LOSTINE

If I was going to ride a horse on precipitous mountain trails, Barry Cox insisted, I should be mounted upon a Spanish mustang.

Thats why I was sitting astride Morgan.

This breed adapts to the canyons like a duck adapts to water, said the veteran horseman, a northeastern Oregon outfitter. Theyre tough. They have good feet and a quiet disposition. Perhaps most important, they have a sense of self-preservation. Theres a lot of horses that dont.

I am not a total novice on horseback, but I am far from an experienced rider. When I decided to travel by horse through the beautiful Eagle Cap Wilderness in Oregons isolated Wallowa Mountains, I wanted to be sure that I was with an experienced outfitter. Coxs Del Sol Wilderness Adventures fit the bill.

Although Cox was born and raised in upstate New York, he traveled West at the age of 16 to stay with a recently married older sister and never left. He settled in isolated Wallowa County three decades ago. He worked as a cowboy on an Imnaha Ranch for 10 years, then bought a ranch of his own near Lostine, a small community 16 miles northwest of the county seat of Enterprise. He ranched cattle for a time but eventually sold his livestock to focus entirely on his first love: horses.

Now 53, Cox breeds horses, raises horses, trains horses and sells horses. In fact, he lives and breathes horses. His clinics around Oregon and Washington, and more recently in Alaska, have earned him a reputation around the Northwest as a horse whisperer, said wrangler Nora Hawkins.

In 2002, Cox began working as an outfitter for the Millar Pack Station, a long-established regional business. Two years ago, he bought the business from owner Ed Millar. He renamed the company Del Sol after his ranchs brand, a symbolic sun; continued Millars busy calendar of hunting expeditions; and began expanding into a more tourist-oriented market.

Thats where I came in.

Eagle Caps shadow

My three-day expedition began in Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, at the Two Pan trailhead, after a 17-mile drive on a dead-end road up the Lostine River Valley from state Highway 82. Three beginning riders and I met Cox and two of his wranglers, Hawkins and Shay Mann, in the gravel parking area. We were surprised to find that trio assembling a pack string of seven horses and mules in addition to the steeds we would be riding.

We still pack up the old-style way, explained Cox, whose mild-mannered personality contrasts sharply with the stereotype of a gruff old-timer. Both he and Hawkins arrived with horse trailers from their respective ranches. They and Mann carefully estimated the weight of every personal bag and bedroll, along with tents, food and camping equipment, and tied them into blankets, spread across the ground.

Our pack horses can carry about 300 pounds each, Cox said, but if they carry that much all the time, they wont have the endurance to work an entire season. I like to limit their weight to between 50 and 60 pounds per side.

By the time we saddled up and hit the trail, we were a procession of 14 steeds. It took us a little more than three hours to negotiate the narrow 7.3-mile trail to our mountain camp. Beginning at an altitude of around 4,000 feet, we climbed through a forest of spruce, hemlock and Douglas fir to an alpine meadow where short grasses, wildflowers and stunted subalpine firs were the predominant vegetation.

Wielding an ax and a handsaw, Mann hiked swiftly ahead, accompanied by Hawkins dog, a muscular mastiff-pit bull crossbreed named Oola Lou. Mid-July was early-season for Wallowa expeditions, and vestiges of winter snowfall still clung to north-facing mountain slopes. Our sure-footed horses could handle the snow, but not necessarily the fallen timber not yet cleared by the U.S. Forest Service. Where he could, Mann cleared the trail; where he could not, he directed us through slope-side detours.

The trails here were designed for horses, and they are fairly well maintained, Cox said. And this piece of country is as pristine as anything Ive ever seen.

We set up camp around 7,500 feet, roughly the elevation of Mt. Bachelors Pine Marten Lodge. The broad meadows, small lakes and granite peaks gave the region a Sierra Nevada flavor, quite different from the Ponderosa forests and stark volcanic beauty of Central Oregons Cascades.

Above us loomed majestic Eagle Cap, crown jewel of the wilderness that bears its name. A couple of weeks later, we might have been tempted to scale the 9,572-foot mountain, whose summit is accessible by a moderately strenuous trail up its western flank, a path that requires no technical climbing skills. Enough snow remained, despite cloudless skies, that we decided not to make the attempt without snowshoes.

Cox had established a camp a few days earlier, assembling a mess tent with a couple of wranglers cots. We set up tents nearby, employed an adjacent snow bank as a cooler for beverages, and settled in for a two-night stay. Hobbled, the horses enjoyed pasturing in the meadow. Gourmet elk burgers filled our bellies in the evening. The Milky Way was a sight to behold when the sun disappeared. Only a horde of hungry mosquitoes kept the experience from being one of total perfection.

Through Lakes Basin

After a hearty pancake breakfast the following morning, we saddled up for a ride deeper into the 350,000-acre wilderness preserve. Our destination was the Lakes Basin, its 20 immaculate lakes scattered below the various high peaks on the northeastern flank of Eagle Cap. Past lovely Mirror Lake, reflecting the mountain scenery in its glistening waters, we descended to Moccasin Lake, where we dismounted to enjoy freshly made sandwiches on a picture-perfect Wallowa Mountain day.

While the beginning riders in our party complained of saddle sores or twisted knees and ankles, and were ready to return to camp, I wanted to extend my exploration of the Lakes Basin. Hawkins and I promised the rest of the party wed see them later in the afternoon as we remounted our horses and set off on our own for a ride of several additional miles … with Oola Lou close behind.

Hawkins, whose tall, slender frame is well-known throughout this part of the state, comes from pioneer stock. She can trace her family history back six generations in the Wallowa country, and she is a fourth-generation outfitter. Yet it took an exodus of several years the 27-year-old woman is a graduate of Smith College in Massachusetts to convince her that she is a country girl at heart.

My dream is to make gourmet goat cheeses on my ranch, she told me. Ive got the basic cheeses down … my next step is to make a really good blue goat cheese.

We rode past Leo, Crescent and Sunshine lakes, glimpsed a velvet-antlered buck who watched us cautiously from a rocky bluff, circled wooded Douglas Lake, then turned back toward Mirror Lake and our camp. Comfortable that I was riding well, Hawkins suggested an off-trail excursion to find a rocky slab she called the Table of the Gods. Ive only been there once, she admitted.

And that was when I really got to know Morgan, my mustang. Out here, Cox had told me, you are in a place where your life depends on these horses. As Hawkins led me across granite benches and mucky bogs, and down steep hillsides where a single false step might lead to serious injury, I learned to relax into my saddle and accept that Morgan knew exactly what he was doing. I learned to lean back, keeping my posture perpendicular to the slope on sharp downhills, and lean forward into the horse when we moved more rapidly. And I was thankful that I was astride a Spanish mustang.

I got into these horses back in 1984, when I lived in Imnaha, Cox later told me. Its really rugged canyon country there. I found that most modern breeds have a hard time coping with the rocks and terrain, and I was always in search of a tougher horse. My mustangs seem to do the best. Other breeds are higher maintenance and may get cuts or bruises. The mustangs dont even need shoes much of the time.

When Hawkins and I returned to camp, the sun was still relatively high in the sky. Mann put me to work helping with the horses for a short time, then I ducked into the mess tent to assist Hawkins, the camp cook, with dinner preparation, chopping vegetables for an elk-meat curry. Wild game is always available on a Del Sol excursion, I learned.

Sportsmens heaven

Mann, 34, grew up in Springfield and is a graduate of Southern Oregon University. He settled in Wallowa County because he is a dedicated bow hunter, and this region the Hells Canyon country as well as the Wallowa Mountains is heaven for this breed of sportsman.

It was serendipity that he should connect with Cox, for whose company he now manages client bookings and other business, including the Web site. Mann also guides many of Del Sols autumn hunting trips.

September is bow-hunting season, he said. We can take deer, elk, mountain goats, sheep and bears. Early October is rifle deer season. Late October to mid-November, we go after elk. Our spring bear hunt is also popular.

But were trying to expand our recreational packing season in July and August. We would like to show as many people as we can what this amazing country is like.

Rates for recreational trips start at $200 per person, per day, including saddle and pack horses and a cook. Hunting trips are considerably more: a minimum of $1,200 per hunter, with a minimum of three hunters.

It was well worth it. I could have spent $200 per day staying at an upscale hotel and dining in fine restaurants. And I couldnt have experienced the great alpine outdoors on this level.

Our final morning in the Eagle Cap Wilderness was a leisurely one. We enjoyed eggs Benedict and extra cups of coffee, loaded up and headed back down the East Lostine Trail shortly after midday. And Cox talked about his future.

Id like to add some programs to help youth, maybe through my church, and introduce kids to the wilderness, the outfitter said. I see so many young people lost these days. Here you have to take care of yourself in nature.

We have the ability to help other people. And thats what I want to be doing.