Our Heart Six cabin could not offer a more magnificent view of the Grand Tetons. Each morning I rise before the sun to position myself for the golden hour when the quality of light is optimal for photography. This morning I did a series of landscapes with the Buffalo River in the foreground and the mountains in the background. I also encountered a couple of deer that were kind enough to pose for me.
Early each morning wranglers round up the horses from their pasture and drive them up to the ranch. Normally each rider is paired with a unique horse and is not permitted to switch over the course of the week. Toad, my first horse, was limping on the second day and I was given a new mount, Big Red. On our morning ride I discovered that Red had a problem with his back. Every time we went down hill he would start bucking. While this added a measure of excitement I had not bargained on, it was also extremely unsafe (see yesterday’s comments regarding rodeo riders). Our wrangler walked Red back to the ranch and I rode his horse.
During the afternoon the boys and I participated in paintball. In the first round Nico and I were on a 5 person team pit against Kyle, Sam (the wrangler in charge of the event who played weekly and was a hard core expert) and three others. Early in the round I covertly secured high ground and positioned myself to take out both Sam and Kyle. Neither one knew I was there and I had a perfect bead on them. I opened fire on Sam missing with at least 4 shots. He turned, located me and hit me with his first paintball. Sam, however, was no match for Nicolai who climbed a tree near our base and waited patiently until he was directly below him. Sam never knew what hit him and confessed later that he had been out maneuvered. In round two I was dispatched by Sam in the first minutes when I chose to hide behind a tree which was one size too small and left 1 inch of my backside exposed. Finally in the third round I redeemed myself as the last man standing with three tags including both Kyle and Maya. I shot Kyle in the hand just after he was also hit from behind (he cried foul but war is hell). I felt bad shooting Maya but she is a sharpshooter and pelted my hideout relentlessly and was advancing with her teammate in a 2 on 1 scenario. Fortunately I hit her gun and caused her no pain. Kyle had several bruises (one shown here) which demonstrate that getting shot can be very painful.
In the evening, we took another trail ride to dinner. The wranglers felt very bad that I had received two lame horses so I was given Rocket, the best horse on the ranch. He was powerful and responded perfectly to my commands and I felt lucky to ride him for the rest of our stay.
After dinner we rode back to the ranch and were treated to a magnificent sunset. I also captured a slow shutter speed image of a couple of horses on their way back to the pasture for the evening.
