Since T-dub is in AZ getting faster i decided rather than stay at home eating myself back to Cat 5 racing form i would go with the suburban cowboy and his family down to the Baker to see Trigger and his family where i would eat myself back to Cat 5 racing form. Hanging out with Trigger and the SC i pretty easily ate enough to solidify my holiday weight gain to put my solidly in the clydesdale class for next racing season. Unfortunately they don't actually have a clydesdale class for road racing, and as the artist will happily attest, i'm far too chicken shit to amount to much of a mtb racer, so i'm not quite sure what i'm going to do. But i digress, the real story here is about my time at the Baker looking for a bull that i'm not even sure really exists.
Trigger told the SC and I on Christmas that he had to find a bull that hadn't come down off the mountain and wanted us to come down over new years and help him see if he could find it, and then we could celebrate new years out in the the pristine, clean air of central utah. Knowing that T-dub would be in AZ over new years i agreed to go. I always enjoy playing cowboy too and the Baker is situated right in the middle of God's country, so Trigger didn't have to twist my arm too much. The SC had a "board meeting" he had to attend the day we were supposed to leave, so we spent most of the day waiting for him to finish up, then finally got on the road around 4:00 (ok, the SC might have actually finished around 2:30 and i was trying to finish some time on the bike trainer before we left knowing the feasting that was going to take place, so i delayed us the last hour and a half). We rolled into Emery around 7:00 and Reggie fixed us up with some delicious pork taco salads.
The next morning we got up early to help Trigger with his chores so we could head down to the Baker, and i was greeted by Dally's new litter of pups.
I picked the one that i want and sent a pic to T-dub to see if she approved (under the condition of course, that the puppy stay on the ranch with Trigger and he train her to work cattle).
Then we went and helped Trigger feed the mares.
With the mares fed and the rest of the chores done we loaded up the horses and kids and headed south for the Baker. We only got stuck once briefly in a snow drift, but managed most of the way without much incident. As soon as we got there we saddled up the horses and went out to look for this bull who was supposedly still up on the plateau. Trigger thought he had a good idea of where we was, so we started our search working our way down one of the slot canyons just north of the ranch.
We rode down the canyon till it dropped off a shelf a good 50 feet, then worked our way out of the canyon up to the the top of the plateau where we continued our search for the bull under all the junipers. He wasn't there either. Eventually we stopped and had some lunch then made our way past "lollipop" and "penis" rocks (unfortunately i don't have a pic of either of these since my camera battery died in the cold), and back to the ranch. We never did find that bull, but we got a good ride through some beautiful country. The view from the edge of the plateau out over the desert with Solomon's temple to the left and the Henry Mountains off on the far horizon was incredible. You forget how amazing clean air is when you live in a valley full of smog all winter.
You may have noticed that i mostly have pics of Trigger, and not many pics of the SC. There is a reason for that. Trigger forbade me from taking pics of the SC. You see, the SC was wearing a hat that kind of looked like someone had caught one of those sockmonkey puppets and skinned it then turned it into a beanie. Trigger was adamant that no pic of anyone wearing such a thing riding his prize horse, Boonwhite Dancer, be made public. In fact, you'll notice in the above pic of the SC on Boon, the SC is actually wearing Trigger's hat. But i did manage to sneak this photo of the SC in his glorious ode to suburban fashion.
If there was any doubt about the appropriateness of the suburban cowboy's moniker left after my previous post about our adventures with Trigger, this fashion statement will surely lay those to rest (as did the results of the poll taken after that adventure where you, the majority, overwhelmingly voted to call him the suburban cowboy, which is clearly confirmed by his most recent wardrobe choice). The great irony of this (there is always some irony when the suburban cowboy is involved), is that on our way back to SLC, as soon as we hit Nephi, the suburban cowboy insisted i take my cowboy hat off the dashboard were i had set it so i could put my head back, and wear it until we got to SLC. Even though he had worn a skinned monkey sockpuppet on his head all day the previous day, once we were back to the "suburbs" and in the presence of other humans, he insisted we wear our hats lest others think we were just posers driving that "King Ranch" special edition Ford F-150.As for the rest of New Years, we had a great time playing cards . . .
and brought in the new year by pounding the Martinelli's apple cider.
The next morning we got up to another great, crisp, clear sunrise. . .
Then we went outside to watch Trigger kill some things before we left.
He says if he doesn't kill the rabbits they'll eat his hay. i think he just likes an excuse to shoot anything he can; that's a pretty small bunny and an awful lot of hay.
Happy New Year!!! We missed Willy, aka "Jim Craig" who unfortunately had to pass New Years shopping with the girls in Vegas.
