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I think this is a story about quirkyness but it might be that the horse is correct, he believes he is a better back country trail finder than me. I was riding downstream on a trail which for some distance follows the flats of the Rocky river in Jasper National Park. The trail is marked deeply in places where the river has not torn it out, but the flow is abraded, those are few and some distance apart. We came to the inflow from the Restless river, so named I believe, because in some sections it has a large flow of water,and others low due to the water dropping into limestone drainage below surface that has washed out over years. The trail crossed the Rocky to the Restless inflow side and then crossed the Restless, but that was not at all clearly apparent. I stayed on the wrong side of the Rocky and passed the inflow from the Restless. Shortly after the trees closed in on that side of the river, the slope closed in on the other and we cam on a large tree, log jam in the river. The flow was fast, a lot of foam and roar, water surging over logs. I rode into the river a short distance gauged the depth and power of the water and turned back. Notch, my pack horse gave me a disdainful look and marched into the river, walked in much closer to the jam and had a good look, did not turn away until he was satisfied there was no way through, water surging around the pack boxes and pushing him till I feared he would be swept into the jam. Then he had a look at a steep grade on the opposite shore which showed sign of run off and a possible toe hold but it was pretty muddy with a deep drop at the bottom. I was calling out to him to come back out of there but he ignored me till he was satisfied. When he came out he had a lowered head, would not look in my direction, I swear he was embarrassed. On another trip. upstream on the same river this time, we came to a place where spring run off had gouged a deep pool at the point where the trail, worn a good foot deep into the gravel clay soil went into the river for crossing. The water had moved the gravel bed downstream about forty feet so I rode across at that point. The water was not up to my horses knees. Notch follows on his own, so he was a bit behind, the grass was nice and he was enjoying it. He saw where my horse crossed though and yet continued on to the old crossing. I tried to get him to follow where we had crossed, He looked at me, turned his back and went back down the trail, crossed the river at the last crossing and walked up on a bluff, stood waiting for us. My mare was young and did not like being left. She tried to follow and I checked her. Rather than stand she backed. That occurred twice. She was close to the river bank, the deep pool behind us. I thought of dismounting bu she tried to move out again. I checked her, she backed off the bank and struck her belly before her back feet touched bottom and we went right over backward. when i got out of the water and the mare on shore, Notch arrived> I guess he figured we were not coming with him and he should join us after all. He walked right into the deep pool, slid over and dunked he pack outfit on his right side, got his footing and tried to climb out, lost his footing and dunked the pack outfit on his left side. After renaming him several times, we rode on to the camp.
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