Jen Roeser is a second-generation owner of a Sierra Nevada pack outfit. Her earliest memory of her mom, Susie Ketcham was being placed by her on the back of a horse named Toby, Jen was two.  She called Toby, “…my babysitter.” Susie was a Morgan horse breeder and trainer in southern Santa Clara County in California in the 1960s and 70s.  Jen’s early years were spent working with her mom and riding the trails of the coast range above Santa Cruz and Los Gatos.  

While living in the Bay Area Jen was introduced to mules at the age of eight by Virl Norton, a steeplejack, who won the 1976 Great American Horse Race on a mule. Little did she know that mules plus a new opportunity for her mom and new stepdad would change her life forever.

The family moved to the Owens Valley in the 1970’s after purchasing a ranch in Independence along with the historic McGee Creek Pack Station. A new chapter opened where Jen’s passion for mules and horses would now include being a part of wilderness. Her parents had a partnership where John Ketcham managed the farming on the ranch and Susie continued to train and raise Morgan horses while managing the pack station.  Susie’s philosophy being “Girls could be better packers because they take better care of the stock. We’re going to have a pack station staffed by all girls!”  Something completely unheard of among pack outfits in the 1970’s

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 school work needed to get done, complete it early and get to the pack station by late May and stay well into November after 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 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 eastern Sierra outfits had dubbed the McGee Creek packers, ‘Packerettes.’ A title worn with pride by the McGee Creek crew. 

Jen along with her stepdad were active with the Packers Association and represented the many outfits through the association at sportsman shows in California.  They were at a ten-day show in San Francisco when they were notified that Susie had succumbed to breast cancer.  It had been quick, hard, and devastating.  At the age of 19 Jen, as she put it, “picked myself up and got to work” managing McGee Creek Pack Station along with the Morgan horse breeding and training program of her Mom’s.   

“I was raised by a pretty strong-willed, free spirited woman who told me there was no reason you couldn’t achieve what you wanted to achieve, you just better be willing to work hard enough for it.” 

Eventually Jen had to choose between the two operations. She told herself, “This pack station was her world, her dream, and I’m going to keep it going and this is what I am going to dedicate myself to.”  With that in mind she took this new gift and began to build on her Mom’s legacy. In the late 1980s there was a blending of what Jen saw as a coming together of her ‘Avant Garde’ nature with Lee Roeser’s traditional approach that he grew up with at Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit. After their marriage they purchased John’s share in McGee Creek and ushered in a new era of packing.  Jen bringing to the marriage and partnership grit, hard work, and determination while Lee brought a steadfast nature along with elegance. 

Lee is a saddle maker among other talents as a horseman and packer, he set about building new riding and pack saddles, making new panniers, fixing corrals and an overall upgrade of gear and facilities. As Jen put it, “We didn’t want to make the most money, but we wanted to be the best at what we did.”  This also included diversification working in the film industry and providing stock for movies and television commercials.  Lee is a member of SAG.  They started doing day rides in the Alabama Hills where numerous movies and TV shows were filmed.  Jen worked other jobs during the off-season of winter and early spring. Lee eventually took a position as the lead packer for the U.S. Forest Service on the Inyo National Forest.  If there was anything to do with mules Jen and Lee Roeser were somehow involved. 

Together they also began mentoring several generations of young packers that made their way through McGee Creek Pack Station.  They have been instrumental developing education programs teaching packing for youth through Bishop Mule Days.  Jen and Lee also recognize the importance of collaboration with numerous youth groups such as the Paiute tribe’s Firstbloomers program and simply getting young people into the wilderness.  It is the setting of working with mules and horses in a grand landscape that inspires young people and changes lives.

Now another chapter for Jen Roeser is beginning.  Her interest in conservation, people and community has taken her into the realm of local politics.  She is running for a county supervisor seat. Both her and Lee realize it is time to transition the pack station to the next generation.  How best to do that without children of their own appeared to be a challenge.  That challenge was not as great as she thought because of the growing number of young people in packing, many who they had mentored over the years.  These young packers were looking at the industry in a way to see potential like she and Lee saw 40 years ago.  These young people have a passion that embrace the same legacy while understanding change will be good.  People like Mariah and Trent Peterson with unique qualities who will carry traditions forward while embracing the new.  As Mariah put it, “We have a fire for the next generation!”

Jen admits the next chapter is not necessarily going to be easy, but she will always be involved with wilderness, community, people, mules, and horses.  McGee Creek Pack Station was a place that gave her a lot of joy and made dreams happen.  She sees it as a privilege to do what she and Lee did for over half their lives.  “It made Lee and I who we are.”  Jen sees this transition as not just an opportunity, but an obligation to carry forward the gift her Mom gave her.