Both of us were born and raised on small family ranches, 3rd generation natives, in eastern Wyoming. There were the four kids in Mike's family, with a fifth younger brother coming along later; Bobbi’s family had four kids. For both of us, the ranches we lived on were a family operation, with no hired men to do the work. All of us grew up doing all the things that grown men did before the big ranches changed and became family ranches. We spent our youth working at trailing and branding cattle, training colts, riding and exploring the many natural and historic features of our home country. Bobbi lived on a couple of ranches along the banks of Rawhide Creek; one outfit was located at the site of the Rawhide Stage Station of the Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage Line. She grew up riding the “bronc” saddle she still uses, which also was used by her brother and his team of wild horse racers, to win the event at Cheyenne Frontier Days several years running.
Mike was raised on the open prairies, at a place called Prairie Center to be exact. He and his Cowboy buddies made many drives of cattle over 60 miles from the prairie to higher elevation summer pastures, riding young horses and camping at one of Wild Bill Hickok’s favorite spots along Rawhide Creek. Both our dads had worked for many years on different old-time ranches north of Lingle, Wyoming as Cowboys (I can remember that they still used the chuckwagon during branding in the spring, when I was only a year or so old, early '60's). They later both became ranchers on their own places, but they are still Cowboys more than anything else. So, we were raised in the true "Cowboy tradition" of eastern Wyoming, just a few miles from the Texas Trail and the Pony Express Trail.
We both worked cattle horseback from the time we were about 5 years old and put in long days Cowboyin’, building fence, haying, irrigating and feeding in the winter, around school and activities, while growing up. After graduating high school, Mike started guiding hunters in 1977, in the Teton Wilderness north of Jackson, and also worked extensively as a packer and horse wrangler during those years. He always had an intense interest in wildlife, guns, hunting, trapping, horses and wild country and we often said he had been born a hundred years later than he should have been. After we were married in 1979, we both spent the next 10+ years packing all over the Teton Wilderness and other areas of Wyoming, taking guests on pack trips and into hunting camps.
Bobbi started as a cook's helper on pack trips and learned to pack mules that first year, then went with Mike back into a wilderness elk hunting camp, 56 miles horseback from the road and worked as camp cook and horse wrangler. We chose outfitting as the industry to build our careers in, learning the trade from the ground up. After about 20 years or so of working for others and running our own hunting business, the time came to make a change that would bring us back closer to our heritage and High Wild & Lonesome Cowboy Adventures was born.
Our long and varied career has taught us that the best approach to a successful and enjoyable horseback adventure vacation for all our guests requires a handful of simple, straightforward things. Those things are to provide an active, hands-on horseback experience for small groups of people, quality ranch-style Quarter Horses to ride, remote locations that put folks in the heart of the real “wide-open spaces” and a comfortable yet genuine western camp atmosphere. These features provide every guest with the individual attention they deserve and appreciate.
We have both lived a very adventurous life and in spite of coming from a background that was very isolated and sheltered from the mainstream, (or as we joke, we were raised "at the head of the creek") somewhere along the line we knew we wanted to share the best things about the Cowboy way, as we knew and believed them to be, with people who had a sincere interest in experiencing what for us is a life, and a very good life at that.
And now, our daughters Amanda and Emily work with us to share a little part of that life with you. It is our belief that High Wild & Lonesome is a genuine reflection of what we have lived and what we envision. There is always an open invitation to you to pull your cinch, catch a stirrup and ride with us across these wild, wide-open spaces we call home.
