Packing Concrete in the Rockies with Mules

[J-L]

Great picture. When you know what to look for you can see that the packers know their stuff. When the loads are well balanced and the hitches on right it’s not so bad. When you have to stop and adjust too many times it makes you learn your job better. Especially when you are on trails like that.
I don’t know if everyone realizes how much work goes into it for the guy’s pulling that big pack string. They do more work in a day just taking care of animals and pitching camp than most ordinary folks do in a day. Add packing that many animals on top of it and it’s a days work for sure.
I love pack trips and packing in the wild country like that. The most I’ve led was 8. When your mules learn their jobs they are wonderful pack animals and I think they excell at it more than a horse personally.
Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[Jim Garvin]

Don’t want to continue to “split hairs” on the concrete definition, but concrete is actually the finished product of mixing cement, aggregate and water. That was the basis of my original question about what was done to keep the concrete from setting up during the mule transportation process. They probably packed the cement and aggregate to the site using the mules and added the water (and mixed it) when it arrived on scene.

Geoff….you are correct in stating that Death Valley has a lot to offer (ie, Devil’s Golf Course, Dante’s Palette, old beehive charcoal kilns). Here are pictures I took of each place you described…..

The other interesting aspect of our visit to Death Valley was the annual running of the Badwater Ultra-Marathon. It goes from the lowest point in the continental US (Badwater Basin in Death Valley) to the highest elevation in the continental US (Mount Whitney). I don’t know the actual distance off hand, but it’s well over 100 miles, and they run it in July!!! I’ve also attached a picture of the temperature recorded on my truck’s outside gauge….not the kind of conditions I’d want to exercise in!!!

[Robernson]

@Carl Russell 23434 wrote:

just contracts with USFS to pack materials in.

Carl

Now who wouldn’t want that job?!?
Well that is my ideal situation, mules and scenery; what more could one ask for?

~~R

[LStone]

Not trying to discourage you here Rob, but stay in school and work for that kind of job. Hindsight is always 20/20 and in life you don’t get too many do overs. The mules and the scenery will be better lived and appreciated well earned my friend. When you get there, live the heck out of it.

Larry

[Carl Russell]

Tim is a lifelong friend of mine. He left college in 1980, and headed to Colorado, bought a couple of Appys and started pushing the back country. He took a training program in outfitting during the 80’s and started working for an outfitter in Durango 25 years ago.

He has done nothing else since then, and has developed skills and reputation that have put him near the top of his trade. The job with the USFS is a summer contract that keeps him doing what he wants year-round. He runs Estes Park Outfitters and leads Elk hunts from September- January.

Rob, if this is what you want to do, it will take a lot of work, and more ambition. I’m sure you can come up with it. Just don’t expect the job to be advertised somewhere…. you’ll probably have to make it happen.

If you want his contact info, let me know….

I was just reviewing a video the other day of he and I hunting Elk in the Pudre Canyon in 1995. When he sent it to me he included a clip of him running a string of 8 mules along a winding trail with straight down drop-off 100 feet to the river below. Riding hold the video camera over his head filming himself speaking into the lens and panning over the following mules snaking along behind him with the deep gorge as back-drop. He says “Don’t try this at home”.

Carl

[Robernson]

Hold it, hold it!!

That was more just a day dream there guys. Granted it would be a really neat job, Vet school is still in the future. Thanks though for your kind advice!

~~R

[CharlyBonifaz]

Vet school is still in the future

😀 pretty good alternative
but then I always kept plan B in the drawer 😉

panning over the following mules snaking along behind him with the deep gorge as back-drop. He says “Don’t try this at home”.

I wouldn’t dare, here is no gorge in sight that keeps those mules aligned…..

[Author]

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