Hi! We're in Austin for the next two days that we have off camped at the rodeo grounds. It's really nice here! The Lakso's saved us a great spot underneath a big tree and right next to a water spigot. Pretty place, the sunset tonight is really gorgeous. We just got back from going out to dinner at one of the three places that there are to eat in town.

We had another really nice ride today. It was long and slow and we finished just barely ahead of Trilby at a little over 11 1/2 hours. I had two juniors again today -- Kayla and Calina, and rode Weaver. Now he gets three days off and only has two days left to do next week. I sure hope nothing happens over the weekend, unless something stupid happens he outta be okay. Kayla rode Buzzy today and Calina rode Boomer again. Dave crewed for all of us at lunch today, and then he hauled me and Kayla to the finish while John and Dolly babysat Rocky and got us a spot in camp. They left at 4:30 a.m. to get here and get a good spot. They did a good job. :+)

The trail today was super nice, we started out climbing up into the mountains and riding thru trees and nice singletrack and two-track trail, winding up and over the pass and then down thru another valley...complete with badger holes and we're starting to get into rocky areas a little bit.

We were trotting along thru a grassy field area and Weaver caught a foot in a rut or something and started to go down. I tried pulling him up, and he kept going down.......I pulled more and he went down more...down, down, down.....I saw some prime real estate getting real close between his ears and as it approached rapidly, I gave one more pull and in the last possible second before a crash landing or a Buddy type flip, he came up......whew! That was a pretty close almost crash landing, and glad we avoided any injuries from it. Man, if I had let go or not pulled so hard (from the back of his neck (grin)......yeow! He may just need to be reshod again, his feet have grown so dang fast...he normally isn't a clod like that.

Then a little ways after that, we went thru a gate and all of a sudden Weaver perked up and looked like an Arab (an unusual occurrence for him), and whinnied real loud. Hmmmm....we didn't see anything to I got on and we kept going and in the next few seconds we saw what he was so alert about -- a wild stallion was galloping gallantly towards us thru the brush and came straight towards us. I had the girls get behind me and we all turned and faced him...he ran right up to us and got close enough to touch noses but didn't try anything aggressive -- we tried shoeing and chasing him away but he wouldn't leave us. (I took pictures, of course (Grin).......finally some other riders came along and he went after them and we made our safe escape.

Earlier in the morning MJ's horse got caught in wire and was injured. Weaver got it caught on his leg once but I stopped him and he backed up and it dropped down then he went over it. It was an old telephone wire. I don't think anybody elses horses got hurt. MJ got hauled to the vet check and they fixed the horse up there, hope it will heal fast.

We don't really know which of the adults has ridden the most days or miles. Heck, most of us don't even know what day it was or what town it was that we were in last......if it weren't for somebody telling me I wouldn't know that it was Sunday and that we get Monday and Tuesday off and start again on Wednesday. I know that Dave Rabe was first today, on Dirty Dancer. There are probably several riders who have ridden the most days, minus 1 1/2 or 2......I'm just guessing here and will probably forget somebody and maybe get a name wrong but here goes (remember, I'm pretty deranged after living with horses out of a trailer for two full months!).......Kayla Ramsdell (she has ridden every mile and is a junior), Phyllis Bartholomew, Bonnie Way, Jane Wilson, MJ Jackson, Shawn Bowling, me :>).....possibly Dave Rabe and Roxanne Greene........Terry Nance has been riding a lot too.......now for people who have been riding just one horse -- this is easy -- you've got Carol and Sunny who have done the most days together, she has only missed 6 days so far...then you've got John Parke and Skoldjur, the Icelandic....they are doing really well and have also done a lot of days, and Kathy Thompson and Zane Grey who has also done quite a few days and probably ten or twelve half days and have a lot of front placings and BC's. Pat Verhuel has also ridden quite a lot of days on her two horses. Debby Lyon and Jeff Herten have also been riding a lot lately, so has Sandy Skinner. Can't think of too many other names right now, I'm sure I'm missing some. Lots of people have come and left, and come back again.....there are a lot of people here and probably more will come this weekend for the last week.

We rode up thru a canyon where a Pony Express station was, including the graves of a couple of station attendants that had been killed by Indians. I took a lot of photos, but probably won't get them up this weekend unless we luck out and find a connection somewhere. Hopefully the cell phone will work so I can send email at least.

John and Steph Teeter passed us sometime after lunch, then after we finished it was about ten minutes till five or so, and Trilby and John came in together. I'll have to ask Steph what happened there, where was she and how did John get behind us?

I forgot my electrolytes this morning. Well, those 5 a.m. starts seem to get earlier and earlier and I get slower and slower and older and older........I don't think it mattered though since he still peed his normal 4 times before lunch and 7 or 8 times for the day total. Like clockwork. There's not much water on the trail but when we do get water, he drinks really well and I also fed him quite a few carrots today on the trail plus he eats everything he can find even sagebrush. Rocky is almost as bad, he's over here eating a tree as we speak. Sure do hope it's edible. :+D

Barney and Linda are leaving us after this weekend (sob). That really sucks, but at least they were here up until now. It's not like the end of the world, but we'll miss them. We'll see them back at Tevis a week after this ride finishes up.

I can't get over how much the horses are eating still. I am glad I was so prepared with all their feed needs along the route, because they have needed more than I planned on -- it's hard to keep everything in supply! Tonight when we got into camp (hauled from the finish about 20 miles to here)....I turned both horses out in the big arena and when Weaver trotted towards me he still looks like a blimp waddling along (sigh). It's really pretty funny that he's such a Lard Butt, gotta love that horse! After doing 17 AERC 50 mile rides in 7 weeks........sure do wish I could clone him. It has worked out so that he has gotten every single hardest day so far -- the ones with the most mountains or most climb, etc. Weird coincidence, wonder if it would have worked so well if the rotation had been different?

With only four ride days left, we're getting kind of sad that it is going to be all over so soon. In a week from today, it'll be all over and we'll have to go back to real life. Wake up from this dream. It sure won't be an easy thing to do. One thing is for sure, none of us will ever be the same again. Even the kids here are all aware of the significance this will have made on all of us.

I better get some sleep, it has been a really long day. Nice one tho. Hot, dusty, fun.

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
in Austin, Nevada

We had another really fabulous ride today, and finished in Cold Springs, Nevada at the sight of an XP station. We hauled to the start from the Austin rodeo grounds for a 5 a.m. start in the dark, and began our journey today. It was 96.6 degrees when I finished. It did feel pretty toasty out there today. We started with a climb over a mountain pass, then some flat stuff thru badger holes and then more passes to climb over. The trail was absolutely gorgeous today though, we rode by another original XP station before lunch and then had our vet check in a beautiful green area with aspens and grass and a creek.

I rode with Kayla again, and Patty Danley joined us. She just got here to ride the last week. She was probably laughing her head off at us planning on trying to get to lunch in "only" 4 1/2 hours (Grin). As if that's really fast or something! Then I know we really impressed her by trying to keep up a 6.6 mph pace! lol Kayla rode Khairo (oops I spelled it wrong before) and he did great again. I rode Rocky again today, and now he only has one more day to do on this ride......he's up to 925 XP trail miles now. He's doing really well, hope he makes it okay on his last day. Weaver goes tomorrow and then will also get to finish if everything works out. The horses all seem to be doing so great on this ride (really, I'm not making it up, I have pictures and everything!).

When I got in I got to see Hugh and Gloria, who just arrived. There aren't too many new people coming but they might in the last couple of days. Mostly it's all the same people, some have gone and come back with fresh horses. This past weekend (which was Mon-Tues for us) they posted the results from the entire ride so we all know who has ridden what, how many days, etc. I think Jim Mitchell counted up how many horses have 17 days or more, and there is only like 6 or 7 that have -- I figured there'd be more than that but then most people have used more than a couple of horses so it breaks it down a lot. It'll be neat at the end to see how many horses that started in St. Joe made it all the way to Virginia City. What a fantastic journey they have been on!

Troy (Kayla's brother) rode with Dave Rabe and Sands today. Jamie Mitchell rode with her dad and Calina rode with Phyllis -- Kayla with me. That's all the juniors riding. The kids are all doing really great, Troy has ridden a lot of days (not sure how many), Kayla has ridden every single mile and missed one AERC day and Jamie's horse Lance is one of the ones with 17 or more days -- and Calina has probably ridden about 1,000 miles (not sure of that either). See, I'm not of much use I don't really know anything. (Grin)

Early this morning we were doing some XP trail thru the brush and came across what looked like a grave. It was a large oblong pile of rocks. I guess I should have marked it with my gps so somebody could find it again though I could point it out on a map. It just wasn't a natural pile of rock, but you never know. We've wondered how many times we've gone by or over the graves of all the thousands of people who were buried on the trail.

Tomorrow is going to be a long, hard day. The directions and map are three pages long. The crews can get in to lunch tomorrow which is nice. Lately we've been bringing everything with us when we start. You can send a crewbag but sometimes it's just easier to take it all with you when you leave. We're getting pretty good at that (me and Kayla).

We're kinda getting excited about finishing. I think that everybody is going to try and ride the last day, so some will take days off inbetween to make sure their horses are ready. We are going to have our official AERC finish outside of town, and then once everybody has finished (even Trilby), we are all going to ride together as a group into Virginia City -- that'll be really neat -- and then we can pony our other horses along with us if we want. There are going to be a lot of people there for sure, it'll be exciting. Hopefully not too exciting for Rocky (sigh). Good thing I'm riding Weaver tomorrow past the naval bombing range.

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
in Cold Springs, Nevada
.....only 3 days left :+/

Now we are at Sand Mountain -- actually, it's a gravel pit somewhere outside of Fallon, Nevada. We rode from Cold Springs and today was probably one of the hardest days of the ride so far. It's still near 100 degrees outside, and the ride was 51 miles of mountains. We finished at 4:38 p.m. by my watch, with a 5:00 a.m. start. It was a long, hard...hot day. I had two of the kids with me -- Kayla and Calina. We hurried our butts off to get into lunch, about the halfway point in 5 1/4 hours -- that wasn't easy, but we made it and then had enough time to finish the second half after lunch.

We had great crews today which probably helped keep us and the horses all alive and well. Our horses were doing really well actually -- Weaver started out before we left this a.m. by drinking twice really good and then he tanked up every chance we got. I was glad that I'd been electrolyting him as hot as it turned out to be. He even peed more than his normal 7 times.......and when Dave met us at crew stops he inhaled buckets of soaked feed. Now he gets tomorrow off and then has one more day to go then he'll get a nice vacation!!

The ride this morning was really nice, we started out climbing and went up and down a lot thru the mountains, and thru mustang trails with sagebrush as tall as my horses ears. It was one of the most difficult days that we've had on the trip, made even moreso by the heat and the fact that we've been out here for so long. The horses all did well, we got off on all the steep stuff and led downhill. It was pretty slippery over some of the rockier sections. Going into lunch was a reeeeeeally long downhill but it was sandy and fairly easy to trot. I think trotting downhill for so long on these horses now was pretty demanding on them but Weaver seems to have managed to come thru in great shape tonight. He's one tough horse -- still gets credit for doing all of the hardest days.

After lunch the trail was flatter but still had some climb, some deep sand and it continued to get hotter. We had great crews after lunch though -- between Dave meeting us a few times, and Hugh Vanderford and the Lakso's we had it made. Gloria got sick and finished behind us. The kids always dive into the water and we all go down the trail with our shirts and heads wet and the horses sponged off -- it really helps a lot to handle the heat. The kids are doing great but also getting tired. They handle the heat pretty well though, and drink a lot and never seem to run out of energy. Some of the adults got sick today, including Trilby who almost didn't make it because of getting heat stress, but then finally made it in okay. Bonnie Way and Ann Sands were with her.

The sunset is sure nice tonight. We are surrounded by mountains, with a great big flat white alkali flat off in the distance, and the glimmer of headlights from highway 50 on the right.

Tomorrow is another long day and we finish by Fort Churchill. Then we'll only have one day left, the finish in Virginia City. Hard to believe it's almost here already! A few more new rigs pulled in tonight. You can tell they are new, they are clean (ha).

Guess I better get to bed so I'll be ready to go by 5 a.m. It'll be a great day and a sad day, Rocky's last day on the XP trail.

Happy XP trails,

Karen
near Sand Mountain, Nevada
.....only 2 days left!

We had another really good ride today. We left Sand Mountain....or whatever the place was called that we were at...and rode to near Fort Churchill. A lot of the trail was on the Brothel to Brothel trail. I rode with Kayla again today. We're getting excited about the ride coming to an end so soon, but neither of us really want it to end.

It had been so hot the day before that we figured we really better get a move on early in the morning. John and Dolly were crewing for us in the morning and met us a few miles out with water so the horses could drink and we could sponge them. They are a really great crew! In order to meet us so early in the morning (5 a.m. start) they have to get up pretty early not only to get the kids ready but they have another three or four horses each day to pack up too -- and usually they can't drive out on the same trail we are riding on so it takes awhile to get to the water spots.

Rocky and Khairo were both strong and to the point of being unmanageable. When I try holding Rocky back he acts up and spooks and interferes -- so it's better to just let him go at a pace more comfortable for him. Khairo thinks so too (Grin). The trail was familiar and the footing was good so we made good time. In fact, we got into the lunch check the earliest of any day of the ride -- even beat Dave there. He had taken my other horse over to Fort Churchill to drop off for the day. That worked out well because on the way back he stopped in Fallon and picked up yogurt, juice and ice cream (the real important stuff!). He wasn't there when we got in but showed up shortly thereafter. In the meantime, Sydney and Alena took care of us and gave our horses water and hay and us pb&j sandwiches. Everybody has been like that on the entire ride, helping each other out without fail. What a great bunch of people.

It was already getting really warm. We soaked our shirts and sponged the horses before we left and made sure all of our water bottles were full. We left the vet check with Patty Danley and Dave Rabe. If there is anybody in this sport who has a heart of gold, it's Dave Rabe. He waited for us at the lunch check and rode the rest of the way in with us. The afternoon seemed to go by really fast...we rode past more original pony express stations, including one that had not been visible in 1976 because it hadn't been unearthed yet -- pretty kewl! We had water troughs out in a couple of spots, there is no natural water out there. It's hot and dry. We did our best to follow the waypoints and did some extra zig zagging, the mileage for that day was like 51 or more miles on my GPS but was only supposed to have been 49.8.....then from the finish line it was another 2 miles to camp so if you walked in it was more like a 53 mile day, more if you did any bonus miles.

The footing was mostly good, with some good sandy sections and also plenty of alkali. In the morning we went thru alkali that the horses sank in up to their ankles. We went thru sagebrush and draws down the hillside with faint trails and more holes to avoid. Kayla finished first on Khairo and then Dave, me and Patty......Dirty (Dave's horse) got BC.

Camp is really nice, there are lots of trees and even some corrals in the back. Louise and Jack had saved a corral for my horses and that was *really* nice. The only time we can really sleep is when the horses are not tied to the trailer. They itch and rub too much, and lie down and roll.....which keeps me up checking on them constantly all night long. So when they have a spot that is safe and secure to put them it's really appreciated.

Nikki from Fallon came out and brought us a pizza. Boy was it ever good! The ride meeting kept getting delayed because of last minute trail changes and the printer going kaput. Everything was in perfect order by morning though when we trotted out we got our maps, and the night before we got our waypoints loaded into the GPS's.

Laney finally got into camp. She'd been stuck for several hours. John and Dolly tried to pull her out but couldn't, so she finally got rescued. I wonder how many rigs have been stuck alltogether on the ride. Probably a lot!

Trilby didn't ride, she was still recovering from her heat exhaustion the day before.

We took the horses down to the river and washed them down. It was really nice down there. I can barely manage walking both horses by myself anymore. If there is anything for them to munch on along the way I may as well forget it. I get one of their heads up and the other one starts eating......arrrrrggghhhh!!!!

It's Annie's birthday tomorrow, so we had a party for her at the ride meeting. Everybody signed a card and chipped in for a gift, and ice cream and cake. Poems were read and it was really special.

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
near Fort Churchill, NV
& Weaver, just one day left to do!
& Rocky.....all done!!

I can't believe we are finished! It was a really great and special day. We left Fort Churchill at 5:30 this morning and rode in to Virginia City. We did a loop out of camp in the morning so the mileage would be correct...and then headed across the highway and down to the river. It was a nice trail and Weaver knew something was up, because if there has ever been a day that I should not have been riding him in a rope halter (which I have been for over 4,000 miles now).....today would have been it! He was such a handful that I had to get Kayla in front of us to slow him down. I don't know what got in to him! He must have known he was heading home.

The mornings trail was nice, with great footing on singletrack trail. We had a couple of gates to go thru and then Dave met us with water. We continued on to the river and the horses drank again and we sponged them. We rode past the vehicle test center and along thru trails and roads that Weaver has done a few times so he just really knew that we were going home! We came up over some sand dunes and sagebrush and missed a couple of turns on the GPS and did some roaming around. I had bought some batteries at the grocery store back in Ely, and they weren't very good -- the GPS kept turning itself off so it wasn't recording the mileage accurately nevermind that it kept going off so I couldn't see where the arrow was pointing. We did manage to find our way until lunch when I put in a new set of better batteries. Jim Mitchell didn't ride today so he arranged for some troughs to be put out along the way which was really great. John and Dolly also crewed for us and met us with water. In one spot, John tightened up a lose shoe on Khairo.

The trail was now going down alongside highway 50. They were actually out doing road construction on a Saturday! For many reasons, I was really appreciating being on Weaver since he's so good about things like that. Kayla and I were trotting along down the road and everything was great then another horse who had been over to the left of us cut us off and just as Weaver jumped out of the way, or tried to...the other horse kicked him in the side of the front leg. We were all totally shocked, it sounded like his leg had been broken. Patty said she nearly threw up and Kayla was almost in tears.....I suddenly had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes and was so afraid that he'd been injured pretty badly. The sound was just horrifying, and then in an instant my horse went from having his ears forward and being strong and happy to holding his head down and standing in pain. We'd already gone probably 30 miles and only had 20 more to go to finish the ride, I couldn't believe that this was happening! I got off and walked him for awhile and after awhile he seemed like he was walking pretty good, so I got on. Later when we trotted he felt pretty good and everybody said that he was sound.

At the vet check I was so worried that he'd be off or sore or end up getting really sore after having an hour break. I brought him in and P&R'd and waited to vet barely able to breath. Miranda trotted him out and the vet said he was totally sound......was I ever relieved! We went over to our trailer and Amy and Julian were there. We rode right past their place earlier in the ride that morning, and Dave had stopped by so they'd know where the vet check was and so they came out to crew for me :+). I figured it'd be okay since they'd crewed for me at Tevis a couple of times. (Grin) So Weaver got the royal treatment. We put ice on him where he was kicked, and he got walked so he wouldn't get stiff. He went down to the trough and drank really good. The lump on his leg was swelling up but if he kept being walked it went down and he was fine. After our hour hold I led him out of the check for quite a ways.

Soon we were heading up the Chinaman trail. It's long, steep....and rocky. Plus, it was hot. Kayla went first since Khairo walks at 5 miles an hour....then Weaver and then Dee and Patty Danley. I got off to lead once it got really rocky and Weav decided I wasn't walking fast enough so passed me up and I grabbed his tail and he just literally drug me up the mountain. I couldn't believe how much energy and enthusiasm he had and how fast he was walking! Normally you can't tail on that horse, he stops to eat too much but today for some reason he knew he had a mission -- he had to get to Virginia City!! We made it up the mountain, taking some great photos along the way. Kayla and I were trying to get everybody else to go ahead so that we could ride in together by ourselves. Patty stayed behind us so it was okay......then finally.......the finish line loomed ahead and as we approached the horses quickened their strides....Weaver called out.....and did his head toss and body twist thing he does when he feels really good and we cruised on in to the finish! A crowed had gathered and everybody was clapping and cheering for all of the finishers.

It was a ways to walk into camp from the finish line, but neither horse wanted to walk. So we let them trot in. What a great feeling! Rode on in to camp and vetted the horses thru.......what a great feeling to hear that one final last "okay" from the veterinarian! I was so proud of Kayla who had ridden every single mile, and of her great horse Khairo who carried her to her first win the day before.....and of course my own horses who did more miles as a team than any.....they are my heroes!

I feel like I've lived a fairytale the last couple of months. It was an incredible adventure.....thank you, thank you, thank you to everybody who made it possible..........:^)))

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
in Virginia City, NV
& Dream Weaver, 950 XP miles
& Rocky, 975 XP miles