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 Apache Indian Cowboys Chasing Down the Last of Our Longhorn Steers Our Apache neighbors were on the Creek gathering their Hereford cattle last week. So I figured we would take advantage of having lots of good, Indian cowboys available to catch our last four steers. If anyone can rope wild cattle and drag them into trailers, it is these Apaches. They have plenty of practice with their own wild cattle. Four Apaches came to catch our steers. They caught three and tied them to trees. The fourth was last seen tearing out fences and running like a jackrabbit. We haven’t found him yet.
We had enough daylight to load two of the three in the trailer for shipping to Willcox. The third steer had to stay tied overnight. Daylight I picked up three Apaches and they managed to load the third steer. He was a big one – about 1700 lbs – and down in a rocky creek bottom to boot. It took all three horses to drag him up a steep bank and into the trailer – but they got it done.
Watching the Apaches work cattle is a real treat. They have good horses and ride like they are part of them. And they are fearless. These men will chase a steer or bull down a boulder pile on a STEEP slope and never slow their horses. When they catch a steer, they will either tie him to a tree or trip him and tie his legs like a roping calf. It is a whole different matter tying a big-horned, 1300lb steer’s legs than a 300 lb calf, but they make it look easy. I couldn’t have gotten these steers to the sale without the Indians’ help. Sure is nice to have good neighbors!
 Loading the Last Double Circle Longhorn Steer
 Last of the Double Circle Longhorn Herd The Double Circle Ranch has turned another page in its colorful history. The herd of beautiful Texas Longhorn cattle has been sold to make way for the new ranch owners’ Brangus cattle. I have nothing against Brangus, and the Bryce family has a reputation for raising the best cattle in the area, but nothing is a more wonderful sight than a herd of big, horned colorful Longhorns trailing across open country. I hope their new owners appreciate what a part longhorns have played in the history of the West.
The steers have all been sold and hauled out – except for 4 that we have in the NO Bar Trap. Those are wily critters and we have been trying to catch them for days. They are too big to rope. And they know the pens are a trap and come in to water there in the dark. Since there are no lights, we can’t see to catch them and load them after dark. We are staking out the pens and hoping to catch at least 2 steers at a time inside the gate. Then we need to load them quick – two have already jumped out once. It sounds easier to catch and load four steers than it actually is. I want them caught and hauled, but part of me sure hates to see the last ones leave.
I will miss the cattle I have spent so much time herding, but I don’t think I will miss these last four stinkers. The last cattle caught are always the difficult ones, but these take the cake. Doug and I will get them though. I just have to outwit the bovines – and that is harder to do than you might think!
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Last of the Double Circle Longhorn Herd
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The Last Cattle Drive for Double Circle Longhorns
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Longhorn Steers in Pens Ready-to-Ship
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Last of the Double Circle Texas Longhorns
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Double Circle Ranch Trophy Steers
 Wilma Ridin' Out Well, it is official – Doug and I sold the Double Circle Ranch yesterday. It is time to retire and put the ranch in the hands of younger folks. The Bryce family from Pima bought the ranch. They are several-generation cattle ranchers with good work and conservation ethics and years of experience raising Brangus cattle. Three generations of the Bryces will be here running the Circles. I look forward to watching the three youngest – rough and tumble little boys – learning to ride this country and grow into top hands.
Doug and I are keeping our cabin and acreage along Eagle Creek. And we will still have the bunkhouse for old friends to use. But the Bryces will not be doing the tourist business for a while. They want to learn the ranch, stock young cattle and get them acclimated to this country, and remodel the NO Bar house before restarting the dude ranch business. So all the programs will be put on hold for awhile. Hopefully, the programs will resume in a couple of years.
At any rate, it is a bittersweet sale for Doug and I. We are just plain tired and need to take life a little easier. Plus we want to travel – and that is pretty well impossible when you are running a ranch with no help but each other. In a way, we have the best of both worlds. We have the cabin, bunkhouse, 2 horses and our dogs. We still have 3,000,000 plus acres of national forest/primitive areas/wilderness areas to ride and we will finally have time to do that. Plus we have new neighbors – and great ones – in the Bryce family. It is a good setup for us – I sure will miss the Longhorns though.
 Tree Silhouetted at Twilight on the Ranch
 Spreading the Flow with a Media Luna We had another great erosion control workshop last weekend, instructor Craig Sponholtz of Dryland Solutions, Inc. came down from Santa Fe and volunteers came from several places. Many volunteers were repeat guests from the Tucson area. One guest was all the way from St. Louis and was riding his BMW motorcycle cross county to California. Old faces and new-it is always good to see old friends and make new friends. Plus they sure can lay down the rock structures! This workshop added to and repaired older structures as well as built new Zuni bowls, media lunas, rock rundowns and one-rock dams.
Our volunteers are a diverse group with ages spanning 5 decades and occupations from student to retiree. They may be a teacher, engineer, lawyer, social worker, musician, author, rancher, landscape designer, hydrologist, farmer or student at home, but for the weekend they are just folks working in dusty boots and leather gloves to help the environment. Doug and I are proud to host them!
Double Circle Ranch and Eagle Creek have benefited from the hours of volunteer labor here. We have gullies filling in with sediment and grass growing where it used to be bare ground. Water is being slowed and erosion lessened as water has time to infiltrate the soil. It looks better every year here at the Double Circle. We are proud of this ranch and certainly do appreciate the contributions our volunteers have made to our sustainable ranching goals.
We are also grateful to the Arizona Water Protection Fund Commissioners who funded this and past erosion control workshops here at the ranch. I think their money has been well spent- not only for the good work done here but also the work these people will do on other projects. Our volunteers will be building erosion control structures on their own land, on clients’ land, in their work designs, on family plots, AND they teach more people. It is an expanding circle of good conservation practices. Thanks to everyone – Craig, AWPF, Forest Service, Greenlee County, and all the volunteers. Doug and I are pleased to work with all of you.
 Erosion Damage Caused by the Recent Monsoons
 Plane Circling the Double Circle Airstrip to Land at the Fly-In The airstrip at the old Double Circle Headquarters on Eagle Creek had planes landing on it for the first time in years. About 27 airplanes from at least 3 states came for the fly in last month. The APA, RAF, and AOPA along with the Clifton District of Apache Sitgreaves National Forest and local ranchers teamed up to sponsor the event which was well attended – and lots of just plain FUN. What a great group of interesting people the bush pilots are. They fly to remote airstrips, camp out with their friends in the pilot community and friends they make on the ground, and help maintain the airstrips and local historical sites in the areas. They certainly work hard. Several members joined Doug and I and the Forest Service and spent two weekends before the fly in doing maintenance and clean up of the area.
The Associations hopefully plan on raising funds to restore the old lodge at the headquarters and eventually making it a community center- as it was for years in the past. The Forest Service owns the headquarters area now and is working with the pilots and locals to preserve this piece of the American West complete with stories –and graves- of outlaws, Apache attacks, rowdy cowboys, and 25,000 cattle.
Having planes fly into Eagle Creek is part of the multi-use philosophy of the Forest Service. Grazing, hiking, hunting, camping, horseback riding- and now fly in camping all are part of the plan for public enjoyment of federal lands. And you just can’t beat the scenery, history, and wildlife in this remote corner of Arizona. Plus planes can be invaluable when you are as isolated as Eagle Creek is. An open airstrip could be used to bring firefighting material and help in, used while doing wildlife surveys both on the San Carlos Reservation which borders the headquarters and on Apache Forest, injured people can be flown to the Safford hospital in minutes rather than be driven for over 2 hours. At least one former Eagle Creek resident attributes saving his life to being flown to Safford when he had a heart attack. The airstrip is a win-win scenario for all concerned.
Besides, seeing the airplanes is a real treat. From vintage to sparkling new, the planes are a beautiful sight. We are very pleased to have the pilots land and camp on our FS permit. And we certainly are pleased that the Clifton District of the Apache Forest has the foresight to reopen the airstrip and help preserve the Double Circle headquarters. Several FS employees spent lots of hours clearing and cleaning and doing the necessary paperwork to make this happen. We appreciate them. I think Doug and I can speak for the local ranchers who came to the fly in. Everyone had a great time and was glad to see the bush planes and meet the pilots. Heck- several of us even got a free sightseeing flight. Now that was fun!
 Planes Parked at the Double Circle Airstrip for the Fly-In
 Cowboy Lee Herding the Steers We had another interesting guest last month – this one all the way from Chicago. Lee drove here for a five-day ranch mini-vacation. He wanted a real-life ranch experience, not a typical dude ranch vacation. So we took him at his word and put him right to work gathering, cutting out cattle, sorting loads, and penning and loading cattle. Now gathering and shipping cattle is one of the hardest cowboy jobs on the ranch. Lee had only been horseback a couple of times in his life, so Doug and I weren’t sure he could handle the work. But we needn’t have worried. Lee is young, athletic, listens to directions, pretty darn fearless – he did fine. Of course we did mount him on good broke cowponies who knew their job.
Generally an old hand cowhorse is the way to go for a beginner cowpuncher. This time it did have one drawback. We were cutting a batch of steers off the main bunch to drive them down to a holding trap for the next days’ load. The steers decided to light out for the main herd – at a fast run. Lee was riding Flash. Now Flash has been catching steers for a lot of years. He sized up the situation and figured he could get around the steers before they joined the herd. Flash lived up to his name. He took off – Lee on board. I figured that at worst Lee would have to be picked up off the ground and at best he would just want to go back East – wrong on both counts. All I could do was holler – “Pull back on the reins” and wait to see what happened next. Lee reined ole Flash in like he had been practicing it. Flash stopped – cattle didn’t – so we had to start again. But the main thing is that the only casualty was Lee’s cowboy hat, and we finally found it, slightly dirty but in one piece, way up the pasture. If Lee was scared, he didn’t act like it. He just started gathering steers again. You would have thought he rode runaways every day.
All in all, Lee was a big help – and a good riding buddy. He never complained about long hours in the saddle. He jumped in the chutes to help Doug get the gates closed on steers that weighted 1400+ lbs and had huge horns that could skewer a grown man. He stood amazed when one of the big steers cleared an eight-foot fence and quit the pens, but Lee went right back after more steers. Lee will be back – and next time will be bringing his wife. If she is half as much fun as Lee, they will be welcome. We are looking forward to an email from Chicago.
 Lee on Horseback Lookin for Strays
 Aerial View of Eagle Creek on the Double Circle Ranch Doug and Tommy took a flight over part of the Double Circle Ranch. Doug got some interesting photographs. One of the NO Bar house, barns, dining pavilion, and tents caught my eye. But what I noticed most is how easy the country looks from the air. Those little hills and shallow ravines sure don’t look like the mountains and canyons I ride every day. Where I ride you have to let your horse blow several times going up those slopes. Some of the canyons, you kick your feet out of the stirrups in case you have to leave your horse’s back in a hurry as you slide and scramble through the rocks.
Now our rolling and level grasslands look pretty much like the airplane photos – but the rough country? It might be the same range – but my horse and I aren’t too sure about that.
 Aerial View of the NO Bar House and Wall Tents
 Mystery Bug Hey bug scholars – What the heck is this critter? I think it may be a tailless vinagaroon. It is about 2-3″ long and pretty intimidating – but not aggressive. But I wouldn’t want it crawling on me.
I tell you Eagle Creek AZ is home to lots of odd critters. And Double Circle Ranch has its full share. I came from Tennessee. I had never heard of a ring-tailed cat til I moved here and had them living in the house! I had never seen a coatimundi. The first one we saw was right beside the road. Doug stepped out of the truck to get a closer picture – and it started coming at us! It was not a happy creature. Doug decided a picture taken from inside the vehicle would be clear enough. I agreed.
Tennessee has reintroduced elk in the Great Smokey National Park and some wildlife refuges, but here we might see a whole herd from our window at the cabin. We also have seen lion, bear, antelope, deer, Javalina, turkey and lots of little critters in our yard. That just doesn’t happen often back East.
Back to the monster bug – I have gotten used to scorpions and learned to watch what I pick up and to shake out my boots. But this bug is new to me – I sure hope it doesn’t sting!
 Plane Taking off From the Double Circle Airstrip I have most of the longhorn steers gathered and together – all but 3 are accounted for. Those last 3 are doing a darn good job of hiding out – somewhere. I rode again today for about 5 hours and never found a fresh track, much less a longhorn.
We have a friend Tommy who flew his plane in to the airstrip at the historic Double Circle headquarters. He buzzed Doug’s shop, so Doug went down to visit. Tommy asked where I was and Doug said riding and hunting remnant cattle. Tommy offered to give Doug a flight and hunt for the steers from the plane. Now Doug never turns down a chance to take a flight, so off they went. They made a few circles and had just as much luck at steer spotting as I had – which was nada.
They had fun and got some good aerial photos of the Double Circle. But unless steers are in the open where you can spot them from a plane, a good horse and a good dog combined with lots of wet saddle blankets seems to be the most effective way to locate missing cattle. But it was certainly worth a try – thanks Tommy!
 Looking for Stray Cattle from the Air
 Monsoon Rainstorm on the Ranch It is August and monsoon started right on schedule – July 4th. For a few weeks, the dry Arizona rangeland becomes Kelly green with blankets of flowers in hues of yellow, red, white, pink, blue, and gold. It is breathtaking.
Most of the annual rainfall at the Double Circle comes during these monsoons. It is critical for the water table and fills creeks, dirt tanks, and rock holes. Springs get rejuvenated, forage gets a growth spurt, and wildlife and cattle get fat and sleek. We know it will dry out again soon, but today I can hear toads croaking and creeks running. It really is a beautiful world.
 Monsoon Rain Results on the Range  Wildflowers are Popping Up Everywhere on the Ranch
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