Category: Port Angeles

Clallam County Rodeo – Bareback Riding

Here’s another of those “Guy Thing” rodeo activities, an eight second ride on the back of an uncooperative horse and a surefire way to need a chiropractor. The cowboy must hold onto the leather and rawhide rigging with only one hand and keep his feet in the correct position when the horse hits the ground as it bounds out of a chute. The rider is disqualified if he touches his equipment, himself, or the horse with his free hand.

Another rider stays nearby during the ride and helps the bareback rider off the bucking horse at the end of his ride, which in itself qualifies as a mighty feat in my book. The riding is beautiful and skilled.

Clallam County Rodeo – Bull Riding

This is an event that I can only classify as “It’s a Guy Thing,” riding an angry bull barebacked.  The rider tries to remain forward or “over his hand” at all times; leaning back can result in getting him whipped forward and back when the bull bucks.

The bull doesn’t cooperate and the rides are quick. Most of the riders at the Sunday Rodeo were off in less than 7 seconds.

Riders try to fall away from the bull’s line of sight so it doesn’t come after him. I was surprised that this fellow was able to get up, dust himself off, and walk away. Notice the two men on each side of the photo, in yellow and in red. They’re rodeo clowns.

The rodeo clowns are there to distract the bull, keep it away from fallen riders. If they’re successful they can truly be in harm’s way. They were in constant movement during the bull riding event. One clown had to jump a fence to escape a particularly annoyed bull.

Shannon, I think this is why everyone warned you away from petting that beautiful bull whose picture you posted some months ago!

Clallam County Rodeo – Barrel Racing

The cowboys and -girls who participate in rodeos give us a glimpse of the beauty of horse and human partnerships when they ride — in both riding events and in watching the support riders as they follow participants in events like bareback and bull riding.  The horses and riders are an elegant team that we don’t often get to see in this kind of action. In barrel racing riders and horses race full speed in a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels and then sprint out of the arena.  

Barrel racing is performed on American Quarter Horses. Riders trip an electronic eye as they enter and leave the arena, so the race is fast from start to finish. This race lasted just over 17 seconds.

The horses are well trained and it’s fascinating to see their focus mirror that of their riders as they go through their paces in the race.

The Clallam County Fair offers a rodeo on two different days. Tomorrow: Bull Riding.

Clallam County Fair

The Clallam County Fair in Port Angeles was Aug. 18-21. It was blessed by perfect weather and had many typical county fair events and offerings: animal shows, demonstrations, entertainment, and everyone’s favorite: fair food!  The 4-H kids prepared outstanding exhibits and readily answered questions about their exhibits and animal husbandry.

What’s a fair without a carnival?

Fair carnivals specialize in bright colors, lights, and plenty of action. The Clallam County Fair also hosted a Demo Derby. . .gosh. . . we left too early and missed that.

The County Fair was declared a success. Attendance, gate receipts, concession, and carnival proceeds were all up over last year. And a new event, the Clallam County Variety and Talent Show was a first time hit with a 68 year-old woman yodeler in a pink cowboy hat taking top honors.

Tomorrow I’ll post photos from the Rodeo. To see more Fair photos also check out the Port Angeles Daily Photo: http://portangelesdailyphoto.blogspot.com/.

Hurricane Ridge

A trip to this area is not complete without going to Hurricane Ridge.  It is located 17 miles south out of Port Angeles (which is about 15 miles from Sequim).  You’ll definitely need good brakes coming down because it’s a pretty steep, winding road down but it’s a beautiful place, so peaceful and lots to take in.  I’ve seen bear, deer and other animals on the drive there and back.

My husband took these photos yesterday.  We took a trip up in the fall too, you can see those pictures here. I’ll post some more tomorrow.

Wet walk

This forest trail starts at the Heart O’the Hills campground heading up to Hurricane Ridge.  We pulled into the campground last weekend after coming down from the Ridge and saw the trail and wanted to go explore but I told my husband dogs aren’t allowed and he said sure they are and we get going on the trail and there is the no pets allowed sign.  So we take them back to the truck and we walked the trail for about 30 minutes or so because I didn’t want to leave them in the truck long.  There are many trails around here we haven’t explored yet because of the no dogs rule.  It’s more fun taking the dogs with us so we always say we’ll come back to them but then when it gets time to venture out again, we pick one where we can take the dogs with us.  This trail I do want to go back and walk.  It’s only 4 miles round trip and the old growth setting is awesome.