Page 81 - The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots

Author in the wilderness.

There were thrills each day, the primary ones supplied by a ghost grizzly that we never
saw but whose tracks and scat appeared fresh in new places every morning, often
overlaying our own tracks from the previous day. The presence of an animal whose strength

dwarfs one’s own is to us more reward than threat, but it’s a reminder that in wilderness
you aren’t necessarily at the top of the food chain. There’s a tingle on the back of your neck
at the first sight of fresh grizzly tracks, and we hoped to see him, but at a safe distance. At
one point the horses continually eyeballed a patch of timber to our right. They didn’t snort or
spook, but they matched our attitude of watchfulness. We proceeded carefully, but the

grizzly remained concealed.
In camp, there was good food, too much of it, and the companionship always furnished
by a good buddy and our equine friends, the horses and mules that munched the pellets we

gave them and enjoyed their turns grazing on the picket ropes. And there was time to
reflect on this book and the importance of its contents, because everywhere I looked there
was a rope of some sort, fulfilling a certain purpose, used with one of the appropriate knots
or splices.
Billy had furnished his highline, complete with commercial tree-savers. Because the

highline featured manufactured (and very handy) picket line loops made of steel, no such
loops needed to be tied into the highline itself, but I was able to use one of the metal rings
to construct a Dutchman to tighten the line. The horses and mules were tied to the highline

with lead ropes whose snaps were attached within eye splices, their ends featuring a crown
knot and back splice.
Our picket ropes were made with a heavy snap within an eye splice on one end, and a
large eye splice on the other that allowed encircling a prominent rock, lasso fashion. Our
tent was tightened with the usual guylines, and the slip-line hitch worked well, allowing