Didn’t see much of the town this year - we just braced against the wind and headed for the vet check. They told us there was no hold due to the nasty weather conditions.... what horse or human wanted to stand still and "rest" under those conditions!? We quickly vetted, grabbed a sandwich and headed back down the trail. The horses must have sensed our thinking and knew that this was the final trail home for 2004. We trotted along a nice flat sandy road and joined back up with the long winding rocky jeep road down to the highway. Lucy and I opted to walk on the ground for this part. The weather improved substantially and the sun emerged and steadily warmed us up to the point of being uncomfortable. We stopped and shed several layers each and tied them to our anxious steeds....they were totally onto us now and knew they were headed down the last trail of the ride. We hit the flats, remounted and began a steady trot home on our dry happy horses! Bob had arrived at camp about 1/2 an hour before me to the cheers of many supporters who knew he had broken the curse of being a 3 and 1/2 day rider! Now he would finally be getting that sweatshirt and we’d be returning next year for sure!
The party that night was great fun. Food was good, band was great, we danced and danced until the clock struck midnight and the beginning of a New Year! We celebrated the new friends we’d made over the course of the ride, the greatness of our mounts, the exciting and challenging moments on the trail, the conquering of the lousy weather conditions, the beautiful rainbows we saw among the dramatic cloud formations, the wonderful help and support of people who helped us get through those 4 days, and we appreciated the absence of 2 trail conditions the previous year.....no dust to eat and no sand to blow in your eyes! Our only sorrow is that we have to wait a full year to do it all over again! Thank you Jackie -
