sierra nevada | The Filson Journal

How to Pack a Mule with a Diamond Hitch & What to Bring

“May your loads ride straight” is the universal blessing packers give one another when leaving the pack station or meeting on a high mountain trail. Taking time when assembling the gear to be packed in panniers, slings, or boxes is the critical first step to ensuring the loads ride straight and to prevent possible shifting that could cause a wreck.

5 Min

woman leading a line of pack mules up the side of a mountain toward distant mountain peaks

Profiles

McGee Creek Pack Station: Sierra Nevada, California

Jen spent her teenage years doing everything she could to be at the pack station as long as possible during the season. She would figure out what schoolwork needed to get done, complete it early, and get to the pack station by late May and stay well into November until the first snow finally drove both her and the pack stock out of the wilderness. Susie not only shaped Jen’s life, but the lives of the other young women who would not have been hired as packers by other outfits. These traditional outfits would only hire women to cook or do day rides. Male owners of the eastern Sierra outfits dubbed the McGee Creek packers ‘Packerettes.’ A title worn with pride by the McGee Creek crew.

5 Min