Bucking Horses in Baker City

I love the smell of bucking horses in the morning…

Some love napalm, others fresh sawdust, but for me, it’s the smell of bucking horses that snaps my brain’s endorphins to attention and starts a day off right. There is, however, a strong argument to be made for the smell of fresh sawdust in the morning because it usually means the stalls are clean and that the more fun aspects of life can begin. But the smell of bucking horses, once attached to one’s cilia, triggers a primal recollection of a life on a cloud, laced with adrenaline and constant adventure, that never fails to spring one’s step and brighten one’s day. 

And yes, it was this smell we smelled on the morning we pulled into Baker City, Oregon, ate a hotdog at the Maverick, and walked over to the arena where they were getting set for the next night’s bronc-riding extravaganza. Not really an extravaganza, but really a bronc-riding, with great bucking horses and great bronc-riders, and even four Wright brothers to boot!

We were on our way to Bend, Oregon – from McCall, Idaho – and wanted to stop in Baker City to see our friend Kim Barley, she of the thousand-watt smile and thousand head of sheep, but as we arrived about 60 of the sheep staged their own off-Broadway rendition of The Great Escape, and so Kim was off down I-84 with three ropes and nine dogs and a neighbor girl to help guide the way. This meant that Joy and I would get to spend an extra day in Baker City, get to see two-time world champion Cody Wright spur a few in the neck the next night, and get to smell the smell of all smells once again the following morning. 

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

 

While killing time, after showering at the local YMCA for free thanks to the empathetic young man at the front desk, Joy asked if we could go see The World’s Largest Map of the Oregon Trail. I, of course, was thoroughly stoked, but first asked if we would be able to keep our clothes on – a state of being which I had learned to not take for granted after our little hike on the way to McCall.

So we saw the map (yippee), and stopped by a little park fair where we each ate our respective favorite dinner-dishes: she, dessert, and me, pizza. And then we – wait for it – went to the library, where they sold us, for four dollars and fifty cents, four books and a foot-wide wife’s smile.

Later, we walked back to the arena and got to see Randee Munns – one of rodeo’s great barrel men and clowns – and talked with him for a while about old friends and new adventures.

 

 

We camped outside of Baker at one beautiful lake, and drove the next day to see another. Then we met up with Kim at the bronc-riding where we watched the fantastic bucking horses and riders...

...laughed at the inimitable Randee Munns...

...and inhaled the clouds plumb out of the sky.