Day 25, 2001 XP

[imgoneriding@worldnet.att.net]

We finished the last day of our fifth week of the 2001 XP today.  We're 
currently on our way to Fort Bridger, Wyoming where we are going to spend 
our one day off before starting back again on Monday.

The trail has been really great, lots of good footing, some hills to climb, 
rivers to ford and plenty of historical markers to read.  It was also nice 
today because we got rained on and had good cloud cover and that kept us 
and the horses cooled down.  It was another long day, my GPS read 51.3 
miles....either we got lost, or I spent a lot of time walking to warm the 
horse up this morning. I'll see once I download my tracks onto the computer.

Each day, the start at 5:00 a.m. is darker and darker.......most of the 
riders sorta mosey out of camp at their own pace, one or two at a time or 
in small groups at a walk.  I sponsored two juniors today, Kayla and 
Jamie.  Kayla was in pretty good shape after yesterdays accident.  Going 
into lunch we got to cross the Green River, which was really 
neat........the horses went right off a steep bank on once side, there was 
no stopping them they were thirsty.  Then we went across, Rocky was almost 
wanting to trot across since he knew camp was on the other side.  Everybody 
got a lot of good pictures.

After lunch we had only gone a few miles when Jamie's horse didn't seem 
right. So I found a cell phone from a passing crew rig and called Dave (my 
crew) and told him which waypoint we were at and he came and picked the 
horse up and took it to the vet.  Everything turned out okay.  Jamie has 
ridden and completed 17 days on Lance now, and this would have been #18.

I did ask around and found out who has ridden the most days on the least 
horses.  This isn't official by any means, so don't take my word for 
it!  Just our best guessing at this point.  The horse that has done the 
most days is Sunny, ridden by Carol.  He is a mustang and is from Oregon 
and has done 19 days.  Next is Kathy Thompson and Zane Grey and we aren't 
sure how many days he's completed, but it's pretty close to 19, then 
Lance--Jamie's horse at 17.  After that you've got three or four riders who 
have done the most days on two horses and that would be Kayla, myself, 
Jamie and Pat Verhuel.  There currently is nobody who has ridden every day 
of the (AERC) ride.  Terry had been doing really great, but pulled before 
lunch.  She was a real trooper though and went out and crewed and brought 
water and lemonade out to riders on the trail after lunch with her 
crewperson, Karen.  So the only rider who has now ridden every single mile 
of trail (even though one day doesn't count for AERC purposes), is 
Kayla.  Zane Grey has the most BC's, probably a dozen or more.  I'll have 
to ask but it sure seems like a lot.  Joyce Sousa got BC yesterday.  Clark 
Palfreyman was first.

Trilby did not ride again today.  Her new driver quit and was last seen 
(seriously) hitchiking back home.  Somebody gave him a ride back to Rock 
Springs, so he's well on his way.

I was going to go this coming day off and get my third horse to replace one 
of my other two with but Barney and Linda talked me out of it.  My guys 
have done 23 1/2 of the 25 days so far.  We're going to keep going!

Happy XP Trails,

Karen
near Fort Bridger, Wyoming