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Photo by Richard Menzies
Mule Country
By Richard Menzies
Even if it's your first visit, California's Owens Valley may look strangely familiar. It's where Ansel Adams shot that famous picture of a horse grazing in a Lone Pine meadow. It's where countless B-movie bad guys have sought cover behind picturesque boulders in the Alabama Hills. And it's the spot from which Russell Crowe in the film Gladiator set out on horseback for Italy in hopes of saving his wife and child from Roman hit men. Crowe got there too late, but might have fared better had his mount been a mule ‹ an animal much better suited to rugged terrain than a horse ‹ according to just about everyone you talk to around here.
"The analogy I make," says backcountry guide and muleteer Brian Berner, "is that a horse is like a Cadillac, while a mule is more like a Jeep." Mules might also be compared to trucks and tractors, which in fact they were before the advent of the internal combustion engine. Early settlers used mule teams to plow ground; loggers and miners used them to haul timber, ore, and heavy machinery. Today, mules continue to play a vital role in the Owens Valley economy, particularly during Memorial Day weekend, when as many as 50,000 mule lovers from all over descend upon Bishop (population 4,000) to celebrate the sturdy quadruped that is half horse, half donkey.
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The March/April 2003 Issue is out. Find it at Las Vegas bookstores today.
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