The End of the Trail!

Tuesday 4th April was a significant day in more ways than one.  Firstly I completed my journey along the Pony Express Trail, but secondly I had timed it to coincide with the date that the first mail left Sacramento 157 years ago.   But the first mail left on April 3rd I hear you exclaim!  And that is true, but it actually left from San Francisco (at 4pm on April 3rd), and was only carried by the pony with rider James Randall as far as the waterfront.  Here it was put on the steamship Antelope to Sacramento, where it arrived in the early hours of the following morning. The first rider to carry the mail out of Sacramento at 2.45am on 4th April 1860 was William (Sam) Hamilton, and one could argue this is where the pony part of the Pony Express eastern run really began.
Lucy and I were certainly not intending to start at such an ungodly hour, and set off from home at a more respectable time.  Lucy was going to meet up with me to ride the last couple of miles into old Sacramento on Mohawk, her pinto Tennessee Walking Horse, but dropped Lady and me back at CalExpo to cover the section in between.  Unfortunately I discovered I had left my camera battery behind, so this post has to rely on a few photos on my Kindle.

As we neared Sacramento, the trail rapidly began to acquire a different atmosphere.  Gone were the lycra clad cyclists and instead we passed a small tent camp of homeless people and dogs.  There were occasional glimpses of tent camps tucked away in the backwoods......

The completely deserted trail had a post apocalyptic look.   An abandoned raft washed up on the side of the muddy path ....

 ...was it really capable of floating?
Mud plastering everything bore evidence of recent flooding, and in the distance in this photo, a fallen tree blocked the path....

 ..people had evidently been using a narrow gap on the right hand side to negotiate it, but as I drew nearer there were ominous rustlings in the bushes.  Was it an ambush?  I suspect not but I still pushed my way quickly through the thickets on the other side without dismounting.
We started to encounter swampy flooded sections with creepers draping the trees, and I half expected to see zombies wading out of the tangled foliage.....

  In fact this flooded section was only a couple of hundred yards long, and to my surprise I emerged at the far end to find three of the lycra brigade faltering at the edge of the flood before they turned tail.

I met Lucy as planned just the other side of the Jibboom St bridge over the American river, and we rode into town along the side of the Sacramento river.    Lucy and I pose in front of the Hastings building where the Wells Fargo and Pony Express offices were housed.....

and in front of the Pony Express statue on the other side of the road...

 Note we are both decked out in our Pony Express uniforms of blue jeans, red shirts, leather waistcoats, yellow bandanas and cowboy boots.
No cheering crowds waiting to greet us , but we celebrated with a very welcome (and delicious) ice-cream, in my case a suitably named Rocky Road

There was just time afterwards for a trip to see the Kirtlan family who live not far from Sacramento.  I had met Carrie Kirtlan when I was judging at a Welsh breeds show in California in September 2015, and she contacted me last autumn.  They were coming over to Wales for the Welsh cob sales and were on the look out for a nice Welsh cob stallion.  Could I advise on the best studs to visit?  Sods law I would be riding in California at the same time as they would be in Wales, but I gave her an introduction to Owen Griffiths, a former Welsh Pony and Cob Society Young Ambassador who I felt sure would be able to help them out.
The result was that he took them up to the renowned Synod stud after they had failed to find something to their liking at the sales, and they had done a deal on a young Welsh cob colt who in due course had followed them back to Sacramento.   And here he is in his new home....

Carrie's vet had accompanied them just for the trip, but had also ended up buying a Synod Welsh cob, in his case a two year filly Synod Ruby.

Trailing Along

Setting off from Rescue on Sunday 2nd April. 

If I only had a heart I would have put something in this guy's mailbox..

 Peyton and Alison Oxford come out to see Lady...

 After a few hours ride along the highways and byways of Sacramento county, we reached Folsom Lake and stopped for a break.  Lady is transfixed not by the stunning view but by the sound of Mexicans party party partying round the headland....

 I was totally baffled by this large random model of a guitar by the trail a little further on, but the more savvy among you (Well done Stu who got it in one!) should be able to get the connection if you know it was close to Folsom Prison which we happened to be riding past......

There is a clue at the bottom of the post.

Crossing the Folsom trestle bridge over the American River...

 We were now on the American River Trail, which follows the American River on either or both banks all the way to Sacramento.    But not for long in our case as we soon came across this sign...

..and it seemed from the barrier further along that after the recent rains the inevitable had happened - ROCKSLIDES!   Our route was cut off and we had to deviate along the top of the bluffs....

.before scrambling back down to the main trail.
We were riding down river alongside Lake Natoma, which is held back by the Nimbus Dam...

In the distance you can see the Nimbus Bridge which was our destination for the day, as Lucy had very kindly offered to pick us up in the trailer and take us to her home.

Monday 3rd April was another day of idyllic riding along the American River Trail

A rest break near the bicycle bridge in the William B Pond Recreation Area ...

...and if anyone finds a long piece of rope here, it is my tethering rope which I accidently left behind -  one of many scattered around the world I fear
.
The sort of sign Lady and I like to see...

 

Wild turkey legging it across the trail...

Seventeen miles further down the trail, Lucy picked me up outside CalExpo - the California State Fairground just outside Sacramento.

CLUE:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMyzoHBtaME 

And the trail the guitar is on goes through the prison grounds and is named after this icon!.

To the Rescue

I woke up at Petra's on Thursday April 30th to this scene..

....to match up with the rainy and sunny options I have put on the blog before. 

My main concern was whether I would make it back over the Sierras to Pollock Pines, but in fact I had no trouble and had an interesting drive via Reno and the site of Sutter's Mill in Coloma where gold was first discovered in 1848, sparking off the Californian gold rush. Back at Jim and Ginger's I walked down to the barn to be confronted with a very portly Lady who had obviously not been stinting on food intake over the winter. 

Friday April 31st was action day. After returning my hire car to Sacramento airport and getting a lift back to Pollock Pines from Lucy, later in the day Lady waddled the short distance from the point beyond Camino where I finished riding in October down the road and a short stretch of trail to Placerville.  No photos as I had forgotten my camera, but we were on the move at last!

Lady and I set off in earnest from Placerville on Saturday April 1st hoping we would not become April fools.  Placerville was once called Hangtown due to the numbers of criminals strung up on a public hang tree in Main St during the gold rush days. 

First stop was to get some dosh. And no I am not intending to become another victim of the hang tree by carrying out a mounted robbery of the Bank of America....

 ...but parking Lady under the wary eye of a bemused security guard before using the ATM.  
The Pony Express station is no more, but in a fate decreed to many a station at this end of the trail, it was destined to become part of yet another car park, this time belonging to Mel's Diner, where is the usual monument and plaque on the corner.

Lady at the Diamond Springs Pony Express monument a few miles further on...

 ...not to be confused with the Diamond Springs Pony Express stations in Nebraska and Nevada.

Diamond Springs was so called not because of diamond discoveries (though a 25lb gold nugget was found here) but its crystal clear waters. I had an opportunity to refresh myself not with crystal clear water but with a coffee in the café across the road which was equipped with a convenient hitching rail...

...the Korean owner was keen to record the event for posterity on his mobile phone. Notice Lady is decked out in natty fluorescent gear with reflective strips in preparation for the busy roads ahead. 

I suspect this is not a practical joke....

I was very fortunate to have a place to stay that night with good friends of Jim and Ginger's near Rescue....  

...fellow Brit Gloria and husband Pat. A chance to indulge in a nice cuppa before I went to bed. 

Lady was tethered at the bottom of the garden ...

 ....at least until she became unsettled by a passing gaggle of wild turkeys, when we moved her to the kitchen garden.

Back to the Golden State

The final part of the adventure began when I flew into Los Angeles on Monday 27th March 2017 and picked up my hire car for the long drive up to Sacramento, stopping at a motel overnight on the way. On Tuesday 28th March I briefly called in at Pollock Pines to see Jim and Ginger before driving on over the Sierra Nevada as I wanted to visit a few places I had missed out on in the autumn.

There have been unusually heavy snowfalls this year so I was glad I had made it over the Sierra Nevada before the snows set in last year or I would have been trapped on the other side well into June.  The photo below shows the depth of snow still existing near Echo Summit at the end of April .....

....amazing to think that part of the trail leads off to the right of the photo and through the trees.  The huge snowbank did not exist then, and an idea of scale is given by the car on the road in the middle distance.
At the foot of the Sierras on the other side I stopped at the site of Meyers Pony Express station, on the shorter but steeper route over the Kingsbury Grade from Genoa to Stateline.  I had taken the longer route via Woodfords.  It is now the location of Lira's Market, though there is a small monument in front of the store....

 On reaching Carson City I managed to find the monument to the Carson City Pony Express station...

Not sure what the photo-bombing dalek is.
Nothing remains of the original Pony Express station, which may have been at the site of this car park a couple of hundred yards to the south which is located on Carson St between 4th and 5th Sts....

As territorial capital and the first large settlement the pony express reached after galloping across the Nevada desert from Salt Lake City, Carson City was a natural location for a home station.

I also had a vain attempt to find Ormsby House which was the home of the Major Ormsby who led the ill-fated expedition against the Paiute in May 1860 which was one of the factors sparking the Paiute war.  It is only later that I have realised I was being directed to a large modern hotel/casino (which has been closed for years) on the corner of Carson St and 5th.  For anyone who is interested, the old house was in a different location on the corner of Carson St and 2nd and was demolished in the mid 1900s.

After a night at Petra's house near the Washoe Lake which is now full of water again, I made an early start on the morning of Wednesday 29th March.  My first stop was Dayton, as when I rode through in October I had not realised there were still remnants of the old Pony Express station there.  Attached to the old Union Hotel is a freestanding wall which is part of the old station.  In this view of the back of the hotel it can be seen clearly as the old stone wall with an archway to the left, attached to the back of the Union Hotel which is on the right...

The Union Hotel is currently being renovated by its new owners, and according to their website the plan with the Pony Express station wall is  ".. to repoint the stones, rebuild the window and add a concrete beam to the top to hold together the loose bits and prevent rain from seeping into the interior of the wall"
A view at the front of the hotel - remnants of the stone side wall of the old station can be seen in the gap between the wooden buildings.

 As can be seen from the water tower....

 ...Dayton still strongly disputes Genoa's claim to be the first settlement in Nevada!

A long drive east across the desert and up a gravel track brought me to ruins of Sand Springs Pony Express station, which we had not had time to visit when we followed the trail in October.  To recap on its history, it was built in March 1860 by Division Superintendent Bolivar Roberts.
The view below shows the dark station walls.  The low dip in the right hand side of the skyline is Simpsons Pass where the power station we camped beside is sited. The Pony Express riders followed the trail off to the right to cross the alkali flats in the middle distance and over the pass to Carson Sink.  We followed the route of the re-ride which skirts the alkali flats off to the left and runs along the base of the Cocoon Mountains on the horizon.

 The station had been covered by sand and lain lost and undisturbed for years.  Then in 1975 it was rediscovered by a team of archaeologists from Nevada State University and the following year was excavated and stabilised.  Unfortunately the black basalt walls have been degraded in places by sightseers scrambling over them, and there are now notices exhorting visitors to refrain from this activity.
As an outlying station in a godforsaken spot, relying on a sulphurous water supply and under constant threat of Paiute attack, it is perhaps not surprising that some of the most common artifacts dug up here were empty liquor bottles.  Supplies of fodder and food (as well as the demon drink which they had sworn on a bible not to imbibe!) had to be brought in by wagon pulled by horses or oxen.

The room below in the southwest corner was one of the living areas and contained a fireplace in the far corner.

It was originally part of a larger room with a wooden floor, but was later divided into two (the end of the dividing wall shows at the bottom right of the photo). It is thought the second room was later used for battery storage when the Transcontinental telegraph came this way. 

This room in the northwest corner was used as a smithy and cooking room...

It contained a shallow stone well, and wire and iron hooks found here suggest that there was a device to raise water.  A firepit was used for blacksmithing and cooking.   Besides these rooms there was space for tack and storage, stables and an additional corral within a basalt stone wall. 

By the time Sir Richard Burton came through the station was "roofless and chairless, filthy and squalid with the smoky fire in one corner and a table on an impure floor, the walls open to every wind and the interior full of dust"   This condition was probably partly due to the ravages of Paiute, though it was never attacked when the station hands were 'at home'. 

One of the original station masters was Montgomery Maze.  He was holding the fort when Pony Bob Haslam made the return journey on his famous 380mile ride and persuaded Maze to accompany him to Carson Sink, having found Cold Springs burning and the station keeper dead..  He later became a rider on this section, riding from Friday's to Reese River.  However it was he who was involved in the infamous shooting of H Trumbo at Smith's Creek, and although he was not actively punished, he was 'let go' from the employ of the Pony Express shortly after. 

Catching Up

Those who have been following my facebook posts will be aware that I completed the Pony Express Trail on April 4th earlier this year, and made it to the Pacific coast on the Easter weekend to complete my round-the-world ride.  However I have been unable to update my blog due to a series of setbacks which have included losing my laptop on the flight home followed by my home computer crashing. This meant I was unable to edit photos for inclusion in my blog posts, and as I base the posts round the photos it effectively prevented me from adding to my blog.  When my computer was eventually replaced I then found it was not provided with the relevant version of Adobe Photoshop, and after sorting that out discovered I was unable to upload my video clips to YouTube.  Grrrr.  However I think everything is now up and running and I have spent some time editing photos, so hopefully I will soon be able to bring my blog up to date with a more detailed version of events.
So Watch This Space!

Recuperation

After arriving home on November 6th I was confined to barracks for over a week as I was unable to drive with my cast. On top of this my computer crashed so neither could I sort out my photos or catch up with my blog, even one-handed.  At least I had an excuse besides pleading exhaustion to lie in bed watching daytime television and reading.   But ten days after arriving home I emerged from my local hospital in Carmarthen with a funky new cast for which I was able to choose the colour.  What did I choose you may ask?  As I was about to attend one of my social occasions of the year it had to be black to match my little black dress.  This was for a do in Cardiff in aid of my beneficiary charity Challenge Aid founded and run by husband Iestyn. So here I am glammed up on top table next to Iestyn (white shirt and dark jacket)..

..the guy in beard and glasses is son Gethin and the other gentlemen L to R are Welsh rugby internationals Sam Warburton, Craig Quinell and George North, and on the far right rugby journalist Rhodri Gomer Davies who is the son of one of my oldest friends.

Through fitness promoting challenges, the charity raises money to take children out of poverty through education.  The main programme focuses on creating 'Schools of Hope' in slum and deprived areas of Kenya and Tanzania. These provide a safe environment for children to study out of school hours.   In 2016 over 40% of Form 4 students from the seventeen longest established schools went on to University & higher education, an amazing achievement which surpasses the state school results.

My cast was off in time for usual hectic Christmas - ten for Christmas dinner, twenty-two for family dinner, indeterminate number for New Year's Wild West party - guess what I went as. 

I had intended to fly out to California to finish the ride after Christmas, and had in fact booked a flight for early January However when I checked my insurance I found my wrist would not be covered at all for three months, so to be on the safe side I took the decision to delay until the spring.

New addition to the family at the end of February has been a completely hyperactive Welsh sheepdog puppy Tawe (pronounced Toweh - tow as in how)

  Of course I had to buy her a couple of sheep, and they had to be my old favourites Welsh Badger-Face - I used to have a small flock of around ninety.

Humpty Dumpty

  Friday 28th October. My waterproof trousers had turned out to be not so waterproof the previous day, and having been soaked to the skin and with another wet day forecast, it seemed expedient to take a day off with Jim and Ginger. It was a chance to buy some better waterproofs and recce the next part of the route, not to mention relax in Jim and Ginger's lovely house. Lady was turned into the steep paddock with the other horses.
I had arranged to meet up with Lucy the next day at the house of British ex-pat Gloria, a friend of Ginger's married to an American, who had very kindly offered to let us stop overnight in their garden. They live over twenty miles by road from Camino, and with the days drawing in, I wanted to make an early start. Jim was going to haul Lady and I back to Camino soon after it got light in the morning of Saturday 29th October so I needed to get up before dark to feed Lady.  Unfortunately all my torches were in the rig that Lucy had driven home.  I was reluctant to wake Jim and Ginger at 5.30am to dig out a torch and did not want to set off late, so I decided to try and find my way down to the barn in the dark.  Bad decision, as I missed the track and stepped out into space from a retaining wall at the side.   The photo below shows the track down to the barn, and the short cut I took over the wall to the right.  Looks better by daylight....

 The crunch from my wrist as I landed on the track below told me it was serious. But it was not until I found my way back up to the house and saw my deformed wrist in the light that I realised how bad the damage was.  The dislocation doesn't really show here, as my wrist was already pretty swollen..

... I ended up inconveniencing Jim and Ginger far more than if we had just set off a bit late.  Jim had to get up in the dark, run me down to the nearest hospital in Placerville and then wait while I was dealt with. It turned out that my wrist was not only dislocated but broken. It was re-aligned and put in a temporary cast, and I was told I might need an operation, though would not be able to talk with the surgeon until Monday. In the meantime I had a course of painkillers, and went back to Pollock Pines to wait and plan my next move.  Selfie with my new cast.

 But it was a few days of frustration. On Monday I was told Dr Vance the surgeon could not see me until Tuesday, which meant I could not give a quote to the insurance company.  On Tuesday Dr Vance gave the go-ahead for an operation on Thursday, but I could not get immediate confirmation of payment from the insurance company, which also affected my flight change.  Should I just cut and run for home in the hope I could get an immediate operation there?  The op needed to be carried out within about a week of the accident and we were already 3/4 days down the line.  In the end it all came together - the insurance gave the go ahead, my op was confirmed for Thursday and I managed to change my flight to Saturday.  Jim agreed to board Lady until I came back, which I hoped would be just after Christmas. Lucy dropped my stuff over so I could sort it out and pack up non necessary items to take home.
So on Thursday 3rd November instead of being well on my way from Sacramento to the coast, I was under the surgeon's knife in the Marshall Medical Centre in Placerville having pins put into my wrist.  Many many thanks to Jack and Barbara who took me in, and particularly to Barbara who insisted on staying at the hospital to support me all afternoon.   I had a day's recovery on Friday, and Ginger kindly drove me all the way in to Sacramento to catch my flight on Saturday 5th November.  Unfortunately my arm was aching overnight and I made another bad decision - this time to take the higher dose of painkiller. As a result I was feeling like death warmed up on the way to the airport and boarding my flight to Houston, but thankfully by the time I boarded my second flight to Heathrow I had recovered a little and even managed to get some sleep.  Daughter Gwenny was waiting to pick me up and hand me over to husband Iestyn for the final drive back home where I slept round the clock!
I have to give a huge thank you to Jim and Ginger for looking after me so well - I am eternally grateful for your support and hospitality. I had originally been invited to stay overnight, but ended up staying over a week. But as Gloria pointed out, I could not have chosen a better place!