Mired Mare by Leif Videen

This article is found on page 14 in the Spring 2008 issue.

Last spring, I signed on for a riding job at one of the five Upper Green River Cattle Association's cow camps scattered across their 130,000 acres of leased open range on the Bridger Teton National Forest. For a hundred years, area ranchers have pooled their cattle and run them up there from mid-June through the end of October. And they trail them nearly 80 miles each way.

There's one rider at each of the five camps responsible for his or her allotted cattle. I took the job at The Pastures, a top-notch camp. A little log cabin with good corrals is set in the middle of a great big sagebrush bench overlooking the Wind River Mountains and sloping down toward the Green River. There are multiple creeks, springs, and ponds, and I was in charge of a handful of horses and 1,300 mother cows and yearlings ­ a cowboy's dream.