[ music playing ] GILFILLAN: Rising from the high desert of northeastern Oregon are the Wallowa Mountains.

Unlike the Cascade volcanoes, these are ancient uplift mountains like the Alps or the Rockies.

WOMAN: The granite mountains are just massive and they're exposed.

There's a lot of ridges, and then these soft meadows in between.

It's beautiful on its own, but it does hold memories as well.

In the early 20th century, this rugged landscape was a haven for an equally rugged group of horsewomen known as the Hen Party.

WOMAN: It was this group of women who struck out on their own.

There were no men involved.

Then, as now, navigating this terrain is challenging.

[ horse whinnies ] WOMAN: Come on.

One of the women wrote about encountering a very steep trail and questioning whether or not the horses can do it.

And our grandmother Jean just says, "Buckle up, girls.

You're going to do this."

[ wind whistling ] On this summer day in 2023, descendants of the original Hen Party are headed back into the Wallowas.

WOMAN: This is all of the food for the whole week.

We're not going to starve.

[ chuckles ] But unlike their ancestors, these women will have the help of professional outfitters.

We've been waiting for this for several months and, for me, for years.

So I'm very excited.

Sharon's been here many times over her 80 years, but this trip is not beginning quite as she'd hoped.

It's already starting to rain.

[ music playing ] SHARON: The weather was concerning.

And then there's a part of me that says, "It is what it is, I'm going to get wet."

And indeed, that is exactly what happened.

[ laughs ] Sharon's daughter Jeanie is having second thoughts about even accepting the invitation.

I originally turned it down because I knew that this would be a hard trip.

So riding up the trail in a downpour with mud and slippery rocks and precipices did not help my nerves or my anxiety.

After four hours on the trail... MAN: Hey, sun's coming out!

...the riders finally make it to camp, only to find another unpleasant surprise.

We go to pull out our stuff, and that's when I realize that things are wet.

-Trying to dry everything.

-Yeah.

[ woman laughs ] WOMAN: I mean, this isn't new, having thunderstorms in the summer.

No.

They just hung tarps up between trees and, yeah.

-No tents.

-But there's no... JEANIE: But what happened when all of their stuff got wet and they were cold?

WOMAN: They had to dry it out like we're drying it out.

Yeah, but how did they get through the night?

-Like, weren't they cold?

-I don't know.

[ blows ] SHARON: It was part of the experience.

The dogs settled in between them.

And I had this image of them staying dry in wet weather.

[ music playing ] The Hen Party made trips into the wilderness for some 30 years under the unflappable leadership of La Grande resident Jean Birnie.

Jean invited people that she thought could be independent and handle their own with horse, and it's just amazing how much grit they had, really.

WOMAN: Grandmother was stoic, she didn't glorify.

You have to come in here and let nature be itself.

You can't change it, you can't make it what you want it to be.

I think to myself so often when I get into a bind of any sort, "What would Grandmother do?

And how would she work through that problem?"

And a lot of it is to look at something grander than who you are, you know, and let it happen.

Okay, let's put it in some sort of chronological order.

Jean's granddaughters, Sharon, Sally, and Melissa, inherited the Hen Party archives.

Oh, she just so looks in her element there, doesn't she?

Mm-hmm.

The Hen Party is a group of women who decided that they wanted to go into the mountains on horseback by themselves.

We think it started around the late '20s, and there were between eight and ten members each time.

I think it was very unusual.

It was like being cowgirls, is what I look at it as.

I do have a picture that there was a Hen Party that went in in 1933.

Jean is right there.

Jean was the "captain" of the Hen Party.

She was the one who was the instigator of pulling together these women and planning to go into the mountains.

SHARON: She chose her participants carefully.

You had to be able to carry your weight, and I think literally carry your weight.

It required a lot, and many of them were getting the experience and being educated for the first time.

Gerda Brownton was invited to join the Hen Party in 1940, but first she had to prove she could handle the rigors of the trip.

Jean and those people who had been going for years pretty much were the jury.

And so if you could ride a horse up the steep hill and down the steep hill, if you passed that test and they liked you, why, then you could go.

Here is a picture of our mother.

The Hen Party has always been a part of our family story.

I think I have a longing for that experience that the Hen Party had, and I can imagine what it's like, and so we really want our children involved in it too.

[ playing softly ] Love this song.

[singing] Mama, she raised me On horseback Lusting and dancing Under the moon... At night, Hen Party women would sing around the campfire and record their adventures in journals, collectively known as the "Log of the Ladies."

This is the "Log of the Ladies, 1933-1934."

Okay, so it says, "Dedicated to the charter members of Royal Mountaineers, initiates of moist, misty mornings, sun-drenched days, silent nights, and green, growing things."

-WOMAN: I love that.

-I love that.

That's wonderful.

There was one member of the party, Mima McGuire, who was very poetic.

And she captured many of their experiences in poetry.

WOMAN: "Where you ride a-top o' mountains and can see for miles around, when your eyes meet naught but wildness and the silence seems like sound, I tell you there's some ridin' that would make a faint heart quail.

When you drop to Swamp Lakes Basin down a perpen dic'lar trail."

[ women laughing ] -WOMAN: I know, it's great.

-I love that.

See what I mean?

You're a good mom.

[ wind whistling ] [ horse bell ringing ] [ music playing ] Early Hen Parties would start their adventure way over in La Grande, riding almost 20 miles through the Grand Ronde Valley to Cove... And then into the Minam River drainage, the gateway to the Wallowas.

For as long as two weeks, they'd traverse the ridgelines, camp in meadows, and explore what's known as the Lakes Basin, home to a score of high mountain lakes and iconic peaks.

At its center stands Eagle Cap, the rock hub of the Wallowas.

I have not been there.

That is one of my dreams, is to be able to reach the top of Eagle Cap.

But today, the riders have more modest plans.

SHARON: Okay, so we're over here somewhere, and it's not too far to the Matterhorn, and the Matterhorn is where I think we should go today.

[ saddle jangles, women chattering ] [ music playing ] For many Hen Parties, a trip to the massive limestone and marble peak known as the Matterhorn was a highlight.

JEANIE: "A pause on the top of the saddle to enjoy the awful grandeur, and soon we were on our way down.

Mossy banks, velvety flowers, meandering little streams... patch after patch of blue gentian, and soon, the Matterhorn.

Finally, we were face to face with it in all its glory."

[ horse neighs ] Extra pink.

A shooting star.

In her elder years, Jean's reflections on nature found their way into a speech she gave to her women's club.

SALLY: "Your feelings for the beautiful become so sensitive when you are out of doors that before a certain mountain spot that you have learned to love, you could almost fall down and worship, and perhaps that is what you should do.

Coming to grips with the good earth and its growing life is a poignant thing and develops in you wisdom and tolerance.

That is, if you stop and listen."

[ bird cawing ] Among the many women of the Hen Party, one of the most important likely never went.

-There's Grace.

Look at that.

-Mm-hmm.

MELISSA: The Hen Party I don't think would be what it is without Grace.

[ music playing ] Grace and Jean were both born in the Grand Ronde Valley in 1885, just a few months apart.

They were really close childhood friends, always played together, rode horses together, just lifelong friends.

The girls grew up and, like most women of their generation, became wives and mothers.

Jean had a son and Grace had three children, including Martha, who would become Melissa, Sharon, and Sally's mother.

Despite these responsibilities, or maybe because of them, the two friends never stopped longing for the mountains.

A few years back, Melissa's cousin Jessica compiled a memoir from Jean and Grace's lifetime of correspondence.

Really, it was her letters that just really brought it alive.

Yeah.

They were always kind of conniving to do stuff that wasn't real respectable.

[ laughs ] You know, they basically told their husbands they were going to go horsebacking in the mountains and they didn't need the men.

They were really pushing their limits.

MELISSA: Incredible.

It was a time when women really did have to do what their husbands dictated.

I mean, they were the leader of the family.

It wasn't considered that oppressive, it was just how it was.

But at the same time, they were in the middle of very turbulent times for women.

Winning the vote in 1912 gave Oregon women a new sense of agency, and many were avid outdoorswomen.

About one-third of the charter members of the Mazama Mountaineering Club were female.

So this was a big step forward, I think, in the thinking of women.

"Maybe we can vote in an election and just have our own opinion.

Maybe we can go to the mountains and just do it ourselves."

Grace and Jean were confident they could handle the Wallowas on their own, but they probably never got that chance.

[ music playing ] In 1926, Jean's son was killed in a horse accident and Grace died of scarlet fever.

It was a sudden death.

She died at home.

The children were outside.

My mother was 8, and then Jean became Mom's surrogate mother.

So Jean faced this loss of her son and her best friend within just a very short amount of time.

So it must've been a tough year for her, a very tough year.

And I think that year must've been a turning point for her also.

Because at that point, or very soon after that, she began leading groups of women into the wilderness.

MELISSA: I think Jean wrapped herself in that feeling of comfort through being in nature and with her friends, and I think that she understood that women around her would benefit as well.

There is a section here, she says, "I am not one of the folks who think that youth is the one period of happiness in one's life.

How little they know what sorrows will be theirs when they grow up.

But I hold that even tragedies can be whittled down to an endurable size if you can take them to the out of doors."

MELISSA [ singing ]: Under the moon Under the stars Under fir and pine She lays down her head On hallowed ground And smiles In the quiet night... JESSICA: Sometimes you just need to be with your kind and compare notes and strengthen each other.

Coming out and talking about these things that are hard to talk about, like grief or how you feel about marriage.

And I think it was very therapeutic for them.

They would come out of it empowered.

WOMAN: I'm really appreciating being surrounded by these mountains and the lakes.

It was very special.

But we wouldn't be doing this without the packers.

And Jean and her friends just did it all, which is pretty amazing.

CASEY JANE: The thing that stands out to me the most when I hear about the Hen Party is the friendship that they all had.

Like when we read through the "Log of the Ladies," you know, they talk a lot about the land and the trails that they took every day, but they also tell funny stories about each other or talk about staying up late and the conversations that they would have.

That always stood out to me, is the connection that they had together.

I'm going to need your help singing this.

Are you kidding?!

[ singing ] Under the moon Under the stars Under fir and pine We lay down our heads On hallowed ground And smile in the quiet night [ laughs ] Oh, my God.

-Did you write that, Melissa?

-Yes.

-It's beautiful.

-Oh, thank you.

Go on, Chica.

[ kisses ] [ horse neighing ] WOMAN: "One by one at first, then literally millions, shown forth in crystalline splendor.

Darkness, silence, night, peace, rest."

That's beautiful.

-Oh, my gosh.

-There's the millions of stars.

-Oh, yeah.

-There's the Milky Way.

SALLY: In most of the readings, the stars come in as part of the backdrop constantly.

It's powerful and it's humbling.

You could tell that that was a huge part of being out there.

[ women chattering, horse neighs ] LEAH: We're going to bake some biscuits in this Dutch oven and get around to making some sausage gravy in this pan.

This is from the Hen Party menu, food they would cook when they were out in the woods.

Heavy whipping cream, key.

Boom, sausage gravy!

[ bell ringing ] Breakfast is ready!

Oh, my gosh!

-It's Jean's.

-I remember.

That's so good!

Oh, my gosh!

Way too much food here.

You got a big mountain to hike up.

-Oh, that's right.

-Yep.

Today, the riders have their sights set on Eagle Cap.

MELISSA: Eagle Cap is one of the iconic features in the Wallowas.

And I know the Hen Party would climb Eagle Cap, which I hope we're able to do.

We'll see.

At more than 9,500 feet, Eagle Cap is one of the Wallowa's highest peaks.

The trail to the top is steep and the slopes are sheer.

All right, you ready to...?

Yeah, you set the pace.

-Me?

-Yeah.

MELISSA: All right.

Onward!

LEAH: She's got a heck of a spirit, I would say.

Like, she, you know, had both her hips replaced and is still recovering from some knee injury.

But the story of the Hen Party is extra fuel to be like, "Yeah, let's do it."

MELISSA: It definitely is one of the things that I have talked about wanting to do before I die.

All right.

CASEY JANE: My sister and I stuck with her the whole time.

Instinctually, we both just were like, "All right, we got you."

[ chuckles ] It's really beautiful.

Stunning.

Okay, whew!

After an hour and a half of hiking straight up, Sally is the first of the sisters to make it to the top.

[ whispers ] Oh, my... [ music playing ] Oh, my.

I never thought I'd see this day.

[ laughs ] Bucket list.

[ laughs ] It's just so magnificent.

It's hard to grasp.

I hope Sharon can make it up here.

For Sharon, making the summit at age 80 would be a major accomplishment.

SHARON: It is challenging.

I'm thinking, "Can I do this?

Is this foolhardy for me to do this?"

But I did it.

Yeah!

Sharon, congratulations!

I guess I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.

[ laughs ] I never fantasized that I... At my age, that I'd ever have an opportunity to do this.

It's amazing what you can do when you do it one step at a time.

And that's one of the central themes of the Hen Party, was to prove to themselves and maybe to the menfolk in their lives that they could do it.

They knew how to wrangle horses, to pack, to set up camp, to take it down, to deal with whatever adversity comes along.

MELISSA: All right, you might want to push my bum up.

I don't know...

I just wasn't as physically prepared as I should have been.

Almost there.

But I will say my daughters hiking behind me has just meant the world to me.

-Come on!

-Look at you!

[ all laughing ] Oh, you!

Oh, God!

[ all crying ] [ music playing ] LEAH: You know, I'm just so impressed that she persevered.

Okay, breathe.

To get to the top really speaks to how important it was for her.

MELISSA: I could always imagine it, looking at the photographs.

"Oh, my gosh, imagine that, being able to look out," and here it is in real life.

I don't have to imagine this anymore.

[ laughs ] You know?

CASEY JANE: It's a very special thing that she gets to be up here with her sisters.

I know she's always wanted to do that.

[ women chattering indistinctly ] For the Reece sisters, climbing Eagle Cap is the fulfillment of a dream.

But for the women of the Hen Party, it was merely notable.

JESSICA: The local paper would have a little article saying that a group of women had gone into the mountains for two weeks on a big camping trip, and it would say "Mrs." and then their husband's name, which is very ironic because they were actually doing something without their husbands.

Mrs. George Birnie would have a lasting impact on this corner of the world in ways unknown to anyone outside her family.

MELISSA: Through Jean, my dad really developed a huge appreciation for the Wallowa Mountains and the Minam.

In the 1960s, plans were launched to open up the unprotected Minam River drainage to roads and logging.

Their dad, Dan Reece, was among those who lobbied Senator Mark Hatfield to have the Minam added to the existing Wilderness area.

SALLY: Our dad, he brought Hatfield in on a trek and into the Minam Wilderness.

And it... it worked.

In 1972, more than 73,000 acres were added to the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

But he did that as an honor to Grandmother, I think, more than anything.

The Hen Parties continued into the 1950s.

Jean passed away in 1974.

She was 88 years old.

[ people chattering indistinctly ] This is called "The Price."

"Stiff and sore, I don't mean maybe, it was Jake when e'er we lit, after miles aboard old gray back, I could darn near do the splits."

[ all laughing ] [ bird chirps ] SHARON: So this is our last day in camp.

It's been a dream come true.

And I'm just trying to soak it all in so I can remember into the future.

It's been wonderful.

JEANIE: One of the things I love most about being out here is that things are hard.

I know that sounds kind of weird, but I'm so glad that I have made this trip, and I definitely see myself coming back, definitely.

[ music playing ] Got an itch right there?

Can I get that for you?

There you go.

Just wanted a chance to spend some quiet time and feel just the gratitude to the mountains and nature and horses and family.

You know, for all of it.

There's so many women now who are taking their pack trips in, and they know the importance of being in nature and what you can gain from that.

-Cheers!

-Cheers.

[ all chuckle ] [ horse neighs ] When I think of the Hen Party and Jean, I would think that she would know that it's living.

[ chuckles ] That legacy lives on.

[ music playing ] Yeah, and this'll be lovely, because they're going to get driven right up this path.

There was a lot of thinking that went into the production ahead of time.

We're shooting into the sun to get this shot, you see that?

But you make the best plans you can make, and then once you're there, like, adios, plan!

[ laughs ] I didn't grow up on horses.

I could count on one hand the number of times in my life I'd been on a horse before this.

Whoa!

This story just begs you to go into the Wallowa Mountains.

You've got to experience what these women experienced.

[ music playing ] And that was going to be pretty rugged travel.

As a team, we're always sharing story ideas, and one day somebody came in with this article that was about this group of women in, like, the 1930s that would horse-pack into the Wallowas.

I found that fascinating, because that's pretty early on, and women, all by themselves, was striking.

In the article, they interviewed three sisters who were the descendants of this woman that would lead these horsebacking trips.

[ women chattering indistinctly ] So I found out how to get in contact with one of the sisters, and I just phoned her up.

Sure enough, you know, we get to the point where we're-- We hire an outfitter and we're going to be packing in here, all the sisters are coming, their daughters are coming.

It's this multi-generational story, and it's just amazing, but...

It's starting to rain.

Man, at least those cameras will kind of function in the rain, eh?

EVANS: A little bit.

Of course it started pouring rain as we're trying to pack in.

So at that point, the planning just all goes out the window and you're just kind of scrambling, like, "Okay, how can we get this done?"

GILFILLAN: It's pure granite.

The horses are slipping, and it's pretty frightening for me, I won't lie.

You know, it was difficult trying to film riding on horseback.

A lot of the time, we were shooting with GoPros because it was just the only way to get a stable shot because the horses were moving so quickly over such rough terrain.

We good?

[ sighs ] We made it.

[ music playing ] Mm, there are few times I've enjoyed sunlight quite as much as I am at this moment.

[ laughs ] That was a gnarly ride.

We get to camp, and we get kind of a smoky fire going and we're drying our stuff around the fire, but everybody's just got this smile on their face.

-Trying to dry everything.

-We're recuperating.

That's that first introduction of like, "Okay, here we go."

[ horse bell clanging ] DAN: Each morning, they would take the horses out of the corral and basically just let them roam this valley that we were in.

It's really beautiful because all this mist is coming out of this bog, essentially, but it's wreaking havoc on the gear because everything's fogging up.

I had my shot framed and my exposures right and everything, we can start to hear them coming back, and then I'm like, "Oh, my God, the lens just fogged up."

So I'm switching lens really fast, and right then I start rolling, and they come right up through the meadow and start charging through.

It worked out, but it was a tense moment while it was happening.

GILFILLAN: Did you get it?

Yeah, we got it.

On this shoot, we had a luxury of having two camera operators, and that is not the norm.

There were times where I knew Dan would be getting camp life... and I could go set up some time-lapses on a ridgeline and get beautiful sunsets or stars or things like that.

[ music playing ] One of the things I love about my job is the times when you have to film scenery, and it's sort of like forced meditation.

You need to be quiet, you need to be still, you need to look at your surroundings, and really look at it and see it for what it is in the moment and what it will be an hour from now if you're doing a time-lapse.

Everywhere you put your camera is a beautiful scene.

The challenging part is trying to capture these little moments of grace, these little moments of connection between these women.

GILFILLAN: We're just sitting in the tent and it's raining, and Melissa just strums her guitar and comes out with this incredible song.

[ singing ] Under the moon Under the stars Under fir and pine She lays down her head On hallowed ground... SWANSON: It became very clear when we were filming that these three sisters were having a moment completely removed from cameras being there.

Both Jule and I sensed it as it was happening.

I kept my camera trained, she grabbed the microphone, and we were off.

Then it just becomes, "Okay, don't do anything major to screw this up."

MELISSA [ singing ]: Under the stars Under fir and pine... GILFILLAN: And I have tears streaming down my face.

I was, like, shaking with sobs, but I was trying to keep it in because I didn't want to make any sound and mess up the audio.

-[ laughs ] -Oh, my God.

-Did you write that, Melissa?

-Yes.

GILFILLAN: It was just a beautiful, beautiful moment.

-It's beautiful.

-Oh, thank you.

There are a lot of stand-out memories.

Getting to the top of Eagle Cap was something else.

Whoo-hoo!

Eagle Cap!

To be able to step up there and see 360 degrees, all through the Eagle Cap Wilderness, down into the valleys, it was just stunning.

And then to see Melissa and Sharon and Sally all make it to the top... -Oh, God!

-[ all crying ] ...that was fantastic.

I had a real privilege to be part of that moment.

To tell that story, to understand what these women found in the wilderness, in nature, and in each other's company required us to go out together as well.

These moments that we'll remember for a lifetime because it's just so exquisite and so hard to get here.

And so rewarding.

It's been a dream come true.

Come on.

There we go-- oh!

[ laughs ] MELISSA [ singing ]: On hallowed ground... GILFILLAN: Ever since I was a kid, my mother would read to me at night, and just listening to words and listening to stories created these images in my head.

And so I just love stories.

I love, love, love stories.

And they just get me every time.

And when a story has these touchstones for me, it's like heaven.

It's everything sweet put together.

[ music playing ] [ horse bell clanging ] [ music playing ] You can now find many Oregon Field Guide stories and episodes online.

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