Day 38, 2001 XP

[Karen <karen@storallnv.com>]

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!