XP July 11

[Ms steph teeter <stephteeter@yahoo.com>]

We rode into Utah yesterday. Started in Fort Bridger,
Wyoming - beautiful morning ride. Moon was still up
when we left at 5 AM (which is a good thing because
the sun wasn't even close yet). We milled around the
start for awhile until we could read the GPS maps, or
at least have a good idea of where we were going for
the next couple miles. I rode Santini. John took the
day off, saving Sukaro (Squeak) for the Uinta Mtn ride
today (there's another story). Bunchuk got his leg
hung up on the portable corral a few days ago (pawing)
and was a little sore so we decided to give him a few
more days off. Beautiful country out of Fort Bridger -
very green from the torrential summer rains we've have
for the past few days (I've never seen such lightning
and thunder!!), high country (close to 7000 ft) so the
sagebrush was sharing the land with junipers. Looked a
lot like central Oregon. Cloudy and cool, the footing
was nice and soft from the rains - very nice riding. I
rode with Linda Tribby, Karen Chaton and Kayla
Ramsdale, and Sue H. (Henderson??) until she lost a
shoe and had to stop and do an easy boot. Sue's twin
sister had done the GAHR in '76 and she was thrilled
to be able to do it herself this year. We rode pretty
slowly, came into the vet check after 4 hours (25
miles) and discovered we were the first ones in! (I'm
not very good at riding super-slow without John :)

After lunch we trailered 50 miles to the head of the
Rail Trail which went up the canyon from Echo Jctn
past Park City. Dave gave us an extra hour for the
transport. This is the first ride I've done where I
stopped for coffee and snack at a gas station halfway
through the ride. Felt a little odd ordering food in a
helmet and tights... 

Met up with Linda and Karen at the trail head and rode
the last 25 miles on the Rail Trail. Linda went on
ahead (finished first and BC). It was a nice day -
mostly riding alone. Joined up with Jim Baldwin and
Karen Beason for a bit. The boys met me in a few
places for water and grain/hay for Tini. Got rained on
a little, but it felt good. 

We spent the night at the fairgrounds in Heber City -
pretty nice facility, pens/stalls for the horses.
Unfortunately the ride that was scheduled for today -
the old Wasatch trail was looking grim. The trail was
supposed to be marked by some folks in the area, but
they had some troubles and weren't able to do the
whole thing. Dave drove what he could, trying to patch
the trail waypoints from the road and topo maps. But
we all went to bed wondering if the ride was going to
be pulled off. Meeting was scheduled for 5:20 this
morning (since Dave was still out on the mountain).
John and I decided not to ride the mountain - too much
uncertainty about the difficulty of the mountain pass
and chances of getting lost. Decided we're rather save
the horses for the next  600 miles of XP trail.
Hopefully all went well (we'll hear about it
tonight!).

Tomorrow is a rest day, then we trailer to Fairview,
Utah the day after and start the last stretch of XP
trail. I think it's going to be hot hot hot once we
get down into the Salt Lake Basin - we'll get into
some high country as we get closer to Ely, Nevada and
Fort Schellbourne but I think it's going to be hot...

Our crew is still doing great. The boys are headed to
Provo today for new skateboards and hope to spend most
of tomorrow at the skate park in Orem. They've been
entertaining themselves well - hacky-sack, cards,
squirt guns - it doesn't take too much for these guys
to stay happy. They bought cans of paint and are
customizing our '84 GMC Suburban (500+ miles and still
going...). Michele (my 20 yr old niece) is hanging in
there as well. She's doing the cooking, and most of
the horse handling. Very cheerful and patient and
capable. It's really an incredible adventure. We have
our routine down, everybody has their jobs, horses are
happy and settled into the trailer/camp -  ride/camp
life. Pretty cool.

Steph


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/