Death Valley Encounter Day 4 2011

On this, the last day of the ride, Hoss and I hooked up with Kody and Kaitlynn. We've ridden with them before. Hoss and Kody are well matched. When one doesn't want to move out, the other will pick it up. They like each other and go about the same speed. And Kaitlynn and I get along pretty well, too.

Much of the ride was over relatively flat ground. It was also on or near the same trails we'd taken the day before. There was some new stuff as well, but we pretty much went around in the same fashion as Day 3.

Kaitlynn and I kept up the pace pretty well, chatting while we trotted along. We walked what we needed to, or when the horses needed a break. Yet again, there were playing cards we had to pick up as proof we actually went the way we were meant to.

We came back in to camp for the vet check nice and slow, and both horses were down right away. We took our horses to our separate trailers and took care of them and ourselves while we waited our hold time. Somehow I got my out time wrong, and ended up vetting and leaving ten minutes late! Kaitlynn and Kody had already hit the trail and were far ahead of us.

Hoss, now left behind and on his own, was less than keen on going back out again. It took some doing, but we managed to hit the trail again.

I knew Kody and Kaitlynn were ahead of us, so I tried to encourage Hoss to keep up a snappy trot in hopes of catching them up. We had finished in front of them every day before this, and I knew they weren't going particularly fast. Hoss wasn't having it. I swear I was pedaling that horse.

We did eventually get caught up by another pair of horses, but they were moving out much faster than Hoss should really go when they were trotting. Otherwise they walked. We wound up ahead of them when we hit the four way. If we turned right, we'd be headed back to camp. The trail marking wasn't especially helpful, and I thought we were meant to head back to camp. Hoss certainly thought so.

We hadn't gone far down the road before I looked at my GPS and realized we must have been meant to go straight, as we would end up short on mileage. I turned Hoss around, and he was ticked off about it. I ended up getting off to lead him back to trail.

Our mistake on the trail meant the pair of horses we were ahead of wound up ahead of us. This inspired Hoss to pick up the pace somewhat. I still had to push him somewhat, but he was trying harder than he had been.

We finished in plenty of time, but never managed to catch up to Kaitlynn and Kody. I saw them on my way back to my trailer, and explained I'd gotten my out time wrong!

Another 200 miles down! That's 300 miles in December alone. So far, so good. Things seem to be going our way to this point! Of course, there's still 11 months to go in the year, so we'll see what happens now.