Latest / The Touch of a Mustang / She Rode 3,000 Miles Solo Across America with Mustangs | Episode 52

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She Rode 3,000 Miles Solo Across America with Mustangs | Episode 52 · The Touch of a Mustang

0:00
You hit all these walls and your brain is what's telling you
0:03
like, you can't do this anymore. And learning to just say like,
0:07
again, feel the emotions, sit in the moment for a minute and then
0:10
just say, OK, like keep going. Because I think when you give up
0:14
mentally, when you decide that you can't do something anymore,
0:17
you've just set your limit and that's you.
0:19
You will not be able to push past that because you've just
0:22
said I can't. There are healers on this planet
0:25
with the power to soften the suffering of mankind, yet they
0:28
have remained in the recesses of the world, abused, discarded and
0:32
labeled as trash. This is the touch of a Mustang.
0:36
I am your host, Shalise Clough, and I'm here to tell the story
0:40
of wild horses, Mustangs, and the humans who are discovering
0:44
and sharing their gifts while working to protect their
0:47
well-being and preserve their spirit so this divine power
0:51
won't be lost. Join us on this quest with the
0:54
Wild Mustang. And so you are meant to tell us
1:04
about your adventures. I Yeah, I'm so excited to hear
1:07
about them. Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
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It's it's, I don't know, it's wildly surreal that we were just
1:13
talking. I feel like we were just talking
1:14
about me leaving and now all of a sudden it's done.
1:17
I know it doesn't seem like it took that long.
1:19
I mean, in reality it was months.
1:21
Yes, yeah. How long were you out there?
1:24
Six months. Yeah.
1:26
So it was like half a year ago. Yeah, I know.
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I left March 9th and then I got to the Canadian border August
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27th, and then I made it home. I rode home and I got home
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September 8th. I think so.
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Wow, it's so crazy you did it. It was.
1:42
Awesome. Tell us about your adventure.
1:44
So last time we talked and I'll link the episode down here,
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people absolutely love that episode.
1:49
But last time I talked, we talked a lot about preparing
1:52
and, and you were getting ready to go on this crazy trip all
1:55
alone, which I think is maybe the craziest part that you did
1:58
this alone. There were people helping you
2:00
along the way, but really it was you doing this.
2:04
So last time we talked, that's what you were doing.
2:06
It's been, I don't even remember when we did that.
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Probably 8 months maybe. It seems like maybe you were two
2:12
months out. You were kind of close to it,
2:13
maybe a little bit more. Did January.
2:16
Yeah. So it's been a while.
2:18
Let's talk about your trip and, and everything it entailed and
2:22
the good moments and the bad moments and.
2:24
Yeah. And what it's like being back
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because, geez, that's a, that's a huge, huge thing.
2:29
Yes, Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
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It was. I think just leading up to it,
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it was, it didn't feel real until we were like leaving home.
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Honestly. Even then it didn't really feel
2:41
like it was happening. It was just like, I've been
2:45
planning this thing for four years.
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You know, the horses are in the trailer or driving South and it
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was just like the weirdest, I guess this is happening kind of
2:53
feeling. Yeah.
2:55
So it took us like 4 days to drive down to the border.
2:59
Then yeah, my dad and I were driving together for the first.
3:03
He was with me for the first week.
3:05
So I had I had a whole week to bail.
3:07
I decided that it was a bad. Which to be honest, I probably
3:11
would have bailed at that point and especially after seeing some
3:14
of the stuff you went through, I was just like, oh man.
3:16
It was really cool to follow along though and and see as you
3:19
went. Yeah, it was super cool to be
3:21
able to document and like share it with people.
3:23
And I think it was like maybe week 4 that Instagram kind of
3:27
for whatever reason, I don't understand the algorithm at all.
3:29
But my week, I think it was my week 4 recap video kind of blew
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up. And, and from that point it was
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just wild how many people like joined along in our trip.
3:38
So the first week we were, the horses were all empty and we
3:41
were basically just the first day I took, I took the road
3:44
instead of Arizona Trail because it was at Arizona Trail brought
3:47
you up to like almost 9 and feed and, and the horses and I had
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had done no like physical preparation.
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They'd had four months off. And so the beginning of it, I
3:58
was trying to like ease them into it as much as possible.
4:01
So my dad had all of our pack year was in the in the trailer
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and the first week the horses were just like walking empty,
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but I brought them all with me so and the dog.
4:11
The dog had a couple days off the first week because it was
4:14
just like realizing, I guess how how much how much physicality
4:18
was going to be involved in the trip.
4:20
Yeah. And then, yeah, at the end of
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the first week, I was still feeling fairly confident in our
4:27
ability. And so my dad headed home.
4:29
And then I had the guy who taught me how to pack and his
4:33
wife ended up taking their like, truck and trailer or truck and
4:36
camper. And they met me at most of my
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campsites for Week 2 and 3. Yeah, that's so cool.
4:42
And Week 2 was probably one of the hardest of the entire trip.
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Really, Arizona, I don't know what I was thinking because I
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planned the room and I like knew the elevation logically, but I
4:56
just still thinking that it was going to be like kind of flat.
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And I don't know, like I guess I was thinking, I don't know what
5:02
I was thinking because even western movies like set in
5:04
Arizona, it's not flat. But in my brain I'm thinking
5:08
that this is going to be like fairly easy country to ride
5:10
through. Yeah, I mean, that's what we
5:12
think of Arizona. And you were down there in
5:14
March, I think you started. So you would think it would be
5:16
the ideal time to be riding through the flat desert.
5:20
And like, even that looked like it was crazy.
5:22
Do you think when you left wasn't it snowing?
5:24
Yes, yeah. It was the first snow that they
5:26
had all year. So we drove down in the only
5:30
snow that I think that they had the entire like winter season.
5:35
And my first week I think it snowed on us at least twice.
5:38
We had some like nice sideways rain.
5:40
My dad and I were sleeping in my trailer and we had some like
5:43
nice sideways rain and like freezing rain kind of trailer.
5:46
Put garbage bags up on the window.
5:49
Oh my gosh, that sounds miserable.
5:51
Like the fact that you were still like, Nope, we're still
5:53
doing it is very impressive because I would have been like,
5:56
I'm cold. I hate being.
5:57
Cold, Yeah, yeah, it was definitely like I again was not
6:02
expecting that from Arizona. So then Week 2, we had our first
6:05
like 2 big climbs. I do not live in elevation that
6:08
I was expecting, but our highest peak is probably about 7000 that
6:13
you can like ride up to. So in Week 2 we rode up to Suara
6:17
National Park and then the height of that I think was
6:21
either 8000 or 8100, I don't remember which.
6:24
Oh wow, yeah, I wouldn't have guessed that either.
6:26
No. So we.
6:28
That's the that's the place that has the huge cactuses, right?
6:30
So you're thinking like we're in the desert, we're in the low
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desert. Yeah, it was, it was an
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interesting, it was crazy how much so we, we started out down
6:39
low obviously. And then as we climbed, we we
6:42
passed all the cactuses and by the end of the day, I think it
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was a 17 mile day, we ended at the top of the peak.
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There was snow, ice everywhere and there were pints.
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So we'd completely left the desert.
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And then the next day we had to come all the way back down.
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Jeez, like 1 extreme to another. Yes, exactly.
7:00
And then I ended up taking the next day off.
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I was supposed to go up Mount Lemmon, which was basically a
7:05
repeat of the day before. And I was, I think both the
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horses and I were like wiped and I'd walked most of Saguaro just
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cuz again, I felt so bad for the for the horses.
7:17
So we took one day off. And I mean, that's a big
7:20
adjustment from living in a corral to like, yes, you are
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traveling and like living in nature.
7:26
We took one day off and then we went up, Not a lemon, which was
7:29
I think probably the hardest section both mentally and
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physically of the entire trip. Well, yeah, that's so
7:36
interesting. I wouldn't have thought Arizona
7:39
would be the hard part, you know, unless you're like going
7:42
through there in the summer, you know?
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But I'm like, you were there in the spring when a lot of times,
7:46
like people choose to live there.
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Yeah, yeah. During that exact time.
7:50
Yeah, yeah. So I think it was just, it was
7:53
the mental aspect. So that was, it was a one of my
7:55
first like really big days. It was like 26 or 28 miles in
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Week 2. And then I got to camp in the
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dark. My phone had died.
8:03
I was navigating on my GPS, which I didn't really have like
8:07
my root in my GPS because I was not thinking I'd have to use it.
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And then it was, there was like snow up on top.
8:14
It was, it was just like a very long, long, long day.
8:18
By the time we got to camp, I was like, I don't know if this
8:22
was a good idea. Yeah.
8:24
I was going to say, were you second guessing your yes
8:27
decision and continuing forward and everything at that point?
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Yes, yeah, That was, I think that was like the first
8:33
legitimate, like kind of regret. And it was.
8:39
I ended up staying in the camper that night.
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I was like, I got to camp. I was rather discouraged.
8:45
It was dark. The dog had her.
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I had her collar on and she has like a little light.
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So she was out in front of me and I had my headlamp riding
8:52
into camp. Oh my gosh, with, with four
8:55
horses, you know, we have to remember that, yes.
8:58
Yeah, So we got to camp. I was like kind of trying to
9:02
hype myself up to set up my tent and do all that.
9:04
And then I was like, no, I like this is this is not something I
9:08
want to deal with. So John offered and he's like,
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do you want to sleep in the camper tonight?
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And I was like, yes, please. That would be fantastic.
9:16
Yeah. So anyway.
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And then and then we kept going the next day because what are
9:19
the options? Like, you know, at that point we
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were, we were committed and. Yeah.
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I mean, I think a lot of people may have bailed at that point,
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but you're like, if this is just the start, what is this going to
9:31
be like? I think for me it was, it was
9:35
just not really an option, I guess.
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I don't know in my, in my mind, it was not too much like like
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we're here, but the only way I guess is forward.
9:46
So. Yeah.
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So that was kind of the mentality of the whole trip.
9:49
And it probably made a difference like this wasn't just
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a spur of the moment decision, like you said, like this was
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four years in the making. Yeah.
9:55
I think that like dedication and commitment that you put
9:58
beforehand really probably yes, made a difference in those
10:01
really tough moments. Yeah, I think it was, I think it
10:04
was the mental both preparation of preparing for this trip as
10:08
well as like not wanting to disappoint myself I guess too,
10:10
because like, yeah, I think that was kind of the repeat factor as
10:14
well because there were several times where I was like, I don't
10:16
think I can do this, Like I don't want to do this anymore.
10:19
And then it was back to the fact of like, what am I facing?
10:22
Like what is this obstacle that's making me feel this way?
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And then is this like obstacle really worth like ending the
10:29
trip? Like after coming, however, like
10:32
is the fact that there's no water, but there'll probably be
10:35
water in like 10 miles or however, you know, like, is that
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enough to go like I'm done? And then kind of I think what
10:43
kept getting me through like each point, it's like, is this
10:46
enough to make me quit? And it just never was quite
10:49
enough for me to say, OK, now we're done.
10:52
So. Yeah, I mean, what a great
10:54
mentality, though, to just be like, I don't want to disappoint
10:56
myself. I'm sure everybody else would
10:57
have been like, oh, bummer. But like, you know, the next
11:00
day, it means nothing to them. And it's probably something that
11:02
you would have just regretted, you know, like, what if I would
11:05
have kept going? And so man, what a, like, good
11:08
philosophy for life to not disappoint ourselves.
11:10
Like, if we commit to something, let's do it.
11:12
You know there's a reason we started this.
11:14
Yeah, it was, It was definitely a learned.
11:16
I would say the growth in the first two months of the trip was
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it was a very steep, steep growth period because it was
11:24
just learning the mentality of of like what it was like to not
11:29
have like a surety, I guess every day.
11:31
Like that's not something that we're used to.
11:34
I think especially I was, well, most of the population there
11:37
are, you know, people that live that way, but right.
11:40
It was the, it was the like, will we have food?
11:43
Will we have water? Most of the time that was like
11:46
mostly guaranteed. I, I spent a decent amount of
11:48
time planning that we would camp somewhere that should have water
11:51
and food. But there were several times
11:53
where I'd get to camp and there would be the, you know, the
11:56
water was dry or there was no grass or, you know, I only had
11:59
40 lbs of alfalfa cubes left. And so that was what they had
12:03
for the night. And just like having to walk
12:06
into camp re change, like reshift your mental frame of
12:10
like, we're not done yet. We got to keep going and then
12:13
continuing on, looking at your map as you go, like, OK, where's
12:16
my next source of water? Oh, yeah, and you just walk
12:20
until you get there. That's your, that's your option.
12:22
Yeah, that is true. It really does make your choices
12:25
simple. Yes, yeah, there's very few,
12:27
very few things. It was yeah, very few things to
12:30
worry about. I guess there were about, you
12:31
know, 4-4 ish things, food, water, how far we're going and
12:35
like is everybody like safe, which simplifies life for sure.
12:40
Yeah. So anyway, it was it was the
12:42
first, the first two months were were a lot.
12:48
Do you think it being hard at the beginning made it easier
12:51
later on? Yeah, I think it kind of set the
12:53
tone for the trip. And I think that the first two
12:56
months were hard because I was adjusting to the tone of the
12:59
trip of just that it was going to be kind of real endless.
13:03
It was going to be a lot of work.
13:04
I was expecting my days off to be like kind of a relaxing reset
13:09
day and and in reality. Sitting in a hammock, yeah.
13:11
Exactly. And in reality, like if you have
13:15
four horses and a dog, your days off are entirely consumed by how
13:20
do we have to set ourselves up to take care of them for the
13:22
Nets? Five however long days, which,
13:25
which, yeah, I quickly, quickly realized that my days off we're
13:28
going to be taking care of the animals.
13:30
And that was one of the things too, is the there were a ton of
13:33
hikers on the Arizona Trail. I kind of was starting with a
13:37
group of hikers and, and I caught up to several that it
13:40
started before me. And then obviously people hike
13:42
at different cases. So I had people pass me as well.
13:44
And one of the comments that they would always say is like, I
13:47
would pass them in the middle of the day and they would be like,
13:51
man, like you have you're taking the easy way or whatever.
13:54
And I've always kind of laughed because it's like, yeah, this is
13:57
way easier now. Wait till we get to camp and I'm
14:00
taking 3 hours to set up and. Feed, Yeah, having horses and
14:04
having to take care of everybody else except yourself.
14:06
And then when, you know, in the morning when we pack up to
14:09
leave, you're gone in like 15 minutes maybe.
14:11
And I'm going to be here for three hours.
14:15
It was. Yeah.
14:16
Again, just adjusting to that. But I saw some really cool
14:19
country. Arizona is still incredibly
14:22
rugged. Yeah.
14:23
Arizona is so rugged. And it's it was, it was just
14:26
super cool to be able to ride consecutively through through
14:29
the state. And then, yeah, going through
14:30
the Grand Canyon was something that I kind of been looking
14:33
forward to from the very beginning.
14:36
Yeah. And how is that like difficulty
14:38
wise? Because that's pretty intense
14:40
trails and stuff, isn't it? Like you're on the side of
14:42
cliffs and things like that. Yes, it was.
14:45
I was like, genuinely, I thought I was probably going to throw up
14:48
as I was approaching the edge of.
14:50
The man. It was.
14:52
I don't know if I could have done that.
14:54
Your videos of it are crazy. It was, it was, I would say
14:58
crazier. I mean, obviously crazier.
15:00
In real life it was. Yeah.
15:03
It almost looks like, I think my brain like just, you know,
15:06
created a barrier of like reality versus it looked like a
15:10
movie set. It looked like it was just a
15:12
flat like background, Like I think you just the depth of the
15:17
Grand Canyon and like just how big it was.
15:21
And so as you're walking up to the edge and this just, I mean,
15:25
it just drops like there's just this rock and then there's
15:28
nothing after that. And so we're we're riding along
15:33
and obviously the South Rim is open year round.
15:35
And so there's tourists everywhere and people are hiking
15:38
down. I went down South Kebab trail.
15:40
So people are having to like step up on the high side of the
15:43
trail and let us pass. It was maybe I would say most of
15:46
the trail was like 6 to 6 to maybe 8 feet wide going down.
15:50
And so, so there was, it was wide enough, but it was still
15:53
very much like as I was riding, like my toes were barely in the
15:57
stirrups. I'm kind of like leaning to the
15:59
high side. Yeah.
16:02
It was, it was pretty crazy. You'd go around switchbacks in
16:04
your horse's head, would just like hang off the trail.
16:08
Oh my gosh. So it was.
16:10
It was pretty crazy. Did it bother the horses at all?
16:14
Susie, I was riding Susie that day and I would say like the
16:17
first two switchbacks, she was pretty nervous.
16:20
It was, it was, they were, you know, steep enough switchbacks
16:23
that you'd be coming around the corner and your pack horses were
16:25
still above you like as they went down around the switchback.
16:29
And so the first few she was kind of like, I don't know if
16:32
this is, this isn't normal like this is.
16:36
But after we got through the first few, she everybody settled
16:39
in. Yeah, that's incredible that
16:43
they're they just adjust like that.
16:44
Yes, and at that point we were about 800 miles in.
16:48
So they had some serious miles under their belt.
16:51
And I think that's why we were able to to do that because in
16:55
fact, I even had I had some like permitting issues.
16:58
I was planning on camping on the North Rim, but it was closed.
17:01
And so I ended up having to, I had a had a park officer come up
17:05
and he's like, can you, He's like for the person who issued
17:08
the North Rim permits it, it wasn't like the park is closed
17:13
and they didn't realize that that camping site isn't
17:15
available when the park is closed.
17:16
And he's like, so is there any way you can go around?
17:20
I kind of looked at him like. Around the Grand Canyon.
17:22
Actually, like, go around, You mean around the Grand Canyon?
17:25
And he's like, well, yeah. And I was like.
17:27
Oh my gosh. Around the Grand Canyon.
17:29
And so he's like, well, like, is there or what?
17:33
Like what options could you like?
17:35
Could you go down and then come back up the South Rim and then
17:37
go around? And I was like, no, I don't have
17:39
a truck and trailer, like I'm walking.
17:41
And I was like, what we could do is we could just go camp in the
17:44
basin, go up the North Rim and then leave the park that same
17:47
day. And he was like, Are you sure
17:49
that's going to be safe? Because he's like a lot of
17:51
people like think that they're going to be able to do these
17:54
trails and then they really struggle.
17:55
And I think it was just a testament to how in shape the
17:58
horses were at that point because from we, so we stay at
18:01
Cottonwood Campground. So from there up to the North
18:04
Rim, I want to say it was almost like 6000 feet of elevation
18:08
gain. And then we had another like 5
18:12
or 8 miles, I don't remember exactly which, to get out of the
18:15
park. So we'd climbed up, you know,
18:17
all the way up to the north Grim.
18:18
And then we had another like we had to keep going.
18:21
Dang, and that's a good trek out.
18:23
Yes, yeah. And they were, they were horses
18:25
were completely fine. Like we, we stopped a few times
18:28
to catch our breath, but for the most part they were able to just
18:32
like hike out of there. So.
18:33
Oh, that's awesome. It was, it was amazing.
18:35
It was amazing watching exactly like how capable they were not
18:39
just mentally but also like physically.
18:41
So were there any other notable Arizona moments before you
18:45
headed off into Utah? Right was next.
18:47
Yes, Utah was next. Arizona had a lot of challenges.
18:52
The cactus was one of one of the big challenges I had York.
18:56
So we left. Mount Lemmon dropped down into,
19:00
I don't remember what that next mountain range was called, but
19:02
they're fairly low mountains, like 3000 feet more hills, I
19:05
would say way fields are. And so once we dropped down into
19:10
that kind of basin, we got into like some serious choya bushes
19:14
or trees. I don't, I'm not sure exactly
19:16
what you would, but my horses did obviously did not know what
19:20
those were. And so we were, we were riding,
19:23
we were east of Tucson and York was in the back.
19:26
You know, he was, he was packing.
19:28
So he was second to last and friendly was in front of him and
19:31
didn't like he didn't steer very wide around the Bush.
19:35
So then York just went to like cut the corner and go straight
19:37
through and he almost went over the top of this Toya Bush and
19:42
just. My gosh.
19:43
Completely covered, like from nose to tail covered inch.
19:46
Oh my gosh, they look, I called them like angry Pickles.
19:49
There were two different kinds that we were mainly dealing
19:52
with. I don't know.
19:53
I remember what the one kind of the there's the teddy bear toy
19:56
which are the really like fluffy like sea urchini looking ones.
20:01
And those are the ones that they called the jumping choya.
20:03
And then there were there was a different kind that looked like
20:05
Pickles, but they had like super long spines on them.
20:09
Just all over, right? Like they're all covered in
20:12
them. Yes and yeah.
20:13
And the spines finds like they they're like they have a Barb on
20:18
them. So if they get in you, then they
20:19
stick. Oh my gosh, you will just have
20:22
like all of these like bundles of like choya farms anyway.
20:26
And so he broke his brake away, broke the horses behind him and
20:30
he just took off at like a dead run.
20:32
And he did like 5 or 6 laps bucked off his pan.
20:36
Yours is canvas like all the things came off and then he
20:40
finally like ran over the hill and we were able to go find him
20:42
and and get the get him. He was not very interested in
20:45
running at that point, but we had the guy that I was riding
20:51
with a guy at that point for a couple days and he had a Toyo
20:53
comb, which I had a ton of people tell me I should invest
20:56
in a Toyo comb and it's just like a yeah, you're like home,
20:59
but you get it. Now I know, right?
21:02
Yeah, you get it in between the barbs and the horse.
21:04
And then you like Flick the Leatherman, which worked.
21:07
But anyway, so we spent about like 30 minutes trying to get
21:10
the cactus off of him, which he didn't appreciate.
21:12
And then we packed up and kept going.
21:14
And and after that, he's still to this day very paranoid if you
21:18
have anything that looks like it's at all pokey.
21:21
Man, yeah. The ear goes out and we we make
21:24
a wide turn around it. So I feel like that would like a
21:28
christening. If you're going to ride in
21:29
Arizona, you have to have at least one encounter with the
21:31
choya. Oh my gosh, yeah, it sounds and
21:35
looks horrible. Yes, it it is.
21:37
I would. If you're not riding through it,
21:40
it could be really pretty. Yeah, it's very otherworldly,
21:45
for sure. Yeah.
21:46
Anyone that that I think has ridden through the desert of
21:49
Arizona like it is, it is brutal.
21:51
And I would probably not choose to take four horses or whatever
21:54
again, really. And the dog too, She would lay
21:58
underneath the choya trees, bushes cuz made out there.
22:01
And then she would get up and she'd just be like, her entire
22:04
side would be coated in choya. Oh my.
22:06
Gosh. Bite at it to try and get it
22:08
out, and then she'd get the needles in her mouth.
22:10
So anyway, that was all. That whole experience was kind
22:13
of a disaster. Man, how long was that light?
22:17
How long were you like in the choya where you're dealing with
22:19
it was a battle. A week, yeah, there were, there
22:25
were a couple days that were like literally both sides of the
22:28
trail were like huge bushes and, and you just couldn't help every
22:32
time you would ride through and some would fall off on you.
22:35
And then the rest of the time it was like, you know, if you went
22:39
off the trail, then there were bushes that you kind of had to
22:41
avoid or, or sometimes you'd have to kind of like keep
22:44
everybody to one side or the other.
22:46
But but there was just like one week that was that was just
22:49
everything was it was thick. Jeez, were you exhausted after
22:55
that? Just the relentlessness of again
22:58
and again and again. Yes, yeah, that was, that was a
23:02
long, that was a very long leak use for us.
23:06
I think we took three days off at the end of that one before we
23:09
started our before we started our next stretch, which that was
23:12
the the two days off and five days on was how we kind of
23:15
navigated Arizona and Utah. And then once we got to Wyoming,
23:19
we started doing 6 days of travel and one day off just to
23:22
kind of speed up. The process, yeah, that's so
23:25
surprising. I mean I guess I could see
23:27
Arizona being brutal but you would also think Wyoming and
23:31
Montana and stuff. He'd be like no I need a break
23:33
also cuz the elevation and stuff like that.
23:36
Yeah, I think the thought process was more food
23:39
availability. I was able to pack less feed
23:42
once we got to Wyoming, although that did kind of bite me in the
23:46
backside a couple times for sure.
23:48
But yeah, Utah was definitely another highlight.
23:51
I mean, it was and I've never been to any of the states other
23:54
than I've been to Montana, but I haven't ridden the through the
23:57
parts that I rode through. So entering Utah was was again,
24:00
you're changing. It feels like you're changing
24:02
like worlds. You're going to a different
24:04
planet now. Yeah, they are very different.
24:08
Yeah, and and then like in similar because the Grand Canyon
24:11
obviously is big rock features and you get in Northern Arizona
24:15
and again you're like it's right on the border of Utah.
24:17
So but I rode into Utah, I had some people pick me up in from
24:23
Kanab. So they drove a truck and
24:25
trailer out to where we were on the trail, drove us back to
24:28
their place, and then the horses spent a couple days off with
24:31
their goats in the backyard. And then they drove us back to
24:35
the trail that we'd left from. And then we obviously continued
24:40
into Utah and mean counted slot canyons, which I didn't actually
24:45
know. I mean, I guess I knew they were
24:47
a thing, but I didn't know that we were going to be riding
24:49
through them. We had to turn around.
24:51
We had to backtrack 4 miles because we got stuck in the
24:54
Canyon. And then it was like 100 hundred
24:56
feet from the road, like I could see it.
24:59
And there was this shoulder that had fallen into the base of the
25:02
slot Canyon. And there was like I could have
25:04
hiked over it, but there was no way to ride.
25:06
So I had to backtrack the horses all the way back around.
25:09
And then we circled out so. Frustrating.
25:11
And then we, we came into Tropic Utah during Bryce Canyon, the
25:16
old days, which was kind of fun. Wow.
25:19
And took a couple days off there.
25:22
And then we, we started climbing up the plateaus.
25:25
So we went over the Aquarius Plateau first and I stood in
25:29
Torrey, UT and then went back over, I don't remember what the
25:32
next plateau was called and dropped it into Salina.
25:35
We saw our first rattlesnake and only rattlesnake of the entire
25:38
trip. That's surprising, I would have
25:41
thought you would have encountered more.
25:42
I was expecting to have them like crawling in the tent at
25:46
night and like I was expecting in my mind, I'd had all these
25:50
like scenarios with snakes and we saw one.
25:53
So I mean, one rattlesnake we saw a couple other non.
25:56
But yeah, that was. And I think honestly, that was
25:58
because it was such a cold year. Most of my most of my nights out
26:02
were like anywhere from 20° to maybe like maybe 3540.
26:08
But most of my nights were around freezing throughout the
26:12
entire trip. And I think that was just the
26:14
elevation that I was kind of riding at.
26:17
It froze on us every single month.
26:20
I've had ice at least once on the and then I think it snowed
26:23
every month except for September.
26:25
Oh. My goodness.
26:26
It was just a really cold year, but it was exactly what we
26:29
needed because it kept we kept refilling our water table
26:32
essentially. So as I.
26:33
Mean that's a bright side. Yes, exactly.
26:36
And that was, that was what I was trying to focus on because
26:38
it was, it was cold, but the horses, it would be better than
26:42
to have hot just because it, it's way more man.
26:45
Were you expecting it to be so cold so much of the time?
26:48
Like that? Every night it's called.
26:50
No, I In fact, that was one of the things that I was
26:54
regretting. I had My sleeping bag was rated
26:56
for 20° I believe, which I thought would be.
26:59
No. And it was not.
27:02
I probably should have had a bag.
27:05
My dog and I ended up she would, I would wake up usually it was
27:08
around 2:00 AM because it's kind of the coldest of the night.
27:11
And Piglet would be like her face would be right here and she
27:13
just be like staring at me like the sleeping bag.
27:17
And she had her own down blanket, but that was not
27:20
usually good enough. And so she would, I'd open the
27:23
sleeping bag and she'd Burrow in, and then I'd put her back or
27:26
her blanket over the top of both of us, and that was that we made
27:31
most of. Combined, somebody heat.
27:34
Yeah, yeah. So anyway, so Utah was
27:37
incredible. I would love to go back,
27:38
honestly, but that was kind of the challenge of Utah was rogue
27:42
riding I. Remember seeing that that you
27:43
were next to roadways a lot. Yes.
27:46
And a lot of that was because there was still a lot of snow up
27:50
on the Wasatch Plateau, which was kind of my plan was to go up
27:53
and over and then and then take that plateau quite a ways north.
27:56
And there was still enough snow up there that the locals were
28:00
like, I don't think you'd, I don't think you'd be able to
28:02
make it through. And so I rode down through the
28:04
valley, but all was on roads. And then I was able to go up the
28:09
Wasatch on a highway that I had multiple people tell me that
28:13
people had died like driving. They had pioneer days and
28:16
they're like we had a couple years ago, somebody got killed
28:18
in like a wagon with their horses.
28:22
And so I had with. Basically they drove in front of
28:27
me and behind me with flags. Which was very nice.
28:31
And then we got up on the plateau for only like 2 days and
28:35
we had to drop back down and then I think we had about a week
28:39
of being in the Backcountry and then the rest of the Utah was
28:42
pretty much on roads. So it would be, I would love to
28:46
try and ride through Utah and find a way to do it on public
28:48
land, but most of the public land was like east, West, not
28:51
north-south. So you kind of grew through
28:54
highways. So we spent a lot of time
28:57
practicing our our desensitizing on on the side of highways.
29:01
Yeah, and the horses did well, all things considered, with
29:05
vehicles going by quickly. Yes, they did fantastic.
29:08
I again, like, I just have not enough words for how amazing
29:13
they were on this trip. I mean, obviously I wouldn't
29:15
have been able to do it without them, but it was just, it was so
29:19
incredible to just watch them. Like literally every obstacle
29:22
that we faced, they were they were like, yeah, OK, we can do
29:25
this. Which I think also set the tone
29:27
for like me if like if you guys can do this and you aren't
29:30
complaining like I can like I'll do it too.
29:32
And I'll, you know, make sure that you're taken care of
29:34
through this. But yeah, so we had like semi
29:36
trucks, tarps flapping in the back of vehicles like the Jake
29:40
brakes on the semis people, which I totally understand the
29:45
heart behind, but people would punk at us because I think
29:48
they're excited you're. Like, thank you.
29:50
Yeah. And and so, yeah, that was
29:52
always fun. The first couple of horses kind
29:55
of like, you know, would spook and then and then they very
29:58
quickly were like, oh, OK, like this isn't a scary guy.
30:01
Yeah, but yeah. And then and then managing the
30:03
dog too, that was that was a lot of people were very concerned
30:07
about the dog through Utah, which is understandable.
30:10
She did really well. She learned a lot of kind of
30:14
unintended manners on the trip of, of healing.
30:17
And then also if she heard a car coming, usually she'd hear it
30:20
before me, she'd come back and sit down and wow, really
30:24
trained. It was kind of just out of the
30:26
further that we went. She just learned that, you know,
30:29
I'd call her back when cars were coming.
30:30
And so she started just doing it on her own.
30:32
She also learned how to hitchhike in Utah because the
30:36
the asphalt was really hard on her paws.
30:38
And we tried boots and, and they were causing blisters.
30:41
So anyway, so I'd have people just they pull over and be like,
30:45
your dog looks a little sore. And I was like, yeah, our feet
30:47
are a little sore today. And, and so they'd offer to pick
30:50
her up and take her to camp that night.
30:52
And, and the first couple times I was like, wow, you're not
30:55
going to bring my dog back. Like I'm just going to, you're
30:58
just going to take my dog in every single time.
31:00
They would drop her off at camp that night or they'd take her
31:02
for a couple hours and take her to town and then drop her back
31:05
off like midday and which. That's incredible.
31:08
And this was just people driving by that happened to see you.
31:12
Yep, random people. Some, there were a couple people
31:15
that followed me on Instagram that offered to take her.
31:19
And then I had a couple people that like like friends that I
31:21
knew that would take her for like a week or something.
31:24
But yeah, most of it was just random people on the side of the
31:26
road that were like, you look like you're walking somewhere.
31:30
It's like, Yep. And they were just offered to
31:32
take the dog and drop her off. So and food.
31:35
There were lots of people that would drop off food at camps,
31:37
which was through Utah because we were closer to towns.
31:40
And so it was super sweet and it was really cool to just see
31:44
people kind of like come around and and help you out on
31:48
something that you've never met them before and they don't know
31:50
you. Yeah, that is really cool.
31:52
Yeah, Utah was very cool people aspect.
31:55
And then, yeah, we went into, I had a friend join me through
32:00
like northern Utah and then we went through like the corner of
32:04
southern Wyoming and then into like when we were on the highway
32:11
at that. And then we went into the
32:13
mountains in Wyoming on like the very western kind of.
32:17
Part of the state. We had a few a few issues there.
32:21
I lost my saw. We ended up backtracking about 8
32:24
miles that day to try and find it and I'm going to guess I lost
32:28
it somewhere on the highway. I.
32:29
Know. And.
32:31
So like when you're out there in rugged forest, like they're not
32:33
trails like a lot of us are used to where there's a nice little
32:37
path, like there are downed trees everywhere.
32:40
Yes, yeah, No, that was ironically as I like right as I
32:45
lost my thought after that was really I was sawing.
32:49
I was sawing out a tree almost every day just stomach snitch.
32:53
So it was, it was awful diving, but it was it, it worked out.
32:58
I had somebody lend me a saw for for a while and then I ended up
33:02
getting another one. So and then York bucked me off,
33:05
I think the next day. Man.
33:08
Which was a bummer. I lost my headlamp I think, and
33:13
my water. I lost a couple more things on
33:15
that event. What you would think like we've
33:19
walked thousands of miles by this point, Why are you bucking
33:22
me off? Yeah, yeah.
33:25
So that was we kind of discovered York has the least
33:28
amount of riding experience. There were some things that we
33:30
kind of like expedited in order to make this trip, you know,
33:34
because they were all three of them.
33:37
We spent 4 year old year getting ready and then 5 is when we were
33:42
on this trip. And so I found some holes for
33:44
sure in my training process. York was.
33:47
If he gets ropes underneath his tail that send really yes
33:51
absolutely spiraling. So that is what happened.
33:54
His friendly head man bumping him.
33:56
With his nose and he. Got his lead rope underneath
33:59
York's tail. Oh my gosh, missed my.
34:02
Turn. I made a navigation error so we
34:04
went to do like AU turn and as I turned him around the rope kind
34:08
of sucked up underneath his tail and that started started our
34:12
eight second attempt and I it's just like 1 bad thing.
34:17
After another time, yeah. So then after that a.
34:21
Little more intentional about rope management and you know who
34:24
who. If I was riding York, I was
34:26
pretty intentional about who I put behind it.
34:28
Yeah, I never would have thought.
34:30
About that that, you know even packing yeah yeah, and for.
34:34
Whatever reason, when he was packing, it didn't bother him
34:37
when another horse would do it, then I think it was just enough
34:40
factors of being uncomfortable that it was enough to, like, tip
34:44
him over the edge. Yeah.
34:46
And that had. Happened one other time in.
34:48
Arizona But he he took like a couple big jumps and then like
34:52
just took off at a dead run. And at the end of the couple
34:56
jumps, I realized that I was still on top of my horse.
34:59
I'd lost my reins and was behind.
35:03
I was in the back of the saddle, so I was on the candle and and
35:06
not in this. Oh my goodness.
35:07
But I was still. On top of my horse.
35:09
So I kind of, as he's dead, running through the forest, I
35:13
kind of climbed back into the seat and grabbed the reins and I
35:15
was able to get him stopped. Oh my gosh, it was not the
35:18
first. Kind of occurrence.
35:19
But it was the first time he actually, it was the only time I
35:21
got bucked off on the trip, thankfully.
35:23
But anyway, so Wyoming had a few kind of rodeo, but it was I
35:27
think early enough in the year that nobody was really out in
35:29
the mountains yet. It was still kind of a little
35:32
bit wet and hard to access with vehicles, off road vehicles.
35:36
So we basically had the whole mountain range to ourselves.
35:38
We spent 10 days without seeing anyone.
35:40
So it was 10 days of just us out in the mountains, which is what
35:44
was that like did? You start feeling that after a
35:46
while or were you like this is amazing.
35:48
I think at that point, Arizona there.
35:50
Were a lot of moments of like, I need human contact and I'm not
35:55
naturally, I don't like being by myself.
35:57
And so I think that that was part of the hard part of
35:59
Arizona, was kind of learning how to be by myself.
36:03
But by the time we got to Wyoming and just, I think that
36:06
it was just a spectacular scenery.
36:08
I was starting to kind of get used to it.
36:10
And I didn't like it necessarily, but there was kind
36:13
of a piece about it. The only thing is Gracie did
36:17
colic while we were in one that was that was like 2 days later
36:21
so lost the thaw. Your fucked me off about two two
36:25
days. Is he collect?
36:26
Is this the next worst part of the?
36:28
Trip. Yeah, Yeah, friendly.
36:30
Had stuck his leg through a cattle guard in Arizona, like as
36:33
we were not in Arizona, in Utah as we were coming into Wyoming.
36:37
So he was, I was giving him like antibiotics and pain medication
36:41
and Gracie Colic while I was still doing all that.
36:43
So it was kind of, it was definitely a rough, it was a
36:46
rough couple weeks. She was fine.
36:48
Obviously it was the temperature dropped to about 17° from being
36:53
like fairly warm during the day and there wasn't a lot of grass
36:56
there. We were too high.
36:58
I think we were at like 8500 feet and the grass was kind of
37:01
around 7500 at that point in the year.
37:05
And so there just wasn't a lot of food.
37:07
The temperature dropped a ton. And then I didn't, I wasn't
37:10
packing alfalfa at that point, I was packing grain.
37:14
And so I gave them what little grain I had left.
37:18
And I just think that it was enough to kind of 'cause like a
37:20
little GI upset, but we're walking all that next day and
37:24
she wasn't super uncomfortable. Then towards the end of the day,
37:27
she started to try and lie down a couple times and thankfully we
37:33
got to this gorgeous Meadow right along the river.
37:36
And so we took two days off there and then continued on.
37:38
And then in Jackson we took 10 days off.
37:41
So we made it. We made it there by I think the
37:44
first of July and then we stayed there until I think it was the
37:50
13th, 12th or 13th because we had to be in Yellowstone by the
37:55
16th. We rode through Tetown National
37:58
Park, which was. Mind blowing, I bet.
38:03
I think there were two parts of the trip that like overlived the
38:06
hype, and one of them was the Grand Canyon and the other one
38:09
was the Tetons. Yeah, it was, again, it was just
38:12
kind of one of those like you, you just can't really
38:14
comprehend. There's still snow on the top.
38:16
And so it's just absolutely stunning.
38:19
And we didn't really get to ride through.
38:21
We were on the highway through the park, get to we were going
38:24
through Teton Wilderness. So we're just trying to get to
38:27
the wilderness area. But so it was pretty incredible.
38:29
And then rode through Teton Wilderness to get to
38:33
Yellowstone. I camped out for two days on the
38:37
South border of Yellowstone with probably the worst biting flies
38:40
of the entire trip. I was walking around with a
38:43
blanket over my head because they were just.
38:45
They'd fall, my gosh, in these swarms.
38:47
And I went through a couple. Cans of bug spray and they just
38:49
like, wouldn't go away. Oh my gosh.
38:53
And so how? Many ways can you find a
38:55
torture. Yourself.
38:56
Yeah, I know It was. It was.
38:58
Just a new IT was just something like you'd get through the one
39:01
miserable thing and then you'd find find a new one to replace
39:03
it. So right and some of you.
39:06
Didn't even anticipate, Right. You're like, the rattlesnakes
39:08
were fine, but the biting flies. Yeah, and I and the biting.
39:11
Flies, I think honestly were they were awful and the horses
39:14
obviously it was driving them crazy because they can't get
39:18
away from them. And I think I went through, I
39:20
had like 3 cans of like human bug spray and I'd gone through
39:24
all of my horse bug spray that I had in those two days because I
39:28
just gonna resupply. And so I started using human
39:31
spray on them as well. Anyway, it was definitely not
39:35
quite a Restful 2 days off, but you guys were probably.
39:39
All ready to get out of there. You're like, all right, we're
39:41
done. I need to go through
39:42
Yellowstone. And yeah, so then we got to ride
39:46
to Yellowstone, which is super cool.
39:47
I had called like a week ahead of time to get my permits.
39:50
And so we had to, we ended up having to get through the park
39:52
in three days, hoping to spend a little bit more time, but it was
39:55
kind of a rushed got to get through.
39:58
That's just the amount of time that they would give.
40:00
You was just the three days in the Backcountry.
40:03
In national parks, you have to have stock permits and
40:07
Yellowstone does a really good job of managing their like each
40:11
stock site has pasture that you graze, so they have like grazing
40:15
hours and obviously like just they're different registration
40:20
or reservations kind of line up. So because I'd only given them a
40:25
week ahead of time, they only had a few stock sites available
40:28
and so I had to be go far enough in between.
40:32
So we had like a 26 mile day, I think like a 27 1/2 or 28 mile
40:37
day. And then we had like a 24 mile
40:39
day. So all the days were were
40:41
pretty, pretty full to get through the park.
40:44
Yeah, that seems long. Yeah.
40:46
We did a lot more. A lot more days over, I found
40:49
kind of 18 miles really was the sweet spot, which I talked to
40:53
Ben Masters ahead of time who did the unbranded ride and we
40:57
kind of planned a lot of that. He told me he's like 18 miles is
41:01
going to be like that's going to be how far you want to go in a
41:04
day. It's like it's it's you're not
41:06
going to walk the weight off your horses.
41:08
So 27 miles is like a pretty heavy.
41:10
Day. Yes, yeah.
41:12
And I. Unfortunately, most of my days
41:14
ended up being over 20. I had a few days I slowed down
41:18
quite a bit in Wyoming. I did a lot of like 15 to 18
41:23
mile days just because it was really pretty and I was trying
41:25
to like enjoy the process and not just rush through.
41:28
But I think overall throughout the trip, the amount of days
41:31
over 20 miles was, was pretty heavy.
41:33
And I ended up doing way more miles.
41:35
And my longest day was 31 miles. And that was in use.
41:38
And then I had several days that ended up being about 30 miles,
41:42
again, accidentally, because most of the time it's because we
41:45
get to camp, no water. So you got to keep going.
41:48
And then there were a couple navigation errors that caused,
41:51
you know, I'd have to turn around and go rocks where they
41:54
weren't listed. Yes.
41:55
Yeah, exactly that. Kind of stuff.
41:57
Or, you know, trails that aren't marked and so you miss your turn
42:00
and you have to entry it to find it again or yeah.
42:05
So anyway, so then we got in. Yellowstone is when York got
42:09
kicked by Gracie. And he at the.
42:14
Time I wasn't sure what happened other than I heard I heard her
42:18
kick him and then he was like slightly lame the next day, but
42:22
not not really too bad. So we walked out of Yellowstone
42:26
that day and then by the next day it was pretty obvious that
42:29
that he was he was pretty lame. He wasn't feeling very good.
42:33
So at that point I started text, I think I texted my vet and I
42:38
was like, this is a situation and she's like, whether it's a
42:43
splint or like a, a splint bone fracture or if there's a tendon
42:48
that's torn, she's like any of these scenarios, you're gonna
42:50
want to get him off trail. And so I had, I started kind of
42:55
as I was riding down the trail texting like I texted my dad
42:58
and, and a friend in in my hometown and then a gal that
43:03
lives in Montana who ended up joining me for a week and kind
43:06
of trying to come up with a plan.
43:07
And we were able to kind of come up with a plan that my dad would
43:10
drive 7 hours to come get York. I was going to the original plan
43:14
was to was to ride through to the Madison River Valley, but I
43:18
realized I was going to be too far and I didn't want him to be
43:22
on trail any more days than he had to.
43:23
So we ended up stopping at a highway.
43:26
My dad drove 7 hours, picked him up.
43:28
I drove him to my friend's house in Montana.
43:30
The hope was he would be able to come back after a couple weeks
43:33
off. And then she had, she brought
43:36
him to the vet there and it was pretty obvious that he wasn't
43:39
going to be able to. We had, we had a vet appointment
43:41
like a week apart and he was still lame.
43:43
And so at that point we're like, he's probably not going to be
43:46
able to come back to the trail on the trip.
43:48
And so, so he stayed at my friend's house in Montana for
43:50
almost a month, I think. And then I had a different
43:53
friend come pick him up and bring him back to my hometown,
43:55
which was a bummer to lose him. And then it was very obviously
43:59
felt throughout the crew really. Yeah, it was I think there was a
44:04
certain security in four and so then you take one of those away.
44:08
So there was just a little bit of like kind of readjusting to
44:11
the new normal of of the herd dynamics.
44:14
York is also kind of our our top.
44:16
He was he was the boss and so losing that out the new dynamic
44:20
there as well. And then?
44:22
Also not being able to rotate. Hack horses.
44:24
At that point I realized how so incredibly helpful it was to
44:29
have the four horses with. One not working.
44:32
Because basically from that point on, the horses started
44:35
losing weight. Really.
44:37
Yeah, prior to that. So I made a huge difference.
44:40
It did, yeah, Prior to. That they've been holding their
44:42
weight really well, and I think just being able to not have to
44:45
carry anything for that one day was enough to kind of keep that
44:48
momentum going. And so, yeah, once once he left
44:50
and Gracie had to pack full time, everybody had to work full
44:53
time, the horses kind of started to slowly lose weight.
44:56
Friendly did not. I think he left and came back
44:59
the exact same weight. Really.
45:01
He was made for the trails. He, yeah, he really won the MVP.
45:05
Of the entire trip, he I didn't say that he did roll off the
45:07
Cliff in Arizona Friendly had kind of I was going to ask you
45:10
about that that. Was friendly that went off the
45:12
Cliff, yes. Yeah.
45:13
Friendly. Had a rough summer.
45:14
He you're in the. Superstition.
45:17
Wilderness. Or no, the Four Peaks Wilderness
45:19
and the trails I would not say were intended for equine travel.
45:23
You can for sure, but they were super narrow and like just kind
45:29
of like shale loose rock with huge step UPS that we were
45:32
having to go up and up and up. And it was towards the end of
45:36
the day on that one. And he caught his tackle on a
45:38
step up and just had the momentum of the, the packs kind
45:43
of, you know, so he's, he's down on his knees on this big step
45:45
up. That's about like 5 height.
45:47
And then he went to kind of jump to get up to get his feet back
45:50
under him. And he leaned to the right and
45:52
there just was no trail there. Man rolled.
45:55
Down the Cliff rolled. Four or five times came to a
45:58
stop and I like was started to go down to him and then he tried
46:01
getting up and that pulled him back over.
46:03
You roll another four or five times, so he ended up rolling
46:06
feet. Off the trail.
46:10
And I was like, fairly, he looked OK the first few rolls.
46:15
The third time that he started rolling, like I had to turn
46:19
around and I was pretty much sure that I was going to have to
46:22
put him down. Like I was going to have to man.
46:25
Like there was just no way. That he wasn't going.
46:26
To break his neck or a leg or something.
46:29
I tied the horses up kind of around the corner and then I
46:32
worked my way down to him and got down there.
46:35
He disappeared, realized this, this kind of tree cluster, it
46:38
was like a mostly bald like shale slip.
46:42
And then there was like this little tree cluster that he'd
46:44
rolled through, which I think slowed him down enough to get
46:46
him stopped. Got down there and he's just
46:50
kind of sitting there like I don't know what that I didn't
46:53
like it and got all his stuff off and he kind of stood up and
46:59
like took a second and winnies to his buddies who were up above
47:03
him on the trail. And so I slipped the lead rope
47:05
over his neck and he just picked his way up that little like side
47:10
and he's like, I'm fine, let's go.
47:13
He. He.
47:14
Was fine. So I mean, he had that's amazing
47:18
cut. Lip and a couple scratches.
47:19
But he was fine, all 160 lbs of gear up that hill, which took me
47:25
a couple hours. And then I ended up having free
47:27
hikers come toward like I was about 50 feet from the top.
47:31
And they ended up helping me finish the finish the hike.
47:34
That's so amazing. Yeah, anyway, so friendly, had
47:37
a. Rough summer.
47:37
But he definitely, weirdly enough, he handled it the best
47:40
out of everybody. So, yeah, so anyway, he.
47:45
He definitely won the MVP award of the summer anyway, so so we
47:49
were in Montana at that point, which was all kind of smooth
47:54
sailing. I felt like we we ended up
47:56
cutting off a big chunk of the Continental Divide.
47:58
I wanted to try and follow it all the way through Montana.
48:01
And we ended up having to the kind of shortcut it because I
48:05
was concerned it was going to snow basically super early in
48:08
the season based on how the summer had been going.
48:11
Yeah, I wanted to be. Able to make it.
48:13
To the border in Glacier and I wasn't sure if that was going to
48:16
be possible with if it had it snowed early which I thought it
48:19
was going to so anyway we cut off about like 300 miles worth
48:24
of trail and road kind of straight N got back onto the
48:28
continental divide around Helena.
48:30
The trail was incredibly like just trees down everywhere.
48:35
So I spent, I had a few breakdowns about about having to
48:39
thaw out trees. There were some tears shed about
48:43
that for sure. I was just tired of cutting out
48:45
trees. I didn't want to do it anywhere
48:48
that we. Got caught in a thunderstorm.
48:50
And I was having to saw out like every 10 feet there was another
48:54
tree down. My gosh, I could die up here if
48:56
there's a fire that starts eating.
49:00
And it. Happens and then a temperature
49:02
dropped way down and so that was a long day for sure but anyway
49:06
but once we got kind of passed a little bit further north from
49:09
Helena it really kind of just began to I don't know I I at
49:13
that point I felt like I could just keep going there was
49:16
figured it out you're like. There's just.
49:18
There is just. A piece of like, I know what we
49:21
need to do and we found a really good rhythm and then we started
49:25
to get up kind of my dad joined me for a week in the bomb
49:28
Marshall, which was super fun. And he's not a horse guy.
49:31
So he had been like practicing at home to join me on on this
49:37
stretch, which was which was super fun.
49:40
We ended up doing some fly fishing and there's a fire that
49:43
started which made us do a 28 mile, which was not planned.
49:47
So my dad, who rides maybe once a year, if that, do 28 miles in
49:53
a day. Yeah, that's intense for.
49:55
Even people that ride around their homes.
49:58
Yeah, yeah. And he and he and the horse that
50:01
he was riding is my old 4H horse.
50:03
They both did really, really well.
50:05
Cool. But yeah, at that point, I
50:07
think. I was starting to be like once
50:09
he left, I was starting to be like, OK, I think that I'm the
50:13
daily packing up the tent, setting up the pen, taking it
50:16
all down the next morning was starting to kind of get old.
50:19
And so I think to be ready to be like, I think I'm getting ready
50:22
to be done at this point. So then we rode, I couldn't get
50:27
the permits figured out to ride through Glacier, but I basically
50:31
rode the border trail on the South end of the park over W
50:35
Glacier, took the highway through Glacier to a road that
50:41
parallels basically Glacier National Park.
50:44
And then I rode all the way up to the border on that road, hit
50:48
the border. It was kind of an under stated
50:52
like I just, it didn't feel much of an accomplishment, right?
50:58
I think in my mind I was working.
50:59
Myself up to the fact that I wanted to ride home like in
51:03
since the beginning of the trip, I think that was always what I
51:07
kind of secretly wanted to do but I just wasn't sure if we
51:10
were going to make it to the border and so I didn't want to
51:13
like set my sights too high so I got to the border it was cool
51:20
you're like. Here's the border.
51:21
All right, we're done. That is exactly how it felt I.
51:24
Was, I think I was expecting it to be this like, big like, woo
51:27
thing. And it was kind of like, OK,
51:29
cool. Like we made it, Yeah.
51:32
And. So then at that point.
51:33
I kind of decided my parents and my aunt and couple other people
51:38
came up to, you know, greet us at the border and, you know,
51:42
celebrate a little bit. That's a big.
51:44
Accomplishment even though just the border, Yeah.
51:48
And then at that. Point my parents were like, do
51:50
you want to spring the trailer and, you know, take you and the
51:53
horses home? And I was like, no, I think I'm,
51:56
I think I'm going to try and ride home.
51:57
So we had another like 2 1/2 weeks at that point, another 200
52:03
and 280 miles. And again, I think the week
52:07
before I got home, one of the hardest days of the whole trip,
52:10
partially because I think mentally I was like, I am so
52:12
close and I'm still the same issues that I was back in
52:16
Arizona. We had a day where it was, it
52:19
was supposed to be like a 22 mile day, like a fairly low
52:23
mileage day. And we got to camp and it looked
52:27
like this beautiful Meadow on the map.
52:30
And it turned out to be a bog. So it was like mud.
52:34
There was no water and then the grass.
52:37
Was like this. Super thick, like Reed Reed
52:39
grass. So I drug Susie and the two
52:42
Mustangs down. Further down we hit a Forest
52:45
Service road and I rode down that hoping that there would be
52:48
water somewhere. Couldn't find any water.
52:50
And so then I was like, well, do we go up and over this next
52:53
mountain range or do we backtrack to the last point we
52:56
saw water? So we ended up doing about 30
52:58
miles that day. Again, thunderstorm like in but
53:02
not enough water to keep anywhere.
53:05
Water everywhere except. Where you need it and so.
53:10
At that point I was like, I didn't have cell service, but I
53:13
think I texted my dad. I was like, I this, this is
53:17
ridiculous. I don't wanna do this anymore.
53:20
And the next day, obviously I'm like, my only option is to keep
53:24
going. And as soon as I got in
53:26
self-service, he's like, you almost quit, didn't you?
53:28
And I was like, yeah, that was almost enough to make me like,
53:31
if I could have, I would have. Yeah, yeah.
53:34
And that really is, and I think it was just enough of a
53:37
deterrent for me that having somebody drive out to, you know,
53:41
however many hours to come pick us up was enough for me to say
53:44
like, this just isn't an option yet.
53:47
And like I have to this point or I kept setting these like little
53:50
achievable goals for myself. And it's like, if we can make it
53:53
here, you know, then maybe we can do this.
53:56
And, and it was just enough to kind of keep dangling the
53:59
carrot, so to speak, of like just a little bit further, and
54:02
then we'll be fine. That next day, Susie started to
54:05
look a little bit lame. And so obviously the next day
54:08
after that, she was very lame. I don't know if she had twisted
54:13
her ankle. Something had happened and her
54:15
shoes like her feet were a little bit uneven at that point
54:18
and so we still don't really know what happened.
54:20
Lame enough to where we walked about two miles on the side of
54:23
the road stopped and I was like she cannot go any further.
54:26
Called my friend who came from my hometown was about like a
54:30
three hour drive. She came and picked up Susie for
54:33
to take the rest of us home and I struggled with that.
54:36
I think that was, yeah, I bet losing.
54:39
Two horses. I felt, I think the most failure
54:44
of the whole trip and I just was so I so didn't want the trip to
54:50
become like this death March of like my ego and like my is more
54:56
important than my horses. And I was trying to be sensitive
54:59
to the fact that my horses are way more important than this
55:02
trip. Like I didn't want to risk like
55:05
a long term injury. But at the same time, we were
55:07
five days from home, yeah. So hard.
55:11
That's a hard decision. And, and I sat on the road for
55:15
like 3 hours waiting for my friend.
55:16
So I had plenty of time to think about it.
55:18
And I ended up, I paired all of my gear down.
55:21
So I had the 2 pack horses obviously.
55:23
So I was just going to have a riding horse and a pack horse.
55:26
So while I was sitting on the side of the road, I, I took all
55:28
my gear and I said like, what do I actually need?
55:31
I got everything down to about like 40 lbs of gear or no, it
55:36
was like 30 lbs of gear total. So I was able to have my pack
55:40
force just carrying about £100 because the boxes are hard to
55:43
each. And yeah, anyway, my friend came
55:47
and I was like, no, I think we're going to keep trying.
55:50
Like I can always bail later if I have to.
55:54
And yeah, I ended up being able to make it home, and it was
55:59
pretty surreal to ride through places that I've been riding my
56:04
whole life. But knowing that we'd walked
56:06
there from Mexico was wild. Yeah, it was.
56:10
Wild riding like through. Town especially and then over
56:15
the lake. And anyway, it was very, very
56:18
special riding down my Rd. having the other horses like
56:21
come and greet us. And yeah, I think that was.
56:24
Really. The whole trip, that's what I've
56:27
been looking forward to. And I'd kind of in my mind, I'd
56:29
played that moment a couple times and.
56:31
And so, yeah, anyway, it was super special and so incredible
56:35
home and all of a sudden I had no purpose anymore.
56:38
Yeah, like what do I? Do when I wake up tomorrow?
56:41
Yeah, exactly. And the horses.
56:43
Had like 3 solid weeks of of nothing.
56:46
I had my vet come out. We did kind of like a post ride
56:49
assessment. They all gained weight back
56:51
beautifully. They all look.
56:55
They're. All doing good yes yeah.
56:57
York has a couple like shin splints that we're going to
57:01
probably X-ray in the spring just to make sure that there's
57:04
nothing else going on. But he's sound.
57:08
And then Susie has kind of a bump on her ankle.
57:11
She was, I had the vet see her the next day after my my friend
57:15
took her to the vet and she was 100% sound.
57:17
So she was only lame for like 1 day really and.
57:21
They couldn't figure out. What had happened that she would
57:24
be so like she looks like she was putting on an Oscar winning
57:28
performance for like she was about to fall over dead and then
57:31
she got home out there for a night.
57:34
And then the next. Morning she was 100% sound and
57:37
so the, the joke just became that because my, my friend that
57:42
picked her up was she also had York.
57:44
And so the joke became that York had sent her like a pigeon or
57:46
something and said like, Hey, they have foods better here not
57:52
to walk anymore. So maybe fake an injury and
57:55
they'll bring you here anyway. They they had a little reunion
57:59
before everybody else and and she's been sound ever since.
58:02
So we're also going to. I'm good and friendly.
58:05
My vet said. Basically like just give them
58:07
the rest of the year off with their muscles, like take a break
58:10
and kind of recover. Gracie was, she has like an
58:14
interesting composition as a horse, like the way she's put
58:16
together. And so I'm doing light work with
58:19
her basically because she just has kind of low muscling in her
58:22
back and her and her hindquarters, which she's always
58:25
kind of been put together that way.
58:27
But my vet's like it would probably benefit her to just
58:29
keep doing some light work. But yeah, the other three get
58:32
the rest of the year and into next spring off.
58:34
And honestly, Grace probably if I ride her, it'll be like once a
58:37
week. And we, I took her hunting and
58:39
but yeah, no, they're they're all enjoying some very well
58:43
earned time off and we'll do other vet check and follow up in
58:47
the spring, probably X-ray everything and make sure make
58:49
sure there's no long lasting issues.
58:51
But, but they it all looked really good.
58:53
Yeah, that's good. So you.
58:54
You. Met your goal.
58:55
That was definitely one of them, which I think is super
58:57
admirable. Yes, make sure that they were
58:59
all. Good, yes.
59:01
Yeah, So what were? Some of like.
59:03
When some of these things happen, like friendly rolling
59:05
down the Cliff and, you know, raining on you, like, all these
59:09
emotions and stress, like Gracie colicking, How did you handle
59:14
that and, like, get through that because that's intense watching
59:18
a horse, you know, go down a hill that you think you probably
59:20
just lost him. Yeah, I.
59:23
Think I've always had a hard time with emotion.
59:26
I guess I, I don't like to show emotion.
59:31
I don't like to feel emotion. I'm very much like, you know,
59:34
kind of strong, you know, you have to go together and the
59:39
rear. That I'm in that's.
59:41
It, it, it kind of pays well to be able to kind of keep your
59:45
emotion at least a little bit hidden and then compartmentalize
59:48
it, especially in the ICU where I see a lot of, you see a lot of
59:53
death. And so there's, like I said,
59:55
there's just there's some value to being able to tuck things
59:57
aside. Yeah.
59:59
But kind of what I realized on this trip is, is experiencing
1:00:02
the emotion in the moment. So that you don't have to deal
1:00:07
with it later because that's you're going to feel it one way
1:00:11
or the other, whether you're feeling it or you have to deal
1:00:14
with it tomorrow, 10 years down the road, whatever it is, you're
1:00:17
going to feel it at some point. So I think the biggest thing on
1:00:19
the trip is just learning to literally walk like minute by
1:00:22
minute, hour by hour, day by day.
1:00:25
It was. I had to take everything in
1:00:27
small bites to make the whole thing doable.
1:00:31
Yeah. That it's.
1:00:33
Huge putting off. I'm upset, I'm frustrated, I'm
1:00:37
angry, tired. Like, let all that run through.
1:00:40
Have a little, you know, moment. There were lots of moments.
1:00:44
Yeah. Have some pity.
1:00:46
Parties well deserved ones, yeah.
1:00:49
And that was really what? I realized is like, I really
1:00:51
liked wallowing in that, and it was hard to let go sometimes.
1:00:55
Like, I'm miserable and I sit here in the misery.
1:01:00
Yeah. And then I at some point.
1:01:02
Like it would hit me of like, what am I doing?
1:01:05
Like this is, yeah, it feels good, I guess in the moment to
1:01:09
kind of just sit in that, like, I'm not happy and I don't feel
1:01:13
good. And I'm, you know, I'm kind of
1:01:14
miserable. But you can't stay there.
1:01:16
And it's if you stay there, you're not going to make any
1:01:18
progress. And for me, it was such a
1:01:20
physical representation of that. It's like if I just sit here and
1:01:24
like wallow and how miserable I am, I'm not going to make it to
1:01:26
my to my goal, which for me was the day.
1:01:29
Like, I just have to make it to the end of this stay.
1:01:31
And sometimes I would just not be like, I'd just be miserable
1:01:36
all day. And I'd make it to camp and I'd
1:01:38
set up camp for both. And then I'd go to bed and I'd
1:01:41
wake up and it was like, OK, like, this is this is a fresh
1:01:44
start, new day. I don't think I carry anything
1:01:47
into the next day. Most of the time it stayed in
1:01:50
the previous day. Yeah.
1:01:52
And sometimes it just like 10 minutes or an hour of like, this
1:01:55
sucks. But I think that was one of the
1:01:57
most important lessons that I kind of learned is like you feel
1:02:00
the emotion, sit in the moment and then you just have to move
1:02:04
on and and say this is what it is.
1:02:06
I felt it, I did it. Keep going.
1:02:09
Because, yeah, there are things and.
1:02:11
I think that the worst one was just helplessness, which for
1:02:14
both Friendly and Gracie that was.
1:02:17
That was kind of that emotion that I really had a hard time
1:02:19
moving on from. Situation was resolved.
1:02:23
Being the only one out there and being completely reliant, like
1:02:26
having five souls reliant on me with no one for me to rely on.
1:02:31
And I think that's, that's where my faith kind of came in, is
1:02:35
like I needed somebody to rely on.
1:02:36
And, and so for me, that was God.
1:02:38
And, and I was able to kind of pray through those moments and
1:02:41
be like, I need help in this moment to give me something to
1:02:45
kind of draw on and, and give me strength and to, to move through
1:02:48
this. And so there was a lot of prayer
1:02:50
going on throughout the trip. And yeah, a lot of asking for,
1:02:54
you know, whether it was strength to continue or water,
1:02:58
whatever these like these little needs throughout the day.
1:03:01
But yeah. And then also just learning that
1:03:03
your, your limit is kind of what you said, like because again, I
1:03:07
think that being in a situation where you are reliant on
1:03:11
yourself and for me, God, but you hit all these walls and your
1:03:16
brain is what's telling you like you can't do this anymore.
1:03:19
And learning to just say, like, again, feel the emotions, sit in
1:03:22
the moment for a minute and then just say, OK, like, keep going.
1:03:26
Because I think when you give up mentally, when you decide that
1:03:29
you can't do something anymore, you've just set your limit and
1:03:32
that's you, you will not be able to push past that because you've
1:03:35
just said, I can't. And so being able to go through
1:03:38
all of these really hard situations and just say, again,
1:03:42
for me, it was kind of teasing the carrot on the stick of like,
1:03:45
you just do this one more thing and then you'll be OK.
1:03:48
And then you just do this. And then like, you know, so I
1:03:51
just had to break it down into little steps.
1:03:53
But but yeah, definitely realizing like, like your limits
1:03:56
are what you set. And obviously there are there
1:03:58
are hard and fast limits in life, but I think mentally we
1:04:01
can push ourselves so much further than we think that we're
1:04:04
capable. Yeah, Yeah.
1:04:06
What a great. Loss in her life.
1:04:07
And like, really, you've done this huge, incredible thing, but
1:04:10
it really was like, you continuing to go forward in
1:04:14
those moments that were really hard and, like, just doing the
1:04:16
next smallest thing to be like, I'm still here.
1:04:18
I'm still doing it, Yeah. Like, got you, you know,
1:04:21
thousands of miles across the country on horseback.
1:04:24
Yes. Yeah.
1:04:25
And I think that. Really.
1:04:26
And that honestly, that kind of reflects how I feel about the
1:04:28
whole trip is just, it doesn't feel like this huge
1:04:31
accomplishment to me, even though, like, logically I know
1:04:34
that it is. Yeah.
1:04:36
The heel of it is just that we did.
1:04:38
Like basically one ride at a time.
1:04:41
And we just did that all summer. Like, like we just, we just did
1:04:44
these little rides and and then these little yeah added up.
1:04:47
So they were the little winds just all summer long.
1:04:50
And and that's kind of how the whole trip feels is just it was
1:04:53
just one little win after another.
1:04:55
Yeah, that's really cool. Were there times where you felt
1:04:58
like, like, I don't know what to do next, or like, I'm done, I
1:05:01
can't keep doing this where it's like, then something happened
1:05:04
that just made it so you could go forward, whether that was
1:05:06
like a prayer, like you found water just when you needed to or
1:05:09
whatever that might have been. Yeah, Exactly.
1:05:11
Yes. I it was, there was probably at
1:05:14
least once a week where I would like text my parents and be
1:05:17
like, I don't want to do this anymore.
1:05:18
I'm not having fun. I'm not having fun because it
1:05:21
was my phrase of like this is not something I'm enjoying.
1:05:25
And it was it was usually in relation to there was whether it
1:05:28
was terrain or or water or weather.
1:05:32
Like usually it wasn't everything at once.
1:05:34
It was like 11 miserable thing which made it.
1:05:40
But yes, I would say. At least once a week there was a
1:05:43
moment like that and it was always resolved by like a
1:05:47
little, a little prayer of like whether it was, yeah, we got to
1:05:51
camp. There was no water.
1:05:52
Like, please let us find water tonight.
1:05:54
And so you're looking at your map, there is one very specific,
1:05:57
like distinct moment in Arizona. Every single hole that we've
1:06:01
gone to like they have these big like ponds, dirt ponds
1:06:04
essentially from the that are like cattle tanks and every.
1:06:08
Single one of them had been. Dry, I think for like the last
1:06:11
half of the day and then we got to camp and I was like, there's
1:06:13
no way there's going to be water here because every single tank
1:06:16
has been dragged and sure enough we get there, there's no water.
1:06:19
So I think I was able to call my dad at that point and I'm
1:06:22
looking at my map and I'm like, can you look at, you know, on
1:06:25
your side of things and see if you see something that could be
1:06:28
water? And so both of us looking, he
1:06:31
finds like this black square in the middle of this map.
1:06:35
It's like 3 miles to the east, it's northeast.
1:06:38
So it's kind of in the right direction.
1:06:40
But it was still like out of my way that if.
1:06:43
I'd gone that far it. Would have it would have made
1:06:46
any other water source a little bit more inconvenient.
1:06:49
And I was like, OK, like a black square is obviously something
1:06:52
man made and it's an abnormal shape for, you know, nature.
1:06:57
And it could be just like a like a mining site.
1:07:00
It could be tons of things. But just kind of on the the face
1:07:04
that it was something we went like these 3 miles kind of
1:07:07
northeast and we got there and it was a black tarp with tires
1:07:12
all over it and it was a water collection site and.
1:07:16
So all this. Huge black tarp that they lay
1:07:19
out and that's kind of one of the systems that they used in
1:07:21
Arizona to collect water and it all funnels down into this like
1:07:25
big cistern. And then there were cattle there
1:07:27
as well. There were panels that I was
1:07:30
able to put the horses in. There was some grass in there
1:07:32
because the the cows weren't able to get to it.
1:07:36
And then there was water there and, and that was, I think
1:07:39
that's one of the most like kind of distinct, like examples, but
1:07:44
that was. Almost a daily occurrence.
1:07:45
Whether it was yeah asking for water, you know like can please
1:07:50
give the horses enough energy to get up this like last little
1:07:52
Cliff, you know, protection colic.
1:07:55
There were just there were so many things that were just like
1:07:57
a daily like again, just one little ask and and God showed up
1:08:01
every single time and every single time.
1:08:04
Fine. We never without water at the
1:08:06
end of the day. Sometimes it was all day, but
1:08:09
but we never went without water overnight.
1:08:11
We always had food for the horses in some capacity.
1:08:14
I never went without food or water.
1:08:16
And obviously we had a few minor injuries, but nobody got like
1:08:19
majorly injured on the trip and and we didn't see first I didn't
1:08:23
see a bear wolf. Yeah, no, no large predators,
1:08:27
mountain lions and I saw one snake.
1:08:28
So I can. Suddenly watching out over us on
1:08:32
this. Trip.
1:08:33
And it was, it was about as good as I think it could have been.
1:08:36
Obviously I would have preferred to not have to send two horses
1:08:39
home, but yeah. But even then.
1:08:42
Like the fact. That they're, that they're sound
1:08:44
and they're and they're healthy now is huge, huge blessing.
1:08:48
So yeah, for sure it's pretty. Incredible that, you know,
1:08:51
considering everything that they went through that they're like
1:08:54
they're doing good. Yes, Yeah, amazing.
1:08:57
And I. Love what you said too because
1:08:58
it's like, you know, you were relying on God but I'm like, it
1:09:01
didn't make it easy. Like it was still really hot.
1:09:04
Like watching your videos, I was just like, jeez, that looks
1:09:07
miserable in some of them. And then other ones are like,
1:09:10
that looks amazing. But so yeah, I think that's a
1:09:13
good lesson. Like it doesn't necessarily mean
1:09:14
it's going to be easy, but, you know, sometimes just when we
1:09:17
need help or messages or guidance, that's when it really
1:09:20
shows up a lot of times. Yeah, for sure.
1:09:23
And then? I think, yeah, that is the
1:09:24
perfect point to take away is honestly, I think it's almost, I
1:09:28
think it's almost harder if you're putting yourself on.
1:09:30
Obviously I put myself in those situations.
1:09:32
It's going to be really, really hard, but it is doable.
1:09:36
How was it? Doing it alone, because I know
1:09:38
when we talked last time, you kind of said that wasn't really
1:09:40
what you were planning on. You just couldn't find someone
1:09:42
else who can, you know, take six months off life and go horseback
1:09:46
ride across the country. Like to me, seems like there
1:09:49
would be some kind of terrifying moments doing that alone.
1:09:52
How was it for you? Like I said, the first two
1:09:54
months were really. Rough.
1:09:55
I think I had the most help and support in Arizona, and so I
1:10:00
think that helped kind of like ease me into it.
1:10:02
But there were a lot of, like, I wouldn't go so far as to say
1:10:06
like periods of depression, but almost to that, like, just sheer
1:10:10
loneliness. Yeah.
1:10:13
To the point that it. Felt like oppressive, oppressive
1:10:17
loneliness. I don't really know how else to
1:10:18
say that. And like the dogs and the horses
1:10:20
were helpful, a dog and horses, but it still wasn't like during
1:10:24
the day it was fine. I it wouldn't really bother me.
1:10:27
But towards the end of the day, like as I'm setting up camp or
1:10:30
or if there was like dead time at all of like no tasks to do,
1:10:35
yeah, it would just kind. Of become.
1:10:37
This like super expressive, like I just want someone to talk to,
1:10:44
yeah. It was.
1:10:46
Really hard. And I think just taking that and
1:10:51
again, learning to feel that emotion and it is what it is.
1:10:54
There's nothing that can solve this.
1:10:56
I had text texting ability on my Garmin and so it was, I still
1:11:00
had some kind of contact. I was able to text people but it
1:11:03
almost made it worse because the Garmin has like a delay be
1:11:09
texting. Someone and then like.
1:11:11
Obviously they're getting it in, in normal speed.
1:11:13
And then so they would reply and you're still trying to reply to
1:11:16
like two or three, you know, comments ago.
1:11:19
And so it was almost more isolating because I could talk
1:11:22
to people, but it was, it was like the just this like
1:11:25
disconnect and just delay, which was kind of how it, how it felt
1:11:29
to just like, like I, I have people, but there's like just
1:11:32
far enough away to not quite feel.
1:11:36
Yeah. But did it make a big difference
1:11:40
when? Like.
1:11:41
Your dad or friends were able to come out and spend some time on
1:11:44
the trail with you? Yes.
1:11:46
I and and it honestly, I almost made it harder on the other end
1:11:50
too of like when they were like a withdraw you're back.
1:11:53
Alone again. Yeah, now I'm back to doing
1:11:55
this. By myself and a lot of it was
1:11:58
just like, it wasn't even, I didn't.
1:12:00
It was just having somebody to do things with, like having the
1:12:02
camaraderie, like you take down the tent.
1:12:05
I will do literally everything else but like having just that
1:12:08
one like path of like help, feeling OK.
1:12:10
I was having help, yeah. To make it feel.
1:12:14
Like so much more fun. And then the friend that joined
1:12:17
me in Montana, she and I hit a ton of downed trees and like we
1:12:22
spent almost an entire day just sawing out trail man and it was
1:12:27
it. Was fun because.
1:12:28
We were doing it together and then the next week after she'd
1:12:31
left, I was doing that exact same thing by myself and I was
1:12:34
like, this is not fun. It's not fun anymore.
1:12:38
Man, that would be hard buddy back.
1:12:41
So, yeah, being alone was one of, I think the hardest kind of
1:12:45
aspects of the trip, Just learning to, yeah, again, just
1:12:49
feel the moment, accept it, take little bites, move on.
1:12:53
And I don't really know, other than other than that method, I
1:12:57
don't know how else I've really managed it.
1:13:02
Yeah. It really.
1:13:04
Is something that I. Dislike I really just like being
1:13:07
alone and I would still say up to this point like it didn't fix
1:13:11
me, like it didn't cure my ability to be alone.
1:13:14
I mean I definitely am better at it now for sure, but I still
1:13:18
would. Rather be around someone.
1:13:19
Else. But I do think it gave me kind
1:13:20
of a piece of like, again, it did help me realize what I'm
1:13:24
capable of. I don't need anyone else
1:13:26
technically to be able to. I did.
1:13:29
It's really nice to have people there.
1:13:32
But it is really nice. To have people there and I would
1:13:34
rather function that way than doing everything by myself,
1:13:37
which also was a lesson for me to learn cuz I can be a little
1:13:40
little too independent sometimes.
1:13:42
Yeah. The thing that I really do
1:13:43
appreciate and need other people was also a good lesson.
1:13:46
Yeah, well, we're like. Your biggest, like your lowest
1:13:49
moment and then like the highest where it's just like, this is
1:13:52
amazing. I'm so glad I did this.
1:13:53
Yeah, there are. Lots of loads I think, off a
1:13:59
Cliff. With the low.
1:14:00
That that point in Montana where I was five days from home and
1:14:04
I'd sent Susie home and I was ready to just, yeah, I was, I
1:14:09
was ready to quit at that point. That was definitely a low Gracie
1:14:13
caulking. It was really those feelings of
1:14:15
like helplessness. Yeah.
1:14:18
And just being. Completely isolated and out by
1:14:21
my those were really hard. Mount Lemmon was, was most
1:14:25
definitely probably one of the lowest lows of getting to camp
1:14:30
in the dark and my phone dying right before it got dark and
1:14:34
navigate and and basically just follow a road without really
1:14:38
knowing where it where it went, trusting that it was going to
1:14:41
take me to where I needed to go. Trying to memorize right before
1:14:43
my phone died, trying to memorize how many turns I took
1:14:46
and which ways they went anyway. And those were, yeah, there were
1:14:50
lots of those, but lots and lots of hard moments.
1:14:54
Lots of really hard moments the. Grand Canyon riding down into
1:14:58
the basin. I've never been to the Grand
1:15:00
Canyon and I didn't know what the basin looked like, but it's
1:15:03
almost like a tropical like other little world.
1:15:06
It was like such a cool little microclimate of like there was a
1:15:09
Creek running through it and it was just this gorgeous lush
1:15:12
green, beautiful. It felt like, like journey to
1:15:16
the center of the Earth, like you'd I'd ridden through all
1:15:18
this rough, harsh rock. And then you get down to this
1:15:21
kind of like, like little tropical paradise down in the
1:15:24
basin. Yeah.
1:15:26
And we cowboy camped that that was the first night that a
1:15:28
cowboy camped. So I slept under the stars.
1:15:30
Nice. Which was super cool.
1:15:31
There. Was a good break after Arizona.
1:15:35
Yes, yeah. Wyoming.
1:15:39
Just riding out in a mountain range with no one else hundreds
1:15:44
of miles around you and just feeling like you are.
1:15:48
It was. It was a very different.
1:15:50
Version of of being alone. It was almost like kind of a
1:15:53
blissful, freeing, just the most wild country and being able to
1:15:59
just be out there and knowing you're the only person for miles
1:16:03
and miles. It was, yeah, it was a super
1:16:06
cool. I don't even really know how
1:16:08
else to explain it, but there was another moment like that in
1:16:12
Montana where we were riding just all of these ridges all
1:16:15
day. So it literally felt like we
1:16:16
were on top of the world. And yeah, again, it was like
1:16:21
this, like elation of like, this is like, amazing.
1:16:25
And yeah, having no one else be out there other than you and the
1:16:29
horses and. And then honestly, spending that
1:16:32
much time with my horses was another.
1:16:35
It's something that I've always wanted, and I think it's
1:16:37
something that not many people really have gotten to experience
1:16:40
in our modern age, right? There was a different
1:16:44
relationship. That we've kind of formed even
1:16:47
it's not quite the same now that we're back, but there's remnants
1:16:51
of like kind of that bond that we that we created friendly
1:16:54
would follow me, I'd let him out and he'd just follow me around
1:16:57
camp like kind of a puppy dog. Just he just wants.
1:17:01
To be where you are and and. Now like, you know, even if I'm
1:17:04
feeding them grain or you know, something that's like a very
1:17:07
strong draw, if I go out there, he would rather follow me around
1:17:10
and kind of just be with me. And then Susie was kind of
1:17:13
before the trip, she was not. She don't really want you to
1:17:16
touch her. She kind of just like very
1:17:18
business minded, very serious horse And she throughout the
1:17:22
trip and became more and more like attached, I guess used to
1:17:28
like in the middle of the trail, she'd just turn around and like
1:17:30
leave you if you like tried to ground whatever.
1:17:34
Or she'd like turn around and try and go back to the trailer.
1:17:37
And throughout the trip she kind of became more and more alike,
1:17:40
like if you're here and like if you're, if you're walking
1:17:43
somewhere, like she'll follow you.
1:17:44
And so just spending that much time with my horses would be
1:17:48
super stuff. Experience as well.
1:17:52
So yeah, there were lots. There were lots of really good
1:17:55
moments too. I don't know if I ever thought
1:17:58
while I was on the trip like this is fun.
1:18:00
I don't know if that thought necessary went through my mind.
1:18:06
But it was. It was there were little like
1:18:10
Lip Susan moments of like this is amazing.
1:18:13
So yeah, so so do you. Miss it?
1:18:16
Now that you're back, is it something you want to do again,
1:18:18
you think? Yeah, I was really hoping and.
1:18:21
I was very convinced that I would never want to do something
1:18:23
like this ever again. You were hoping?
1:18:26
Like, I know what it all ended entails, Yeah, and.
1:18:30
Then the further that I got to the end, the more I realized
1:18:34
that I was really, I mean, there were little things that I was
1:18:37
tired of. Like I said, packing up camp
1:18:39
every day was. I was ready to be done with that
1:18:41
for a while. But.
1:18:43
Yes, I miss. It and I would love if the
1:18:46
opportunity ever presented itself like if if the time in
1:18:50
life was right I would love to do another one yeah.
1:18:53
I'm a little hesitant, like I feel like I have some like
1:18:55
adults, like I have to be an adult for at least yeah.
1:18:57
So I'm a little no commitments at the moment, but.
1:19:02
Not ruling it out either. Yeah, but but if.
1:19:05
Something were to, you know, come across, fall in my lap and,
1:19:10
you know, feel like it was something that I should do.
1:19:13
I would would love to do it, yeah.
1:19:15
Was it hard for your parents? Do you think them knowing you're
1:19:18
out there in the middle of the wilderness?
1:19:20
Yeah. Alone with four horses and a
1:19:21
dog, Yes. Yeah.
1:19:24
My dad, I think specifically had a harder time than my mom.
1:19:27
My mom is very good at being like present in the moment.
1:19:29
But as soon as I would text them saying like, there's no water at
1:19:32
camp or like, I would say, like, you know, there's a thunderstorm
1:19:35
that's coming in, like I think that that kicked off like this
1:19:38
cascade of like, she actually is out in the middle of nowhere
1:19:41
with nothing. Yeah.
1:19:44
So it's crazy, even though I am. An adult and all the things.
1:19:48
I guess you're never done being a parent.
1:19:50
And I did probably add some Gray hairs to wear their collection,
1:19:54
Unfortunately, yeah. But I do they were.
1:19:59
Really, they were my, like they were my cheerleading team back
1:20:02
home. They were my, yeah, for sure,
1:20:04
not only sending me my resupplies and, but yeah, they
1:20:07
were very, very helpful. Just giving me like, sometimes
1:20:10
that would be like the word of encouragement that I needed is
1:20:13
like they'd just text me like, you know, like you're, you are
1:20:16
capable. You can do this.
1:20:17
You've done this before, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:20:21
So neat, because obviously it probably wasn't easy for them,
1:20:24
but also still your biggest supporters, even though I was
1:20:27
probably hard to watch from a distance knowing like they
1:20:30
wouldn't be able to help you if they needed to.
1:20:31
Yeah, yeah. And So what are you up to now?
1:20:34
And I know you kind of mentioned on Instagram, like, what is
1:20:37
next? Any thoughts on that or Yeah, I
1:20:40
think that's just kind. Of a daily a daily question.
1:20:43
I don't, I'm I'm going to let myself sit in that for a while.
1:20:47
I I don't don't feel like I need to.
1:20:49
I don't want to just shove something back in that the place
1:20:52
of this trip, right? Like I've been planning it for
1:20:55
four years. I don't.
1:20:57
Want to just be? So desperate to have something
1:21:01
that I will just grasp at anything.
1:21:03
So I'm OK with sitting in that kind of like place of I'm not
1:21:07
sure what I'm supposed to be doing right now.
1:21:09
I did start my job back at the hospital, so I'm working in the
1:21:12
ICU again. And that's been a bit of an
1:21:15
adjustment. Just going from like being on
1:21:17
the trail to being back in like the chaos and the noise and the
1:21:22
means like different life and death decisions.
1:21:26
And then I did actually, I adopted another Mustang who I
1:21:32
have not. So I'm very excited about her.
1:21:38
She's a a Mustang out of the Twin Peaks herd in like
1:21:42
California, Nevada. And the government shutdown has
1:21:46
prevented me from picking her up as of yet.
1:21:49
Yeah, won the bid. Right before the government.
1:21:51
Closed. So I haven't been able to
1:21:52
actually like, set a pick up date for her, but yeah, but I'm
1:21:55
really excited to meet her and kind of work with her over the
1:21:57
winter and see what kind of horse she is.
1:22:00
But yeah, just kind of enjoying just being able to sit in
1:22:03
whatever season of life this is and enjoying my horses and, you
1:22:09
know, giving them the time off. I think they would probably
1:22:12
boycott if I just instantly started planning another one.
1:22:15
Yeah. Yeah.
1:22:17
Do you? Feel that like they liked.
1:22:18
It like were they content being? Out there, yes, I think yes and
1:22:23
no. There were definitely roles that
1:22:25
they preferred. Tracy preferred to be a riding
1:22:27
horse rather than pack horse and her favorite was just to be in
1:22:30
the back along. But if?
1:22:34
Interesting. The further that we went on this
1:22:36
trip, watching their behavior, like obviously in the beginning
1:22:40
there was a lot of like sleeping and laying down and like, you
1:22:43
know, if they're if they're in their pen, it's like their rest
1:22:45
time. And then obviously the the
1:22:47
better in shape they got, the more they were, you know, they
1:22:50
would run around and play like normal horses at the end of the
1:22:53
day, which always made me feel good because it's like they
1:22:56
still have the energy to be horses and and run around.
1:22:59
Yeah. But the further north we got, it
1:23:03
became almost like if we took, there were a couple days where I
1:23:07
would take two days off instead of 1 and they would almost get
1:23:09
restless to the point of like, this isn't normal.
1:23:12
Like we need to keep going. And Gracie would like walk
1:23:15
around the edge of the pen, my little electric pen that I had
1:23:18
like, OK, when are when are we moving?
1:23:20
When are we going somewhere? So it was really interesting
1:23:22
because I do think they liked that like especially Mustangs, I
1:23:25
feel like that's such a natural thing for them is to be nomadic
1:23:29
and move around. So it was interesting to kind of
1:23:31
watch that behavior pattern. But there were definitely jobs
1:23:34
that they preferred over others. I don't know if I would take
1:23:36
Susie on another long ride. It was interesting how much
1:23:40
better the Mustangs did, like physically.
1:23:42
And they held up way better than Susie did.
1:23:44
And so I don't know, I don't know if I would take her on
1:23:47
another long ride. But yeah, the Mustangs, I would
1:23:49
say definitely they, they shined in that, in that environment.
1:23:54
And, and I do think that they really liked being out and
1:23:57
around and moving. And they did get out twice and
1:24:01
went on a bit of a joy joyride where joy laps, but they never
1:24:05
like, they never ran back to the previous campsite.
1:24:08
And, and they never, they never really went very far.
1:24:11
They just went far enough that I had to go search for them.
1:24:14
Were you worried that you'd be out there and not?
1:24:16
Able to find them at all? Yeah, yes, 1000%.
1:24:19
Once, yeah. The first time was, ironically,
1:24:22
it was the day that Friendly rolled off the Cliff.
1:24:24
That night at 2:00 AM, they got out.
1:24:27
I was like, surely they're just going to be like emotionally and
1:24:30
physically exhausted. They're not going to do anything
1:24:34
but. No, at 2:00 AM they.
1:24:35
Got out of their pen and they, they ran up and down this road.
1:24:40
And yes, I was very worried that I was the road that they were
1:24:43
running on went for like hundreds of miles and it
1:24:46
accessed all these different mountain rings in this areas.
1:24:49
And I was very concerned that I would never find them again.
1:24:51
Because you do hear about like and you're like, my wild horses
1:24:54
are wild. Again, exactly you hear about
1:24:56
Mustangs. That get loose and then they're
1:24:58
like goodbye, I will never be back.
1:25:00
And yeah, the second time I was, I lost them for a little bit
1:25:03
longer. The second time it was about I
1:25:05
think it was like 6:00 AM and they'd started to get restless
1:25:07
because they were ready to go. And so they were running around
1:25:10
playing and, and they ran through the fence and, and it
1:25:13
took me like a couple hours to find them.
1:25:16
And I was worried that they were going to again leave and never
1:25:20
come back. But both times they let me catch
1:25:22
them just fine. They were eating in a Meadow the
1:25:26
second time. Like, I don't know what the big
1:25:27
deal is. We just wanted food.
1:25:29
So like, if you can find us, we're fine.
1:25:31
Coming back, exactly. Yeah, but.
1:25:34
Yeah. No, there were a couple times
1:25:36
that they, and I mean, honestly, they they never really, they
1:25:41
weren't, I wouldn't say they were seeking the opportunity
1:25:43
though. It's not like they were, they
1:25:45
were looking for opportunities to get out.
1:25:47
Both of those were just kind of like they were running around.
1:25:49
Things got out of hand and they ran through the fence.
1:25:53
They took advantage of it when it.
1:25:55
Happened exactly, exactly. Yeah.
1:25:58
Is there anything? You would have been, you would
1:26:00
have done differently looking back and seeing how it all
1:26:03
played out of that because thinking about.
1:26:05
The trip and like wanting to do another one I've thought about
1:26:08
like what could I do different or what could I do better?
1:26:13
It's hard because for the trip that I did, I feel like
1:26:16
everything went about as well as it could have.
1:26:21
Yeah, I. I had a lot of.
1:26:23
Gear, which I don't know if I would have done differently
1:26:26
because there it was so cold all summer.
1:26:28
I was fully expecting to send most of it home.
1:26:31
Like, I had a lot of like I had my my shops and I had, you know,
1:26:35
coats and and all these layers and winter clothes.
1:26:39
But I was never able to send them home because it kept like,
1:26:42
I kept needing them. Yeah, yeah.
1:26:44
Better sleeping. Bag maybe.
1:26:46
Yeah, yeah, the better sleeping bag for.
1:26:47
Sure was would definitely change, but because I did, I get
1:26:51
unsupported. I didn't have like a truck and
1:26:53
trailer that I that I could like stash stuff in that would meet
1:26:56
us somewhere. I didn't have a ground crew.
1:26:58
Like there were so many the way that I did it.
1:27:00
There were so many like complicated things that and, and
1:27:04
even the four horses like that's a lot.
1:27:06
That's a lot to manage and obviously probably to manage.
1:27:12
More than. Then you definitely more than
1:27:14
you actually need. But it worked out so well.
1:27:17
Like it would be hard for me to look at that and say like I
1:27:20
really did. I do think that it worked well.
1:27:22
If I were to do it again, like I'm not a second time, I would
1:27:27
like to try like an ultralight version of it because you know,
1:27:32
like there are, my tent was like 8 lbs.
1:27:35
Obviously my sleeping bag was heavy, even though it wasn't
1:27:39
rated for cold enough, it was still like a heavy sleeping bag.
1:27:42
So there there would be like some year things like maybe try
1:27:45
like a different side. But but yeah, I think for the
1:27:49
for the way that I went about my trip, I think it was about as
1:27:53
that is good. I could have done it.
1:27:55
But yeah, if I were to do a second or third or or whatever,
1:27:58
I think it would, it would be fun to try different methods to
1:28:01
see what works best for us. Yeah, yeah.
1:28:03
Well, it all. Looked amazing.
1:28:05
I think a lot of people have been living vicariously through
1:28:08
you, although very happy to not be out on the cold nights and,
1:28:12
you know, some of the, you know, watching your horses roll down a
1:28:15
Cliff, These are all things that we would be happy to not
1:28:18
experience. Yeah.
1:28:19
But yeah, it was really cool to to watch it and see you do it
1:28:23
and like, you know, such a huge thing and like even just talking
1:28:27
about the stuff that you planned, like take into account
1:28:30
and how you made it all happen is really, really cool.
1:28:32
Do you think you're going to be sharing the training you do with
1:28:35
your new Mustang? Yes, that is the hope I would.
1:28:37
Be awesome. I documented the first three
1:28:41
kind of, but I did the I don't know, there's a lot looking back
1:28:45
that I wish that I'd documented differently or, or more in
1:28:48
depth. And so, yeah, I'm hoping to
1:28:50
share kind of my, my new journey with this, with this next
1:28:53
Mustang. And then also just, I've learned
1:28:55
a lot about how Mustangs work and think and, and function.
1:28:59
And so I'm excited to try things a little bit differently.
1:29:03
There's certain things that I'd like to try with the softer
1:29:05
approach than I did with the other ones.
1:29:06
So yeah, I'm, I'm hoping to document it.
1:29:08
And, and, and also I'm trying to like on, on Instagram, trying to
1:29:12
work through sequentially, like the trip again to kind of post
1:29:16
some of the things that I didn't post the first time.
1:29:18
So I'm hoping to kind of like share the in a better, like more
1:29:22
complete way. Although honestly a YouTube
1:29:25
format would probably be easier because I could do longer videos
1:29:28
rather than the the two minutes or whatever that you get on
1:29:31
Instagram. Yeah, get get out there, get
1:29:34
your YouTube channel going. It's easy.
1:29:36
You can post to both. Yeah, yeah, we'll.
1:29:39
See, it's, it's currently like there's the restricting factor.
1:29:43
So we'll we'll see. Yeah, Yeah, that does.
1:29:46
That does make a difference. Well, it'll be really cool to
1:29:49
watch you work with the new Mustang, especially with your
1:29:52
experience of, like, being with your horses 24/7.
1:29:54
Because I'm sure that there's stuff that you notice now and
1:29:58
like, ways you know your horse now that you just want it by,
1:30:00
you know, living beside them in the modern world.
1:30:03
Where you guys compared to living together for six months
1:30:07
straight, like sleeping together, spending all day
1:30:09
together. Yeah.
1:30:10
Yeah. No.
1:30:12
I am excited and I'm hoping. I mean, obviously, I think
1:30:14
every, every horse horse trainer, you're always growing
1:30:18
and, and so acknowledging that and trying to trying to do
1:30:21
better by your next horse is always the goal.
1:30:23
So I'm hoping that that I can take some of those lessons that
1:30:26
I learned and see if we can find a better, better method each
1:30:30
time, right? Yeah, it's definitely a process,
1:30:33
I think. It's especially a process with
1:30:34
Mustangs. So yeah, it's cool to see what
1:30:37
you can learn and what you can take an experience and yeah,
1:30:40
then share with other people who are wanting, you know, to do
1:30:43
similar, similar things in their life.
1:30:44
So that's going to be really fun to follow.
1:30:46
You definitely will be following for that.
1:30:49
Yeah. Yeah.
1:30:51
Any other like big lessons you learned or things we didn't?
1:30:56
Hit that you're like. That was yeah.
1:30:59
No, that's perfect. Yeah, it's, yeah, obviously it's
1:31:03
such, it's such a big, there's so many, there's so many things,
1:31:07
right? There's so many little stories.
1:31:08
And there's even just going back through, like, videos that I've
1:31:13
like. Looking back at my videos that I
1:31:14
took, I was like, I forgot about that one.
1:31:16
Yeah, yeah. So it's I feel like it's going.
1:31:20
To be just kind of this like long process of, yeah,
1:31:23
remembering the little things and kind of appreciating them
1:31:26
after the stuff. But yeah, nothing that I can
1:31:28
really think of. Yeah, no, that's really cool.
1:31:31
And I still think a movie would be great if I can maybe hook you
1:31:35
up with some people that do that.
1:31:37
I don't know. We'll see.
1:31:39
We've had some on here who do horse stuff.
1:31:41
That would be pretty well. That would be really neat, but.
1:31:43
It'll be exciting to see, to see what comes next for you.
1:31:47
Yeah. So yeah, it's gonna be fun.
1:31:50
Well, thanks for coming and doing this and, like, sharing
1:31:52
it. You know, it was fun seeing the
1:31:54
clips on Instagram. It's also really cool to like
1:31:57
hear like the things that were going on in your mind when some,
1:32:01
you know, a lot of the things you brought up.
1:32:02
I'm like, I remember seeing that video.
1:32:04
Yeah and just to hear what that was like, cuz I know I was
1:32:07
thinking, Oh my gosh, like the cold.
1:32:08
I would be dying in the cold or like the trees.
1:32:11
I'm like, Oh my gosh, all that sign has got to be exhausting.
1:32:15
So yeah, thanks for coming on and sharing all about it.
1:32:18
Yeah, Thank you for having me back.
1:32:20
It's. Fun to do.
1:32:21
It's fun to do a second interview like after the fact,
1:32:24
and again, it's just wild. Did it actually happened?
1:32:27
I know, it's so cool. It's so.
1:32:29
Cool that we were able to talk before and then you went and did
1:32:32
it and it was amazing and crazy and super challenging and yeah,
1:32:37
and new things. Now what's the next adventure, I
1:32:40
guess is the next question. Yes.
1:32:42
Yeah, I'll get back to you. On that one, I'll let you know.
1:32:44
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