Greetings,
June 24, 2011 – South Pass City to Farson, Wyoming – Today, like yesterday, we awoke to early morning thunder and rain. We cannot wait for the weather so we set out to follow the pioneer tracks and cross the Continental Divide at South Pass. After about two hours on the trail, we made our last crossing on the Atlantic side over Sweetwater River. The river is high and the sloughs are boggy so we made a quick decision to detour cross the river on a highway bridge.
After the bridge, we headed back east to the pioneer trails and over South Pass. South Pass is rolling sage prairie—true high desert at around 7,000 feet. Then, after a few miles of trail and a few rolling hills, we were at Pacific Springs and on the Western Slope. There is an abandoned ranch at Pacific Springs as well as a Pony Express station. Remnants of the ranch survive, but the Pony Express station is long gone and not even a memory anymore. We continued westward on nice two-track trails under darkening skies and before our lunch stop at 25 miles, and the rain and hail let loose. The lightning was loud and close and I suggested that we spread out so a lightning strike would not kill us all. My suggestion was met with silence except for the punctuation of thunder. All of us came safely into lunch just as the storm was ending.
I rode Whiskey today and he is doing well on the trails. Both Frank and Whiskey continue to be sound and eager to head down the trail. Whiskey has short periods of lingering lameness from his chronic laminitis and the lameness lasts for a few steps when he steps wrong, but in general, Whiskey continues to move well down the trail. Whiskey has gained considerable confidence and sometimes leads the group down the trail at a nine or ten MPH trot and for a few moments, I have the feelings of the Pony Express riders on a mustang horse. We are in mustang country although we have not seen any wild horses. We have seen antelope, deer, and one group saw a moose yesterday.
One thing that has impressed me is using a GPS track for the trail. There are no day-glow ribbons spoiling the high desert. On the actual pioneer trails, there is usually a two-track trail and concrete posts marking the trail every mile or so. The lack of trail modern markings makes the 2011 XP ride feel much more of an adventure and less like a packaged experience. Many of us have talked about the feeling and we may find it difficult to go back to the highly structured world of most endurance rides. On the XP, we are really expected to care for our horses. We decide which horse to start and how far to ride. We decide about how much time to spend at the lunch hold and we decide when to stop on the trail for grass and water. Each morning, Dave Nicholson is usually a mile or so down the trail to check the soundness of the horses, but we are largely on our own and the horses are doing very well. Relying on GPS tracks has given some riders difficulty, but all the riders seem to make it to lunch and then on to the finish, so the difficulties may be more psychological discomfort rather than real distress. To me, the 2011 XP is true endurance riding.
Best Regards,
Tom N
June 24, 2011 – South Pass City to Farson, Wyoming – Today, like yesterday, we awoke to early morning thunder and rain. We cannot wait for the weather so we set out to follow the pioneer tracks and cross the Continental Divide at South Pass. After about two hours on the trail, we made our last crossing on the Atlantic side over Sweetwater River. The river is high and the sloughs are boggy so we made a quick decision to detour cross the river on a highway bridge.
After the bridge, we headed back east to the pioneer trails and over South Pass. South Pass is rolling sage prairie—true high desert at around 7,000 feet. Then, after a few miles of trail and a few rolling hills, we were at Pacific Springs and on the Western Slope. There is an abandoned ranch at Pacific Springs as well as a Pony Express station. Remnants of the ranch survive, but the Pony Express station is long gone and not even a memory anymore. We continued westward on nice two-track trails under darkening skies and before our lunch stop at 25 miles, and the rain and hail let loose. The lightning was loud and close and I suggested that we spread out so a lightning strike would not kill us all. My suggestion was met with silence except for the punctuation of thunder. All of us came safely into lunch just as the storm was ending.
I rode Whiskey today and he is doing well on the trails. Both Frank and Whiskey continue to be sound and eager to head down the trail. Whiskey has short periods of lingering lameness from his chronic laminitis and the lameness lasts for a few steps when he steps wrong, but in general, Whiskey continues to move well down the trail. Whiskey has gained considerable confidence and sometimes leads the group down the trail at a nine or ten MPH trot and for a few moments, I have the feelings of the Pony Express riders on a mustang horse. We are in mustang country although we have not seen any wild horses. We have seen antelope, deer, and one group saw a moose yesterday.
One thing that has impressed me is using a GPS track for the trail. There are no day-glow ribbons spoiling the high desert. On the actual pioneer trails, there is usually a two-track trail and concrete posts marking the trail every mile or so. The lack of trail modern markings makes the 2011 XP ride feel much more of an adventure and less like a packaged experience. Many of us have talked about the feeling and we may find it difficult to go back to the highly structured world of most endurance rides. On the XP, we are really expected to care for our horses. We decide which horse to start and how far to ride. We decide about how much time to spend at the lunch hold and we decide when to stop on the trail for grass and water. Each morning, Dave Nicholson is usually a mile or so down the trail to check the soundness of the horses, but we are largely on our own and the horses are doing very well. Relying on GPS tracks has given some riders difficulty, but all the riders seem to make it to lunch and then on to the finish, so the difficulties may be more psychological discomfort rather than real distress. To me, the 2011 XP is true endurance riding.
Best Regards,
Tom N
No comments:
Post a Comment