The (all of the

Wide open spaces, spirited

horses, unbridled
weather, and three huge
meals a day. This is real
freedom-ifyou can
take it. By Tracy Young

he call of the West, like :l dog whistle

.

T pitched a\ a decibel level beyond bu-

man hc:uing, cOllies shrouded ill si-
lence. Early in the Illorning. the only
sound is the creaking of saddle leather as
yOLi pick your way along a stream where
beavers havr.: left their h:lIldiwork-
Slumps thaI look like sharpcl1l.:d pellcil:;. At
the top of a ridge, a f.1mil)' of elk poses,
Iloses in the air, moving olT when they
hear the borses blow and snort. The birds
(lee, screaming; then I.:vcrythi.l1g is quiet.
In the West, where it is possible to scm till.:
horizon and sct.: nothing but raw space for
miles anc! miks, where yOll afC ellveloped
by nature, the emptiness feels intimate.
Qut here, the image of thc-cartb-J.s-Illoth-
er i~ lJIDrC thall ;l diche. And with yom
legs around a horse. such fil;ures of speech
have 31l even more primitive power.
As Ronald Re3gan said ill 3 moment of
lucidity: "Tht:re's nOlhing betler (or the ill-
sidt'S of 3 111311 U1311 tile OL1l'iidc of a 110rsc." >

PHOTOGHAPJ-IS UY KUHT MARKUS

 The (011 of theWID
pJant.'S do not so much land 3S fall frolll the fog, w.as the valley somewhere far, fJr bt."-
sky. It also boasts some of the steepest ski low. "Why arc you hanging OlltO that
slopc:.-s in North America. Even Ihe town door handle?" my friend llIuttered, hands
proper, laid out in a square like :I Monopo- frozen to the steering wheel.
ly board, inspirt.'S fcats of endurance: out- I knew we were going to die; I just
fitting yourself, from the crown of a ncw didn't know whell. And by the time we
StCtSOll to the silver tips of a pair uf cus- pulled into Dubois, we were long overdue
tom-made boots, you call literally shop 'til for a miraclc. The miracle was that thc do-
you drop. Hut shop was open; the dowllsidc, that we
From jackson, it's usually a two-hour still had thirty miles of bad road before we
drive to Dubois, the closest lown to the rcaclu.:d Ihe ranch. Two and a half hours
nu: West WdS filII offellces IIml fecilyards 11011'.
Bitterrool. so my travding companion later. and JlmOSl too Crozcn with despair to
illl"lS croll/ded with calflraders ami jl/llft'S bro-
and I turned in carl y al the Antler Motel. notice a coyolc perform a perfect extended
kers, college boys II,/ID did,,', know tI Herrfiml
half-druggcd all a dinner of barbequed Irot across the lundra, we skidded across a
from (III AIl~llS, aud m"c1I1:rs lvllO COllllllltlt'd
ribs. At seven the next morning, as we woodell bridge, past a small corral, and
.from LOlldoll or rill' SOIlI" oj Frtlllce..:....-mltl
nosed out onto the long highway that parked in frail I Or:l low-slung and utterly
wJ/(/teller tile mOllies ol/re promised, Illere was
stretches, straight as a pin, from JacksQII unprepossessing lodgc. "l3oy-o-boy," I
l/o/lllllell c/WI/(C, ill (/ slwwdolll/l, for" IleTa (111
up to Yellowstollc, it was snowing lightly, said. banging snow from my sllcJkers. "I
(l IlOrsc-jlllll: Krmllcr, '['II(: uul COWllC))~
all occurrCllce, wc were laid, lIot unusual bet they'll be glad to scc liS."
If yOll stop to remember that the cowboy for early Scptember. Mountain weather. Mel and BaY:lrd Fox, the owners of the
t.'lIlpirc was founded on bwksSIlCSS, 011 Through the Clr windows, scencry flashed l3iuerroot Ranch, arc not Wyoming na-
rustled callie and stolen bnd. the gcntrili- by like film frames: rolling plains, clumps lives, but their rools arc as romantic and as
c;llion of the AmnicJn West becomes :l of purplish sagebrush. a cowboy in a lough as they cOllie. Mel, a weathered,
pcculi:uly Anu:ric:m tr:lgcdy, shot through bright-yellow slickcr sharp against the bo)'ishly lean blond, was raisc:.-d all her
with irOllic asides. Consider the story of graying sky. "Look at this," I crowcJ...It's family's farm in Kenya; Bayard, a dead
one old Montana ranching r."(lllily. staullch like Ihe West." ringer for the Marlboro mall except Ihat he
Ikpublic:tllS all, who lrictl growing Illari- "It is Ihe West," my TC said. doesn't smoke, grew up Ilear Philadelphia.
jU;\lI:l ill;l dCSpcTJlC attempt to pay off their And so, at IOllg last, it was. wellt to Yale and, it was whispered, had
debts, only to get caught in a squeczc play worked for the CIA. This marriage be-

I
betwecn the Mafia ;ll1d thc Feds. t is comlllon, l'm told, for people to ex- twcen alit of Afti((l :lnd G. Gordoll Liddy's
llut the myth of tile West is lllOTC pow- perience a sense of deja vu when they Will goes a long W3Y toward explaining
erful than the reality-and devoid of iro- visit the Pyramids. 11m! the S:UllC feel- why they hadn't been parlicularly worried
ny. It may be what got Reagan elected. ing that da)' in W)'Omillg. I was. I fclt about the dangers we had faced-and
Surely it is what attracts some people to wilh a deep tlll11111 of psychic satisfaction, weren't particularly impressed that we had
dude ranches. Catering to the child ill liS, home. In retrospcct it makt.'S sense that my tumed up unscathed.
that savage innocenl who is as tcnacious as blood would run backwards. My maternal "He thinks we're sissies," my friend said
allY old hand about hanging on to the past, grandparcllls came from "out Wesl," JS from beneath a mountain of covers whcn
dude rallches may be the only C.-unily they called it, from sheep Emus in Ut:lh.
spreads to survive. And years later, even aflcr they had raised
Thc Bittcrroot Hanell, however, is not :l f.1l1lily and h:ld bcconfe pillars of a tJIllC

your ordinary dude rallch. There is 110 suburban COllllllullity, if 1I0t totally assim- Some people experience
Olympic-sized swimming pool. No all- ilated by it, they still rctained a whilT of the
wcather tCllnis courts. No ninc-holc golf exotic. When) was a child, Ill)' f.worite deja Vtl wbell tbey visit
cOllrse. No hot tub. No S:UIIl:l. No video Slories were the olles my grandmother tbe Pyramids. I bad tbat
arcade with Shoot-Em-Up-Cowboys-N- told lIle, of the horse she had ridden as a
Injulls. No authelllic Old Wt:st Trading girl and of Ihc Indian who followcd her feelillg ill Wyomillg
Post selling German-silver belt buckles home one night. My prized possessiun
with your name in briat script. The Bitter- was an Indian blankct that she had traded. we had bcdded down for the night.
root Ranch, when you comc right down she said. for :l set of pencils. (Like many ") know," I said, turning out my light.
to it, h3s less in common with a traditional westerners, she was utterly direct, but And thinking what fun it would be to take
dude ranch than it does with something equally prone to tall tales.) lbyartl for a quick spin 011 the "A" train, I
more modern. say, Outward Bound. And Happily lost ill reverie, I haclll'tnoticed fell asleep.
the survival course begins thc momcnt that the snOw was f.11lillg harder, glazing Like aU good Emtasics. the myth of the
}'ou land in j3ckson Hole, Wyoming. the :lsphalt, and the road "vas curling back West is a costume drama, so thc next
Looked upon with a certain amount of and forth on ilself as we headed up the Illorning, I got up so carly it was still dark.
scorn by leathery locals who rcgard it as a Togwotee PJSS, neJrly tCll-lhousand feet cook a hot bath. and began what was to
theme park, Jackson Hole can nonethek'Ss at its summit. "These brah'S don't work at becolllc a morning ritual. Rub Aspcrcrcme
present all sorts of challenges to a visitor. It
is surrounded by moulltains-the Tetolls
10 the Wt.'St. the Absarokas to the north,
till," my friend said.
I looked OUI the bJck window just ill
time to see Ihe car behind liS spin and slam
on Ill)' kgs. Tape the insides of my knees
with moleskin. Dress: long johns. Ihermal
socks, jeans, chaps. turtleneck, vcst, jack-
I
the Gras Ventre Hange to the cast-so into tin: mountain. To our right. lost in the et. h:I(, slicker-the whole cowboy kit. ~

".
Looking like one of the Young Guns, I d:lngeroLlsly to port. underneath me.
strode off to the lodge to indulge in the What we aU soon discovered was that it Which was :l very good thing indeed.
kind ofbrcakf,1.st yOll can cat without feel- is one thing to callter flgurC eights around As we neared the uppermost ridge, the
ing guilty only WhCll you know you're in a ring, and 'Illite another altogether to fol- trail swooped gently, and the horses broke
for a long haul. low .nayard on a trail ride into the hills. "I into a canter. At the very top, tbe trail
When I got down to the end of the road, hate to go with him," Mel said in one of broke sharply to the left. Careening
I saw, a couple ofcowboys ill sweat-stained her rare confidences. "He has two around the curve, we skidded to :l hah,
chaps and dirty dusters ride out of the mist speeds-walk and all-out." inches from the overhang. We tied our
and across the wooden bridge, their dog So whcn Bayard announced, over din- horses and flopped down all the grass to
trailing after them. They dismounted, ner one night, that he was leading all aU- share sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and
hitched their horses, and :ullbkd up onto day excursion lltat would require expert Snickers bars. The dogs tumbled together
the porch, where tltey slood, shifting frolll riding ability or, lacking that, dumb deter- like clothes ill a dryer. Bayard fell asleep,
foot to foot, trying to keep thcir droopy mination, our solution, being qualified ill legs splayed, battered hat over his f,1Ce.
mustaches out of thcir corlce. neither category, was to drive part of the Spread out below us, like a Panavision
It was an ineffably romantic picture- way. The next morning my TC and I shot from a Johll Ford movie, was the val-
and something of a sartorial revelation. If loaded ollr saddles into the car trunk and ley th:lt we had traversed hours before.
real cowboys, for practic:ll reasons, make a watched the rest of the posse c1aller ofT Soon the wind carne up, making the
fetish of gear, they don't dress like folks over the bridge, ponying our horses. horses fuss at their tethers, so we checked
wcancd on ·the movies. Real cowboys, it our tack and headed home, back down
seems, don't wear Levi's, much less Gir- e arrived at the meeting pbce. We trails so steep at times our knees ached and
baud jeans; they wear Wrangler's, proba-
bly because they break in f,1.ster and don't
chafe at the scams. Real cowboys don't
wear thousand doll:lr Lucchese ostrich
boots like you buy at Dilly M:lrtin's 011
W saddled our horses and took ofT
across a pasture studded with sage-
brush, forded a swollell stream,
plunged up tile far bank, and cantered until
we reached the edge of the woods and a
we were forced to get off and lead our
horses. On level ground we made time,
stopping only to let the horses drink at the
stream; thell forging across, whipped by
gusts, we cantered f,1ster and faster, until
Madison A venue; they wear Packer boots, long trail that wound twelve-thousand feet 1 we were galloping :l crazy zigzag through
:l str-mge hybrid of work boot and cow- up the mountain. At moments, trotting the tall bushes that dotted the field. Too
boy boot that lace up the frollt, arc cheap among trees that shot a hundred feel into exhilarated tu fed terrified, I was willing to
:lnd comfortable, and were impossible to the bright air, and dappled with sunlight slow down only when we came to a thick-
find in the East ulltil Hunting World that streamed through the tangle oflcaves, et of woods alld a ragged herd of cows.
caught on. Real cowboys wear spurs- it was like riding in an enormous cathe- Our horses, many of them cow ponies,
long-shanked, rowcleu, dripping withjin- dral. At mOlllellts, mincillH aloug a trail so gave chase, crashiug through the under-
gle-bobs. And real cowboy hats look like narrow that a misstep would spell disaster, brush, leaping over logs, scattering the
something the dog used for a whelping it W:lS like riding on the edge of the earth. I cows which looked annoyed, and a bit be-
box. Only slightly chastened, I went inside figured out the essential difTercllce be- wildered by all the fllSs.
to meet the other guests. tween driving a car alld riding a horse: I By the time we end<..-d up back at ollr
Given the rugged surroulldings- had placed Illy complete trust in Lhe :lIlin1:l1 car, unsaddled the horses, and opened>
bounded on one side by the Shoshone Na-
tional ForeSt, all the other by tbe Wind
River Indian Reservation, the Bitterroot
comprises about one-hundred square
acres, thirteen gllest cabins, a main lodge,
a few out buildings, anti some corrals-
and given the f.1.ct that Mel and llayard arc
avid horsemen, the ranch tcnds to attract
two kinds of visitors: Europeans smitten
by Americana, Americans fed up with Eu-
rope. Both are serious abollt riding, but
skill is another matter. One equestricnne,
impeccably turned out in glossy dress
boots and fresh nail polish, was put off by
the bulky western s:lddle and illStructions
to keep her mount on a loose rein. "How
the hell arc you supposed to make contact
with the horse?" she said, snapping her
crop. Another guest, whom we installlly
nicknamed "Bubbles," informed us that
she had a "perfect se:lt." Which she did, by
Rubens's stal1d:lrJs. .nut her relationship to
the saddle W:lS a distant one at best. Wallg-
icy-rOtlg, walig-icy-rotlg, off she went, listing
The (oil of the wm
the door for the fat old Lab who sprawk-d at the Bitterroot a fcw years earlier. It was. "O"ce ,ll;S (01/1"'1 gets iI/side YOII alltl lakcs
out exhausted 011 the back SCJ.t, even she said, the Illost hair-raising ride she'd 'IOIel," (/ bllck/lroo remarked 1"lIife we IVt'rr
B:\yard's thirst for recklessness had been ever taken: a dead rUlI 011 a trail laid out 'rai/jug COli'S 011 /l road Clmjug tfcross ludepcu-
sated. "You're terrific," he said to Illy like the Cyclone :n Coney Island. deHU Valley, "you //lay never fit ill ''''ywhcre
friend. who had come the whole way "Don't UJ0rT)' about it." said my travel- else. "- Kurt A1arklls, Buckaroo
loaded down with call1eras. "When those ing companion as we finished packing.
guys frol11 Leo Bumcu come out here to ''1'111 not worried, exactly," I said. "I By the time our planc landed at Newark I
shoot the Marlboro ads, they don't even was, however, about to congratulate my- felt like I had died. Waiting for a cab at the
get out of their jeep... self on spending a week here without airport, my TC and I watched two thieves
brcakillg anything." run 00" with another passenger's baggage.
here's routine in every life. which is "You think too IlIlIch," she said. Back on the streets of Gn..'Cnwich Village,

T exactly what people arc ahl/3Ys tryillg

to escape, but the rhythm of the
ranch-organized ;uolll1d our basic
lH..'cds :Iud those oCthe other animals-was
about as ho-hullI, and as purifying. as
Prudence. as 1 had beell discoyering all
week, has its pbce-but Wyoming isn't
it. The next Illorning. after an unusually
light breakf.lst, we saddled up. As we rode
off, I consoled myself with the thought
still wearing my Stetsoll, I was jeered at by
a grollp of teenagers in imitation Vuiuoll
pullman-porter caps. It is always depress-
ing to be back in New York City; this
time it was cyen more so. What struck IlIC
breathing. Every day we would wake chat had comforted IIIC so lllany times be- was chat the G~1l oftne West addresscd our
shortly after dawn, and lie in bed listening sense of entitlement to the land. In New
to the horses daner down from the high York City the outdoors is the province of
pasture. Dress. Eat a huge brcakf3St: grid- the dispossessed.
dle Clkc.'S. sausage, eggs, juice, and black I bad beard all about tbe Uut the call of the West is more than
coffee. Ride allmoming. Eat a huge lunch: real-estate's siren howl; it whispers of am-
meat, vegetables, bread, salad, dessert, and
Roller Coaster-a dead bition tallled by nature; it promises so few
more cofT<.."C. Ride aLi afternoon. Stagger rull 011 a trail like tbe options [hat [he self is libcr.1ted. A few
imo the lodgc for mulled wine or co(fee. A years ago whell I returned from Egypt, I
quick nap or a hot bath. Eat a huge din-
Cyclolle at COlley Islalld was convinccd that lO continue living as I
ner: more mc.at, more vegetables, JIlorc fore: I l11:ly not know what rill doing. but had been was to be confined, crushed Ull-
bread, more salad, morc t1esserr, still my horse, Muddy, surely must. dt.:r a stack of wrong priorities. Tht.: feeling
more coffee, and maybe ;lOocher des- The Roller Coaster was about a mile f.'lded in a matter of weeks. This time it
sert. By nine it would be bedtimc aud (rolll the ranch, down a 10llg winding dirt didn't.
sleep stirred by dreams where you road, through a pasture where the year- In -r!l(, SOlllceOJOpCtI SpOCl'S, Gretel Ehr-
would pitch and rotl as if you were still lings danced over to greet us, nipping our lidl writcs: "When I am ill New York but
011 horseback. horscs 011 the flanks. thell mincing away feeling lonely for Wyoming, I look for the
Riding seven hours a day, every day, with great Aourishes ofthdr tails. We can- Marlboro ads in the subway." All wintcr I
doesn't give your muscles time to stiffcn tcrcd across the pasture 10 loosen up. It stared at those subway ads, checking the
up, and by midweek even the worst of us was a great da}'-Sulll1y, wetly warm like horst'S' tack. imagining that if I wcre back
were in some kind of physical shape. By spring-and soon we arrived at the crest in Wyoming I'd bc on my wa)' to a cattle
the wt-ck's end, our psyches had become of a series of hills and gazl'd down upon a drive instead of therapy. I read cowboy
similarly aligned. It seemed the kind of life strange moonscape of porous rock which h:llldbooks at night and bored l11y friends
that could make yOll hard-in the way rose and feU like enormous waves. with newfound lore, like how to stOp a
Georgia O'KeefTe was hard, stripped of Mel pulled up and craned around. "The stampede. ("Very useful at rush hour," a
triviality. Or hard likc my grandmother, faster the horses go," she s:lid, "the more colleague said helpfully.) By day I ordered
who had no patience for peLS because she they enjoy it." I grabbed a hank of catalogs frolll farm supplit.:rs and tack
believed that animals belonged outside, Muddy's lIlane in my left hand, the rcins shops, window-shopping pig creep feed-
but who pulled a radiator our of the w;11I to ill Illy right, and let alit a whoop, which crs alld stockmen's inselllin:itiOIl kits. illlt
rescue a struggling runt the night our dog froze in Illy mouth as we hurtled down till: it's hard to be a cowgirl in the city: whcnl
had a litter all oyer the living room. first drop, pitched at all angle so stct.:p Ill)' called to inquire about a western saddle for
Mel had a little bit of stol1l;lch was left ill the a horst.: I had decided to buy, I was told
both women in her. She lurch. Before I could draw that the nearest distributor was a punk
loved her animals in a a breath, we shot strjight boutiquc in SoHo.
straightforward way, un- up, whipped around a hair- Gne night, my traveling companion
sweetened by sentimcnt; t pin curve, plunged back and I had dinner with a young woman we
she merely toleratcd Illost down. another hairpin had met at the ranch. Looking sheepish in
pt'Ople. So I was startled tum, and right back up. her lady-lawyer drag. she speared a shrinlp
when, on our last night at Mel sat grinning at the top. and sighed. "I've been going back there for
the ranch, she suggested "That was it?" I yelled. thrt"c years now." she said. ") figured that
we might have time before "That was it." Mel said, the morc onen I went, the easier it would
we left to take a ride on the with a nim of a smile. I had be to give up. It ~.
Roller Coaster. I had heard earned my SpUTS. Now I .. And is it?" I asked.
all about the Roller Coaster was anxious 10 try it all "Nope," Shc rolled her cyes. "It gcts ~
from a friend who'd been over again. worse." mI

176