THE COWBOY WAY

Driving 320 head of cattle on a crisp December day. (Photo/LINDA HILDERMAN).

Rochelle Danielson

For The Observer

Every day of every year, Todd Nash lives a life many can only dream about — riding horses and herding cows and doing things the cowboy way.

Nash is the manager of the Marr Flat Cattle Company. He oversees 450 head of cattle in the Wallowa valley near Joseph, the hills of Crow Creek and the benches of Big Sheep country.

Riding, roping and rounding up cows is what the 43-year-old cowboy always wanted to do. From the day he was born his life centered on horses and

livestock.

He wore cowboy boots before he could walk, rode a burro on mountain trails at age four and was groomed for 4-H long before he became eligible to join. His natural eye for good livestock earned him blue ribbons at the county fairs and also a place on the FFA judging team at Enterprise High School.

After graduating from Linn Benton Community College where he earned an associate degree in animal science, Nash returned home to Wallowa County. He wanted to find a ranch he could work on and earn a cowboy's pay, but it took him a few years.

He tried logging and sawmill work before he found his cowboy dream — riding for the Don Buhler Ranch.

"But there's more to the job than just riding," he says with a chuckle. "You can't be on a horse all the time."

During feeding and calving on the old Snyder Place, Nash rarely sees a horse. He's either flaking off hay to the herd from the back of a tractor-trailer outfit, or driving his rig checking momma cows. He enjoys the everyday feeding and chores. And even though during calving season he grows weary of the cold and sleepless nights spent in his camp trailer, he says it's worth it if he can help a heifer or save a calf.

Springtime is branding, ear-marking, doctoring and tending to the 70 head of registered Gelbvieh housed at the Buhler Ranch. It's also the time for sorting and grouping cattle in preparation for the 30-mile, three-day cattle drive to Big Sheep Creek.

Once the mid-April drive is completed, and the 320 cow-and-calf pairs are at the Buhler feed lot in the canyon, Nash begins to graze the herd over thousands of acres of stock range, both public and private. From Indian Grave and Muley Creek to Dead Horse Ridge, and from Timber Creek to Marr Flat, the cattle feed for 2 1⁄2 months. They graze another four months at Marr Flat.

In October, the calves are separated and trucked from the Marr Flat corrals to the valley where they're sold.

On Nov. 1, Nash moves the momma cows off Arnold Ridge to where they take two months to graze their way north through the Upper and Lower Sheep Breaks back to the mouth of the canyon.

Ride along on one of Todd Nash's daily trips to Big Sheep to "bump" cows.

As you leave the valley at 7 on a clear wintery morning, the view of the snow-covered Wallowa Mountains and the Seven Devils will leave you weak-kneed, and if that doesn't do it the roller-coaster ride up Rail Canyon, across the divide and down Coyote into Big Sheep Creek will do the trick.

While you're holding the rig's door handle in a death-grip, prepared to jump, you'll marvel at how this cowpoke maneuvers the truck and horse trailer on the steep, slippery road while his four border collies — Jiggs, Jill, Pete and Rudy — dance from one side of the flatbed to the other.

Arriving at the bottom of Coyote, Todd parks his outfit and prepares to ride.

Bundled in layers and wearing chaps, Todd throws his leg over his young, "green" quarter horse, Albert. As he rides through the deserted Hank Bird place, he urges the gelding through a muddy bog and across a wooden bridge. Todd doesn't yell, cuss or kick, and Albert cautiously steps forward. With that, horse and rider proceed down-country on the frozen cow trail next to the fenced creek.

Running ahead, the dogs spot cows in the willows and alder on the opposite bank. At Todd's command, "way around," three collies swiftly splash through the water, circle the cows and turn them.

Jiggs, the oldest of the four, stays back and watches.

"He's a little crippled," Todd says, "but he's done his share in the past 11 years.

"Jiggs delivered cows to me when the fog was so dense I couldn't see two feet ahead, and another time he rounded up two cow elk and brought them back."

As more stragglers are spotted high on the steep slope, the canine threesome disappear and 15 minutes later return with the cows.

"That's good," says Todd, and the invaluable dogs quit working the cows and lie down.

Nash dismounts and on foot leads his horse while checking a few smaller draws for strays. Then, with ease, he swings back into the saddle and heads south into the faded light of the darkening canyon.

Ride along on a cattle drive. You won't be headed for Dodge City, nor will you be offered freshly baked biscuits or a bed under the stars, but you'll be riding with an easy-going trail boss, friendly drovers and some mighty nice neighbors.

"Taking the cows back to the valley goes smoothly," Todd explains. "Most of the them have made the trip before." He pauses, and with a subtle laugh he adds, "That's a good thing — not too many people want to be out on a horse driving cows in the middle of the winter."

Angie, Todd's wife who works at the Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness, rides with him on the drives, rain or shine, in heat or cold.

The cattle drive begins at the mouth of Big Sheep. The cows crowd one another until they reach the "hay-baited" bridge leading to the Imnaha Highway. Once on the asphalt the slow-movers follow a hay-loaded flatbed and are trailed by three riders who look as cold as the ice-covered creek.

"We move the cows 10 miles to Brushy on the Duane Voss place," Angie says. "As soon as the cows are bedded down we go home.''

The following day the drive continues through Hayden Canyon and tops out on Tenderfoot Valley Road. The cows spend the second night corralled and fed at the Doug Tippett Ranch.

The final day brings the herd home to the Snyder place, now called Mount Joseph Cattle Company where they're fed hay until early spring.

Todd looks forward to a new year and the birth of new baby calves, but for now he is happy and content feeding cows and living life doing things the cowboy way.