your horse have going on.” I begin making giant leaps down the mountain since this seems to be the quickest way down to catch her.  Imagine, if you will, the game Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo. Mario has a trusty lizard/dinosaur steed named Yoshi who, if he gets hurt by a bad guy, will frantically run in any direction to get away. Mario then jumps like mad to try and catch Yoshi before he runs off a cliff. My leaps were not as graceful as Mario, and I could feel a sharp pain on my backside from when I had fallen. I finally was able to get the reins and stop the horse. When I looked way back up at the top of the mountain, I caught a glimpse of the cow’s tails as they entered another scrub oak patch. I reached behind and felt my pants, which had a nice hole in them from when my backside had made contact with a sharp rock. That group of cows was a lost cause for the day.

When I got to the campground where I was to meet my Dad and Joshua, I saw that they had not gotten the other bunch of cows to the corrals yet. I called them on the phone and found out that their luck was just as bad as mine, and their cows had also escaped through some scrub oak. I made my way towards them in hopes that we would not have a total loss for the day. After some hollering back and forth, I finally located them. They were stuck on the side of Center Ridge, and the cows were about 400 yards in front of them heading my way. I was going to try and flank them on horseback, but was met with yet another scrub oak patch. I went back down a ways into a clearing, this time tying my horse with a halter and lead rope so that she couldn’t break the reins and get away. I then proceeded on foot to flank the cows and drive them down to the clearing. I call this pulling a “Last of the Mohicans” as I ran through the forest trying to head off the cows. You’ll have to watch the 1992 movie with Daniel Day Lewis to understand. There are several scenes where they are constantly running through the forest chasing something or being chased; the only difference being that I have short hair and am wearing a shirt. I’m able to drive the cows down into the clearing, and we end up being right by where my horse is tied. “Maybe it will be my lucky day,” I thought. I slowly get on my horse and proceed to drive the cattle down the mountain. Since it’s only little old me versus the dozen or so of them, the cows all move at different speeds to try to get away. Half go running right into the scrub oak, the other half decides to go down the road and then go into the scrub oak. This is about the time when my Dad and Joshua show up. After a few minutes of discussion, my Dad points out that one of the groups had doubled back and are now heading back up the mountain. I let my horse run to try and head them off.  They all end up running right back into the scrub oak and kept running back up Center Ridge. They are gone for the day.

We decide to go back down the Left Hand Fork trail to see if we can find the first group that got away from me. We spotted three pair grazing not too far down the road. The only problem there was a steep ravine between us and them. We came up with a plan that Dad would ride his horse and pony my horse, while I would get behind the cows on foot and get them started down the canyon. Joshua and my Dad would try and find a good place to cross the ravine with the horses, and then I could get back on my horse and we would all drive them down. The plan, for once, actually worked well. We got the cows moving down the canyon. They, of course, wanted to make a game of it, taking any scenic route they could, which would mean that one of us would have to get off our horse and push them through more scrub oak. We got the three pair into the corrals late in the evening. Trying to be optimistic, I considered three cows and three calves a good trade for one pair of ripped pants, three tired horses, and three men who were full of scrapes and bruises. I like to think we came out ahead that day. 

Settlement Canyon

Settlement Canyon is where we sometimes will run our cows for summer pasture. It is also the source of great stories since we’ve been doing it for several years, and it has quite the adventurous atmosphere. We’ve gotten to know the different areas of the Canyon pretty well, and conversations about it include the interesting names of the different locations; such as Left Hand Fork, Right Hand Fork, Kennecott Road, Bear Trapp, Ski Hill, the Kelsies, and Center Ridge, to name a few. Settlement Canyon is both beautiful and haunting. It is full of all types of flora and fauna, but the most devilish is a tree commonly called scrub oak. The actual name of the tree is called Gambel Oak, which is a native species to the Oquirrh Mountains to which Settlement Canyon belongs. Scrub oak is the source of nightmares to anyone who wants to round up cows when it is nearby. It matures in height anywhere from 3-10 feet tall and grows in large clumps so close together that it could almost be called a bush. The branches are twisted and deformed, growing poky twigs in every direction. Riding a horse through it is next to impossible unless armed with a hacksaw or chainsaw. Or a machete. Or a fire torch. Just kidding. Often times, the rider will start down a cow trail, thinking that things will open up only to realize he is now stuck in a labyrinth of haunted trees and has to turn around. For all the reasons cowboys hate scrub oak, cows love it. They can easily get away from anything that is chasing them since they are lower to the ground and are made of 100% rawhide.  Once the cows know they are being told to come off the mountain, they will simply run into their favorite scrub oak patch and hide until everyone has left.

The other adventurous thing about Settlement Canyon is the steepness. Frequently, the cows can be found on top or near the dividing mountain that runs through Settlement Canyon called Center Ridge. Center Ridge is very steep and very rocky, and you guessed it, full of scrub oak. Again, the cows love it because they have become accustomed to running up and down the mountains all summer. They hold an advantage over us because they don’t have extra weight riding on their back like a horse & rider does. There have been times when I know that the cows do things to me just to play jokes. They’ll run up and down the hills, tiring my horse out, and then run into the scrub oak and laugh amongst themselves.

You’d think it wouldn’t be terribly hard to gather cows out of the canyon and herd them down to the corrals at the bottom, but you’d be surprised. Not only is there scrub oak to hide in, but the only fences that are up are the ones to prevent the cows from exiting the bottom of the canyon and heading down into the city of Tooele. Not that these fences have always stopped the cows, but they usually do their job for the most part. With no fences, the cows can go anywhere they please in the large, expansive canyon. So if those are the only fences, then what’s to stop the cows from traveling over the mountains and, say, head north east to Middle Canyon? Or head south west and cross over into Stockton? Absolutely nothing. Just a cowboy’s frail hope that the cows will stay in Settlement Canyon where they belong. Needless to say, by the end of the season, there have been times when we’ll get a phone call from someone who has spotted our cows in random locations. “You saw them where? How in the world did they get there?!” Even if the cows stay in the Canyon, there are lots of ravines, gullies, valleys, hills, and of course, scrub oak for them to hide in.

Gathering the cows in the fall usually takes several Saturdays throughout October and sometimes into November. The other cattlemen who run their cows in the canyon are very helpful; if while bringing down their own cattle they come across somebody else's, they will generally bring them down to the corrals and notify the owners. The best way to gather them is on horseback since you are covering such a large area (ATVs are not allowed in the canyon), but there are times when only someone on foot can scurry into the brush and flush the cows out of their hiding spots. We've had lots of adventures in Settlement Canyon. Stay tuned for some fun canyon cow-gathering stories!