Memories of Epic Chief Joseph Trail Ride Never Fade for Longtime Equestrian Barbara Harp
By Dianna Troyer
The 1,170-mile Nez Perce National Historic Trail is like an old friend to central Idaho resident Barbara Harp who rode sections of it as a rite of summer for more than a decade as a participant in the epic Chief Joseph Trail Ride.
“The terrain is so beaten down in spots your stirrups scrape the edges of the trail on a tall horse,” said Harp, who lives near Mackay in the Lost River Valley.
Sponsored by the Appaloosa Horse Club, the annual ride retraces a different 100-mile section of the trail. Starting at Joseph, Oregon, the trail winds through Idaho and Wyoming before ending at the Bear Paw Battlefield in Chinook, Montana. Participants traverse a 20-mile section of the trail each day for five days.
“It takes 13 years to earn that coveted plaque showing I completed the entire route,” said Harp, who accomplished the feat from 1983 to 1998. “I rode a little mare nicknamed Shrimpie, a beautiful blanketed buckskin mare, Glory Be, and that brave, trusting and honest Baby.”
The ride is an irresistible odyssey to as many as 300 riders annually from throughout the U.S., Canada, Britain, and even New Zealand. They retrace the flight to freedom for about 800 Nez Perce who left their ancestral homeland in the Wallowa Valley of Oregon on June 5, 1877 under leadership of Chief Joseph. They planned to settle in Canada rather than be confined to a reservation in northern Idaho. The U.S. Cavalry pursued them and skirmishes and battles ensued before Chief Joseph surrendered October 5 about 40 miles south of the Canadian border.
The Appaloosa Horse Club started the ride in 1965 to recognize tribal members’ journey and the hardy Appaloosa horses they bred and depended on for hunting and travel. Participants must ride a registered Appaloosa.
The event is more than simply a trail ride. During an evening program at a pre-arranged campsite, riders learn about the National Forest or BLM management as well as Nez Perce culture and what happened at various sections of the trail during their infamous flight.
This year’s ride is scheduled August 4 to 9 in Montana from Darby to Wisdom, site of the National Big Hole Battlefield. Many riders like Harp, return year after year and consider the ride to be a reunion.
“I’ll be there at assembly camp this year to meet old friends,” Harp said. “Regrettably, it just became too arduous for me as I got older to complete the 100 or more miles in a week. Best of all are the friends you make. CJers are huggers, and there’s a lot of that at assembly camps as we greet close friends once again. Being accompanied by Nez Perce tribal members in the later years, as well as your own group you ride and camp with, made it so much more special.”
“The modern ride is far from the arduous trip the Nez Perce experienced”, Harp said. Organizers obtain permission from local landowners and federal agencies to set up new camping sites nightly with a catered dinner and breakfast and a packed lunch. Volunteers at aid stations provide pop or water during the ride.
“In the mornings, you simply saddle up and go,” Harp said. “After supper, we relax with the evening educational program, TED talks, music, and a dance floor in a gorgeous setting.”
Unforgettable scents and sights
At her home, the completion plaque is a touchstone for traversing the trail. Summer scents—as subtle as grass sprinkled with dew—summon memories of the equestrian adventure.
“What stays—bright as gold in your memory when you think of the miles of trails you’ve ridden with good horses and good friends—is pure magic!” she said. “I can walk out now, early in the morning, smell the fresh grass with dew on it and be taken right back to an early morning on the Musselshell with ground fog and a young bull moose feeding in the pond there.
Other memories linger long after the ride ends.
“You never forget the soft blowing and restless movements of the horses at first light, smell of coffee, an extra treat of huckleberries on our hot cakes courtesy of a driver who took the time to pick, knowing many people would never have tasted fresh huckleberries.”
Unforgettable Riders
“Riding with George Hatley, the father of the Appaloosa Horse Club, as well as other people who helped the Appaloosa to prominence, was great,” she said.
Another time, a rider swore there was no food in a camper that would tempt a bear. “Yet, there were a grizzly’s paw prints on the dusty back window of a pickup camper at the Hebgen Lake camp. The bear took out most of the side of that camper.”
Camping at a pond near Spirit Mountain on the edge of the Great Plains, “there were more rattlesnakes than I’ve ever seen in one spot. Some people rode in the back of a pickup to dinner because of them.”
Horses’ heroism and humor
Barbara recalls her horses’ heroism and sense of humor.
At a bridge across the Salmon River, she found riders who were frustrated because their worried horses refused to cross.
“Their horses balked, stopping the whole gang—the trail boss, physician, farrier, and 50 others,” Harp said. “I urged my 4-year-old gelding Baby through the crowd, and without hesitation, he stepped out on that bridge and led everyone across. I was so proud of him—he really showed his stuff.”
Then there was the night Barbara’s mare Spring Ground frightened her and three friends. They pitched camp well way from others at the sheep corrals east of Kilgore on the Yale Road in eastern Idaho.
“That evening a Fish and Game employee told us how a grizzly had killed 13 sheep there just the week before,” she said. “But we were tired, and it was too late to move our camp. We posted the horses close around the tent that night. We nearly had heart failure when Spring Ground decided to lie down, bulging in the side of the tent.”
Another time at the Lolo Trail, “I had to compete with Baby to be the first to eat huckleberries on the biggest tallest bushes.”
During summer, countless memories beckon Barbara back to certain segments of the Chief Joseph Trail Ride.
“Oh, yes, indeed—the memories made on the CJ become a part of anyone who rides it,” she said. “It’s magic!” MSN
