Day 22, 2001XP

[Karen <karen@storallnv.com>]

It was another hot day, even the Texans thought so.  We have some cloud 
cover now so it feels a bit cooler.  Today we rode from Murphy Ranch to Ice 
Slough, Wyoming.  It's the 4th of July, and everybody dressed up in red 
white and blue.  We also put little flags on our helmets or our horses 
bridles.

Another 5 a.m. start, which is a good thing since it is so hot.  I 
sponsored Kayla again today and we finished at 4:25 p.m.  My GPS odometer 
says we went 52.3 miles today.  In the morning we rode past Independence 
Rock, and then thru Devil's Gate and past all the handcarts, pioneer graves 
and other historical markers.  Then we spent a good deal of the day riding 
on Pony Express, Mormon, California and Oregon trail.  It was a really 
great day!

MJ pulled today, so the only two riders left who have ridden every day are 
Kayla (junior), and Terry Wooley.  The most exciting part is that Kayla has 
ridden on only two horses and they are still going and in really great 
shape.  :+))  She has more horses available now, but hopes to keep riding 
Gem and Buddy, they are both doing really well for her.  We have fun riding 
together, she is my co-navigator.....I follow where the GPS arrow shows to 
go, and she reads the written directions and map to make sure we're passing 
all the right landmarks.  It must work because we haven't gotten lost yet, 
at least not more than a few feet past any one turn.

Today a couple of people got lost -- Dave Rabe and Sands first missed a 
gate and kept going down a road, then later John and Steph Teeter followed 
the footprints the wrong way and also got misplaced.  Steph said she lost 
her GPS, it fell out of her pack.  We were kinda wondering why they ended 
up finishing behind us when they were ahead of us after lunch.

In the morning we passed two rattlesnakes. The first one was on the 
pavement, so easy to avoid.  Then later, Dolly was trotting thru the grass 
and quickly decided to move over after seeing a big fat rattler over 
there.  So we were really keeping a watch out for them.  There are a lot of 
large badger holes around that we have to look out for too.  Most of the 
footing today was excellent.

For a section or two, we had some awful bugs.  We'd been warned, so the 
horses had been fly sprayed and wiped but it didn't do any good.  We got 
thru those sections though, and it wasn't so bad after that.  In one area 
we had a whole herd of horses gallop up and then ride alongside us.  I got 
several good photos of them.  We were picking which ones to take with us, 
in case we needed another horse to ride.

Before lunch we had a long section of about 14 miles without any water, and 
boy was it ever hot....much to our delight over the hill came Jim Mitchell 
in 4WD to the rescue, bringing water for everybody, and then going back for 
more after he ran out.  The horses really drank a lot then, it was a real 
lifesaver.  Jim was also busy crewing for April, Jamie and Alicia who all 
rode today too.

Ruthie rode the new horse she bought at the Rushcreek Ranch today to 
Independence Rock.  He is a bay and looks really nice.  Dave said it took 
him an hour to get water at the RV station, and he was one of the first 
ones there.....water is getting to be a precious commodity right now, in 
some places we have to pay ten cents a gallon, and lots of it isn't potable.

Well, I better get more done around here before the ride meeting, it's been 
a long, hot day.

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
in Ice Slough, Wyoming
22 days down, 18 to go
& Weaver, 500 XP miles
& Rocky, 500 XP miles