Shane was a strong, sure-footed horse, about 20 years old, raised in Texas. He had plenty of ideas about how an excursion into the Eastern Sierra should go, especially the grazing and drinking between meals.
I had different ideas, and the reins. Occasionally, there was friction.
But for four days in late June, we were a team clambering up switchback trails and crossing creeks full of rushing water that had surely been snow the day before.
Together, as part of a pack trip that began north of Bishop, Calif., at Rock Creek Pack Station, we threaded through forests of lodgepole pine and quaking aspen into a world of jutting peaks, clear lakes, clean air, gullible trout and a few mosquitoes.
I'd never felt so close to this rugged, pristine high country.
Pack stations, which spend their summers sending travelers into the wilderness with horses and mules, are in many ways a throwback to the 19th century. But a dozen still have licenses to operate in the Eastern Sierra's Inyo National Forest.
The big melt of last winter's massive snowfall has made their summer of 2017 a delicate enterprise. Though the peaks are snowier and the scenery is greener than they have been in years, the storms damaged many roads and trails.
But all or nearly all of the Eastern Sierra's pack-animal operations are open, including Frontier Pack Train at June Lake, Glacier Pack Train in Big Pine, Cottonwood Pack Station in Independence, Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit in Mammoth Lakes, McGee Creek Pack Station at Crowley Lake, Rainbow Pack Outfitters near Bishop and Red's Meadow Resort & Pack Station in Mammoth Lakes.
"Some of us were a little late getting open, but they're open now," said John Summers, owner of Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit.
