Fulfill a Fantasy

By VALERIE MARCHANT

When we're young, we live our heroes' lives. As adults, we let these dreams fade. Yet we can still do some extraordinary things in faraway places--on vacation.

WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM

Who has not dreamed of riding a horse through high country, driving thousands of head of cattle, eating from the chuck wagon, sleeping under a starry sky and, yes, wearing those terrific clothes--chaps, and boots with spurs--every day? Sure, quitting your day job and becoming a full-time cowboy is probably out of the question. But it is possible to try your hand at tossing a perfectly circled rope through the air over the head of a 1,000-lb. cow. At the Cowboy School, based in Pearce, Ariz., Bob King teaches novice cowboys (O.K., cowpersons) old-time roping techniques, plus how to handle cattle, transform a horse into a partner and manage land and water resources. A week ($1,250) includes lodging in an authentic bunkhouse and three squares a day of hearty grub. The week may be spent at the vast Three Sisters Ranch in the Arizona desert (October through May) or the Powder River Experience on the Wyoming plains (June through September). King, his wife Betty and other family members welcome men and women who aspire to the cowboy life. Many are from abroad; many are well past age 50. Some have recently bought horses--or even a ranch--without knowing much about either. When Ken Jelden retired at 70 after a long career with Calavo Growers in California, his wife gave him a surprise retirement gift: a week at the ranch. He mastered new roping skills, learned to ride again and particularly enjoyed "taking the cattle out to the pasture, which was very quiet and near the Cochise stronghold where the chief held out against the U.S. Cavalry for several months." Always fond of Western music and life, Jelden is grateful for his wife's gift: "I did get to live out a fantasy."

WORKING ON THE RAILROAD

There you are--hand on the throttle of a full-size, 100-ton steam engine hauling eight graceful coaches from Worcestershire to Shropshire on a track that follows the Severn River as it meanders through unspoiled English countryside. No need for a time machine to fulfill this dream. Adults healthy enough to shovel piles of coal need only register at the Severn Valley Railway school, based in Bewdley, Worcestershire. In the introductory session, they learn safety guidelines and how a locomotive works. They also put in time on the footplate--where the fireman and driver stand, stoking the boiler, firing up the engine and managing the controls. In follow-up courses, groups of four students strive to acquire enough skill to drive the locomotive. This involves learning to clean, oil and light up the engine, shunt tracks, couple and uncouple cars--and brake, no easy task. John Sinclair, 54, technical director of a Bedfordshire computer firm, was "quite frightened" during an intermediate course with Severn Valley Railway because even at 25 m.p.h., the locomotive rattles and shakes. So pleased was he by the "big high" he experienced that he plans to spend $975 to take an advanced course.

ARCTIC GETAWAY

Ever since Admiral Peary made his third and finally successful journey to the North Pole 90 years ago, there have been dreamers who saw themselves skiing to the top of the earth. Very few have done so, of course, because it's hard going--and because only in the past decade have travel companies offered would-be Arctic explorers the kind of expedition they could manage. The company that pioneered such trips, Northwest Passage, is planning its fifth trek to the geographic North Pole starting in early February with a six-day training session on Baffin Island. In April a party of eight to 15 will fly charter aircraft from Resolute Bay, Nunavut, to within 150 miles of the pole. Then, under a 24-hr. polar sun, in often subzero temperatures, the group will follow Peary's route from 88[degrees] to 90[degrees] north, climbing over walls of ice, crossing expanses of open water on ice blocks bound by ropes, skiing through clouds of drifting snow. Burton Meyer of Downers Grove, Ill., a retired toy designer, first crossed the North Pole with Northwest Passage at 69. Among his companions: a 16-year-old schoolgirl, one of only three women ever to reach the pole on foot. Meyer remembers everything about his trip, the second of 12 he's made with the company: "We traveled 13 miles a day with two 10-dog teams, breaking camp in the morning and setting it up at the end of day, struggling through blizzards, trying to find a way across the open water." He was thrilled by the Arctic, "one of the most unusual places in the world--the beautiful blue colors of the ice, the sparkle of the sun." Travelers of any age are welcome but must be in very good physical shape and willing to spend $25,000, the cost of the trip. Northwest Passage also offers less expensive ways to realize a polar dream, including a $6,000 ski-and-dogsled trek across Ellesmere, Canada's northernmost island. Adventurers travel through an expanse of mountains, fjords and giant icebergs, observing polar bears, musk oxen, caribou and the island's celebrated Arctic wolves. Not for the fainthearted.

WHO NEEDS MEN?

Back when women were considered the weaker sex, it wasn't easy for them to learn and practice the outdoor skills men like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett used to survive in the wilderness. Now it is. In weekend workshops organized by Becoming an Outdoors-Woman, a woman can acquire sufficient know-how to become a mountain woman--or, if she prefers, a desert, valley or ocean woman. Because BOW's courses are offered in 44 states and nine Canadian provinces, she can hunt elk in Montana on one weekend and wild turkeys in Wisconsin, or deer in Texas, on another. BOW students learn to fish in all kinds of waters; shoot a rifle, shotgun or bow; navigate through different terrain; canoe and sea-kayak; harvest wild foods and herbs; hike through the wilds; and survive a winter night in the wilderness. From Friday morning to Sunday noon, participants choose four classes from more than 20 topics. (Even animal-rights supporters will find plenty of appealing courses, among them mountain biking and Dutch-oven cooking). The average weekend price: $200 for classes, food, lodging and all equipment. BOW attracts women from all walks of life, ages 18 to 80--or older. Since 1991, when Christine Thomas, a dean of the Natural Resources College at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, developed BOW, some 50,000 women have gone through the program. Kim Fredritz of Carey, Ohio, has attended several BOW workshops. A country girl and a farmer's wife, she was thrilled to experience "a new appreciation for everything in the outdoors." Having excelled in shotgun classes, she then took a BOW turkey-hunting workshop so she could shoot as well as cook her family's Thanksgiving meal.

--With reporting by Mairi Brahim/Sussex

With reporting by Mairi Brahim/Sussex