Visiting His Way Across America

Lee The Horselogger Passes Through Hugo, Headed East

By Deb Barnes

Lee The Horselogger and Toad of the children's classic tale, "The Wind In The Willows," have a few things in common: both bitten by the call of the open road, they throw caution to the wind and set out to see the world, meeting strangers along the way. But in Lee's case, that part of it is all by design.

"I'm visiting my way across America, meeting neighbors I just didn't know yet," the Montana man relates.

Lee Craft on pulled into Hugo during afternoon rush hour on Tuesday, February 20, making a left -hand turn onto 165th Street with a little help from Officer Garvey of the Minnesota State Patrol.

Headed for Cherie McKenzie's Sundown Horse Farm & Shelter, Craft on was barely visible behind his two stalwart Suffolk Punch draft horses, Tom and Max, on a homemade wagon that looks a bit - well, like it might not make another mile.

Lee the Horselogger breezed into Hugo on February 20 on his way east.

Photo by Deb Barnes

Blue tarps draped over the top of the wagon evoke the Conestoga wagon, and a haphazardly-angled strobe light mounted on a pole signals the wagon's presence to other, more speedy, travelers. Several bales of hay are tucked up against the "slow moving vehicle" signs tacked on the chunk of plywood that serves as a windbreak.

As Craft on made his way to McKenzie's farm, a few vehicles pulled over along 165th -folks were curious, and stopped to greet him.

"Never Been So Wealthy"

Lee Craft on wasn't always a wanderer.

Although he's had some adventures - notably, riding his bike from Chicago to Montana in 1982 ("got charged by two moose in the Boundary Waters!") - the native New Yorker has spent much of his adult life on his family's 320-acre Flathead Valley ranch in northwest Montana, living in a small cabin without electricity. Craft on was a horse logger by trade - that is, he logged trees, hauling them out of the woods to be sold, an occupation that has attracted the romantic - and, in this case especially, somewhat apropos term - "gypsy logger."

That came to an end in the past year or so, when his parents' ranch sold ("California found us"), after which Craft on then was diagnosed with lymphoma. He chose a homeopathic treatment plan.

As diseases often do, the diagnosis spurred Craft on to re-examine his life. He decided to get rid of almost everything he owned. It was a good move, he says.

"The best thing of it is, I'm totally broke again!" he said, adding, "I'd never been so wealthy as when I got rid of everything."

The Generosity Of Strangers

Craft on wanted to visit his childhood sweetheart near New York, and couldn't figure out a way to get back there with his animals.

Inspiration struck: "I figured I'd walk 'em."

He says it has been a life-changing experience. And although he has maps, Craft on says he never looks at them. "What do they tell you? Just what connects this town with the next town . I ask the locals the best way to go."

Is this a journey of faith? "Isn't life, really, a journey of faith?" he counters, adding that this trip has reaffirmed his belief in the goodness of humanity. "Everybody's a neighbor," he said.

Indeed, it is the generosity of complete strangers that constantly tugs at Craft on's heart as the 46-year-old wanders the nation's highways and byways with his two dogs, Katie and Kerr-Mutt - both Great Pyrenees - who ride along behind him in the wagon.

There were the people in Heart Butte, Montana who helped him find a new wagon when Crafton found that the one he built was simply too heavy for the horses to pull up the mountain grades ("those pieces of steel do add up").

There were the fire chiefs who called ahead from town to town, arranging a place for him to stay, and the generosity of those who stop their cars to talk - and leave him with a $20 bill.

And then there are the bales of hay that appear overnight when Craft on wakes up to another day aft er spending the night in his wagon.

"I have yet to ask anybody for help," he marvels, saying that Minnesotans are, most assuredly, "some of the most hospitable people in the country."

Falling ill during the recent cold spell, for instance, he spent a week recovering in Rice, Minn. under the watchful care of strangers. And in Hugo, it was a case of good old Midwestern hospitality playing out once again. McKenzie off ered her paddock aft er word reached her that Craft on needed a place to stay following his overnight with Tom and Eileen Connors in Wyoming.

After cooking dinner, McKenzie dashed off to a meeting.

"He did the dishes while I was gone!" she said later.

Serving him up a big breakfast on Wednesday morning, McKenzie then drove him to Stillwater to scope out the hills - and the route into Wisconsin, where Craft on hoped to leave much of the traffic behind.

East . To Alaska

So, after the east coast, what then? "Alaska," says Lee The Horselogger with some satisfaction. And Canada. "Kind of hard to dodge Canada if you want to go [to Alaska] by a land route."

It could take some time. Crafton says he makes about 2-1/2 miles an hour - between 12 to 15 miles a day - a speed that led one friend to say that he's "land sailing." The horses get a day off once a week, whenever they need it; he says they get a bit of an "attitude" without that day of rest.

Craft on says that the revelation of his future plans often inspires the people he meets to wistfully confess that they are envious of his freedom. "I can't tell you the number of times I've heard, 'If only.'" he relates.

And, although he's had his bad days, his outlook on his cancer is good: "The growth is going down, that's all I care about," he said.

For a man who doesn't consult maps, Craft on seems confident of the path before him.

"I hunker down and keep the ponies headed down the road safely," he says. "The whole purpose of the trip is to connect."

For more information on Lee Crafton's travels, go to www.lee-the-horselogger.com. Comments on our coverage? E-mail Editor@ ReadTh eCitizen.com.