Riders hit trail on New Year’s Day

On New Year’s Day, Wayne Darwood will saddle up his ol’ horse Blue and ride to the Garwood Saloon for some schnapps and Western fun. Bat Masterson has to haul his quarter horse Buckwheat to the party, but at least with this year’s mild weather he won’t have to dig the trailer out of the snow.

It wouldn’t be New Year’s in Garwood without the annual trail ride that attracts at least 80 horsemen to celebrate the cowboy way.

That means brushing off your horse, putting a flask or two of booze in your saddlebags and joining friends for a two-hour ride that starts and ends at the Garwood Saloon – the landmark cowboy drinking hole at the intersection of U.S. Highway 95 and Garwood Road just north of Hayden.

But some people are worried Sunday could be the last ride because improvements to Highway 95 will eventually wipe out the bar. Yet the Idaho Transportation Department is saying, “Whoa, cowboy – not so fast.”

“It’s quite a ways down the road,” ITD spokeswoman Barbra Babic said.

The transportation department plans to revamp that section of Highway 95 and it’s likely the saloon will be bought and demolished in the process. The saloon has been for sale for years but Darwood said nobody is interested in buying it because of the property’s uncertain future.

Before ITD can even consider buying the saloon property it first must finish an environmental impact statement on the proposed improvements scheduled for the 31-mile stretch of highway between Garwood and Sagle.

The state will complete the draft this spring and then have public hearings on the improvement plan. After that, the state can then start the process of determining which properties to buy. Babic estimates there are probably 600 pieces of land to look at, including the Garwood Saloon.

Darwood isn’t too worried and said the trail ride could be around for another decade. He doubts it will survive if the bar is demolished because people need a central place to congregate. And what’s better than a little saloon with a rodeo arena out back.

Masterson said his family is planning on starting a complementary neighborhood trail ride this year from their home on Bunco Road. So after they are finished with the Garwood loop, they will do a second ride in the Bunco area. Masterson, who has gone on every Garwood ride since 1978, has no idea if that notion will catch on or ever become a suitable replacement.

The Garwood trail ride started sometime in early 1970s, when Earl Magnus and his children got bored on New Year’s Day. So they saddled up the horses and rode from their Rimrock Ranch to the saloon.

“The kids had a pop and the grownups had a beer and then we went home,” Magnus said.

The next year the festivity exploded and hundreds of people attended. Over the years it became tradition for riders to take their horses inside the bar and shoot pool from horseback.

That spectacle stopped after the old bar burned and the new one was built with a concrete floor, which is too slick for horse hooves. Yet Darwood, who has co-owned the saloon since 1985, said he has let a few chosen horses come inside for a drink or two.

The party, which normally includes a chili feed and a dance, has attracted lots of media over the years, including a national news network in the late 1980s.

The ride used to go past Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations compound on Rimrock Road. Darwood said he had to change the route after some of the cowboys started taunting the white supremacist guards in the compound’s lookout towers.

“We didn’t need those kinds of problems,” Darwood said.

Today, the trail ride also has a few more rules. No children. No riding bareback or double. And the party starts at noon instead of 9 a.m. Darwood had to change the traditional morning start because people were getting too drunk to ride too early in the day. As far as he knows, riding a horse drunk isn’t against the law in Idaho.

“There’s a lot of drinking,” Darwood admitted while sitting at the wooden bar covered with brands that identify the owner of cattle and horses. He adjusted his black cowboy hat and added, “It’s an adult party.”

Masterson said he enjoys seeing old friends and the fact that people have an excuse to ride their horse in the winter.

“We don’t visit bars very often and don’t frequent that crowd,” Masterson said. “So we get to see people we haven’t seen for a long time.”

Magnus also will make an appearance this year, but he isn’t bringing his horse along to ring in 2006.

“Not that I couldn’t,” the 76-year-old cowboy quickly added.

He said the party has gotten a little too wild for his blood but that it’s still fun to visit with old friends. And most importantly, it gives horsemen something to do in the winter.

“It’s an excuse to get horses out and do something besides sit in the house and watch TV,” he said.