7-7-10 Spirit River + 2 miles West (Modified)
Mike and Sheila are camped on the ranch of Mike and Judy Ann Slocum. This is the farrier that is going to reshoe the girls. Because he wants to do it right, it’s going to delay Mike and Sheila until Friday or Saturday. He’s building shoes out of a special material that should last considerably longer.
This ranch is interesting in that years ago, this was the last fuel stop before starting over the 1800 mile Alaskan-Canadian Highway. Hard to imagine these days. They have kept the buildings and fuel tanks intact. The ranch had a sign:
Lost Arrow Ranch, Last Fill-up before the Alaskan Highway
The other thing that makes this ranch interesting is that they have killed over 2 dozen bears in the area. So Mike has put the team under a light and is keeping a close watch. Also, he is locked and loaded.
Sheila shot a snapshot of the old tanks.
This is a picture of the special shoes that are being built. The pads you see welded on are of a very hard material so that they will last.
If I got the directions right, here is a Google Earth picture of where they are staying.
Dan and Edie Harder of Spirit River say – We said goodbye to Mike and Sheila this morning, July 12, at our neighbors (Mike and Judyann Slocum). They are back on the road and hope to be in Dawson Creek in a couple days. Once again, it looks like rain clouds ahead. We had a very pleasant visit yesterday while Dan and Mike S. did some machining and welding to make a new yoke stop. They modified an old yoke stop from 1920′s or 30′s that Mike H. found on Slocums ranch.