Two Poplar Bluff residents who have normally been the type of horse riders that enjoy sleeping in their beds rather than seeing sights only accessible by packing in, had their minds changed while helping a friend fulfill a bucket list item.
Gary and Ruth Garner have been all over the world seeing the sights perched on the backs of horses.
"What we do is not for the light hearted," Gary said.
Gary retired from Poplar Bluff Junior High where he served as the band director, while Ruth is also retired from teaching art in Corning, Ark.
While in the midst of planning a 35th wedding anniversary trip, the couple received a call from a friend in Tennessee with a favor to ask just two weeks before heading west.
Jimmy Hargrove suggested the two should pack in and see the Chinese Wall at Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana and accompany him with a bucket list item.
"We like our bed and camper, but he convinced us to pack in," Gary said.
The Garner's met Hargrove while in Colorado a few years ago. Gary recalled seeing Hargrove in two different locations during the six weeks they were there.
Only two weeks out from leaving on their 35th anniversary expedition focusing on Utah, the couple did not have time to order the items needed to pack in and the supplies could not be bought in Poplar Bluff.
As members of Back Country Horsemen, the horse loving community supplied the couple, along with friends, with all the items needed for their adventure.
"The community helped get us up there," Gary said.
Back Country Horsemen of America (BCHA) is a nation-wide organization that is committed to protecting the access of equestrians to public lands. The group is devoted equestrians who love to ride and explore new trails as well as assist with trail maintenance and improvement projects which keep trails clear for all user groups.
The couple's anniversary adventure included 12 stops over eight weeks beginning in July 2017. They traveled an estimated 3,000 miles from Wyoming to Montana to Idaho and back to Wyoming.
"This was our sixth year traveling West," Gary said. "We usually just go to three places, but we went to 12 this time."
The first stop was at Battlepark Campground in the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming.
"The first stop was practice with Jimmy because we had never packed away from our camper," he said.
After visiting the Chinese Wall and checking an item off his bucket list, Hargrove planned on traveling to Glacier National Park in Montana, but changed his mind at the last minute.
After Glacier, the two had not gathered much information on horse camps since their original focus was on Utah.
The couple gathers most of their information from Horse Trails and Camping Across America (HTCAA) on Facebook, where members provide information.
"It's hard to get information about these really fabulous places," Garner said. "We were in the wind."
Part of the Garner's expedition was the "randomness" he said.
They began calling restaurants and pubs because Hargrove described the camp as "behind a bar and can camp and fish for $10."
A friend of a friend was finally able to track down a campsite for the couple, which was ran by a young man who was on the National Rodeo Circuit as a bronc rider.
Not normally in the business of letting campers stay behind his restaurant, the young man enjoyed the experience and welcomed more campers with the help of the Garner's posting on the HTCAA Facebook page.
"We started talking to locals about the best places to go and recommendations," Gary said. "We enjoyed the randomness and might not travel with books anymore."
The next stop took the couple to Sherman Creek Trail and Wilderness Gateway in Idaho.
One of the best memories from the trip came from this stop with a "character" who ended up helping the Garners.
"We go out looking for characters," Gary said. "We are beginning to realize we are the characters, but we are still in search."
Not in search, but rather stumbling upon, Gary found a woman in buckskin and sandals cooking her lunch over a tripod of wooden stakes.
Clapping through the brush so not to be surprised by a bear, Gary thought he stumbled upon some type of fairy.
The woman asked Gary if he would like her to show him a better way over the creek.
After retrieving Ruth, "the navigational fairy" gave the couple directions to the Stanley Hot Spring, where they tasted pemmican, pine nuts and local berries.
Fast forward three months to October, the Garner's attended a National Wilderness Workshop in Arkansas. At the conference, they met a forest ranger who serves the region where Stanley Hot Spring is located.
"As we told our story, he interrupted when we mentioned buckskins," Gary said.
To his surprise, the forest ranger asked, "You found Fairy Carrie?"
The forest ranger had known Fairy Carrie for 20 years and validated she knew about living off the land.
"You cannot make this stuff up," Gary said. "Everything was connected."
While stopping at North Leigh Trail in Idaho, one of the horses had worn all his shoes off and was wearing Renegade hoof boots.
Just from asking locals, they were told of a man who could replace the horseshoes.
This blacksmith also happened to be a bronc rider and knew the young man in Montana from being on the same circuit.
"All these connections were all the way through our trip," Gary said. "It's just randomness."
The couple's anniversary expedition ended in late August with a stop in the Cirque de Towers in the Wind River Range in Wyoming, where the peaks are nearly 13,000 feet high.
"We were also where we could enjoy eclipse totality with two others who were one hill away," Gary said.
Armed with a traditional map and compass, the couple relies mainly on GPS and phone trackers while exploring the remote trails.
Four years ago after being lost in the dark for nearly two hours and crossing two rivers, the couple realized they needed better navigation.
"Since we do this all the time, we can see problems cropping up from a mile away," Gary said.
Chargers and generators are also in tow to keep cell phone batteries working.
"That's the third backup," he said.
Throughout the eight week adventure, the Garners were able to keep their total lodging budget to $120.
"Every place we went except one was free and one was a donation," Gary said. "We like to avoid places where you pay because of the beauty."
With the help of HTCAA on Facebook, the two were able to boondock through the west with their horses and small rig with information on where to camp and trailhead locations.
"The whole key to what we do is to have some information to keep the horses watered and places to stop," Gary said.