Before the transcontinental telegraph was completed, the Pony Express mail service provided the most direct means of communication between the settled eastern states and the burgeoning West.
The Pony Express — which operated from April 1860 to October 1861 and traversed through Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California — consisted of a series of men riding horses carrying saddlebags of mail on a 2,000-mile trail across the country. They made the trip in about 10 days, according to the Pony Express National Museum website, www.ponyexpress.org.
“The route is from St. Joe (Joseph), Missouri, across the Plains and over the Rockies and through Utah and Nevada and over the Sierras into Sacramento,” said Katie Azevedo of Bayside, who knows a thing or two about the Pony Express National Historic Trail.
Earlier this year, she and her mother, Linda Azevedo, also of Bayside, spent seven weeks riding Linda’s horse, 14-year-old Arabian mare Sedona, along a good portion of the historic trail.
“It was really one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and will always be the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done,” Katie said. “It also was really meaningful to do it with my mom and one of our treasured horses.”
Linda added, “To be out there where the pioneers went and some of the homesteaders probably crossed … it’s just remarkable to see where our ancestors went ahead of us.”
The women took two years to prepare for their approximately 1,800-mile expedition. Though both had done endurance riding in the past, they looked to acclaimed longtime endurance rider Karen Fredrickson and her husband, Duane, of Iaqua — near Kneeland — for advice and instruction about how to get prepared for such a strenuous journey.
“They had us out to their ranch … and basically gave us the tools to know what we needed to do to prepare for it … Those two people were probably why we were able to pull it off,” said Katie, who has been endurance riding for about 15 years. Linda has been riding horses much of her life, but only delved into the long distance equestrian sport after her daughter got involved.
“I’ve had to learn a whole new side to working with horses,” said Linda who, like her daughter, had to take an extended break from work — and day-to-day life — to make the extended trip. Katie, a public health nurse with the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services, and Linda, an optometrist who co-owns A-to-Z Eye Care in Arcata with husband Dr. Loren Azevedo, are thankful to those they work with and their family members for their support and understanding along the way.
“We couldn’t do this without our family support,” Linda said.
Katie and Linda Azevedo participated in a ride organized by XP Rides (Xprides.com), a company that works to preserve historic U.S. trails so people can relive the experiences of early pioneers.
“(It’s run by a) husband and wife who love to put on rides so people can ride in historic places,” said Katie, noting the XP is said to have been the brand used for Pony Express horses.
“All livestock was branded back in the day for their protection,” Katie said. “Some states still brand horses, but California does not. So anyway, now in present day in the endurance sport, XP has morphed into meaning any endurance ride held on the Pony Express Trail.”
The women were not alone on their journey. They rode with 25 to 30 other riding teams, which included someone who rides the horse and someone who drives the rig (usually a truck and trailer).
“For us and some others, there were two riders and then you switch off days,” said Katie, explaining that when she was riding Sedona, her mother was behind the wheel with the trailer — and vice versa. The person driving the vehicle would hook up with the rider throughout the day to make sure the horse had plenty of water and care. The driver also was responsible for setting up camp at a pre-designated site, in addition to handling any other chores that might need to be done along the way.
“Point to point, logistically, you have to have somebody move your rig,” said Katie, noting that rider and driver were able meet up fairly easily on the trail and at night thanks to GPS technology.
Even though the Azevedos were away from home, they were not far from the North Coast, in some sense. Several other Humboldt County teams also participated in the XP ride, including Karen and Duane Fredrickson, Mary Darby and Maryanne Riley, Marlene and Casey Allen and Berit Meyer.
“The whole Humboldt crew really stuck together,” Katie said. “It was a really tight-knit group.”
Katie and Linda Azevedo began their trek on May 19 after a visit to the original barn site and post office where the mail would start its journey along the Pony Express Trail with the first horse and rider. They met up with the actual trail just across the river from St. Joseph in Elwood, Kansas.
Along the way, the women took plenty of time to enjoy the diverse terrain, as well as the many historic markers and landmarks.
One of the highlights was stopping to sightsee and rest in Marysville, Kansas.
According to the National Park Service website (www.nps.gov), Joseph Cottrell and Hank Williams built a stone barn in Marysville in 1859. In 1860, they contracted with Russell, Majors & Waddell — the firm that founded the Pony Express — to lease the barn as their livery stable. The north end of the structure served as a blacksmith shop and stalls were on the other side. The stable now serves as a museum.
“Marysville had a restored Pony Express barn that we took a day to visit and explore while stocking up on supplies and letting Sedona rest,” Katie said.
They also spent a few days in the small community of Oak, Nebraska, which was once a home to one of more than 100 Pony Express stations along the trail, where riders or horses that had been on the trail switched off with new riders or horses. Each rider rode about 75 miles a day and they changed horses every 10 to 15 miles, according to the National Park Service.
“Oak has a saloon and two antique stores and that’s it,” Linda said. “… It is a very historic town. We doubled the population of their town for the weekend. They were so gracious.”
Katie added, “Oak is nearby what’s called ‘The Narrows’ on the trail, which is where wagons had to travel in a single file line in a canyon. It (was) a risky area because … it was an easy place to attack a wagon train.”
The women’s trip also included a few days of respite in mid-June during a major rainstorm in the small town of Guernsey, Wyoming.
“The trail near Guernsey had the nicest wagon ruts we had seen so far,” Katie said. “We also waded in the North Platte and waited for the roads to dry up — which they did. We rode the following days to Esterbrook, then to Marshall.
“In Marshall (Wyoming), we as a group got stranded again,” she added. “Most of us made it in before a thunderstorm came through — some did not and were separated from the group for several days. We had no cell service. We spent two nights there doing (forced) rest days on a private ranch. The owner opened his barn doors up and we had an impromptu potluck, and a couple from Montana played a bluegrass duet, and Dave (co-owner of XP Rides) told stories about the Pony trail and also about how he came to know the owner of the ranch.”
The group ended up having to drive across the state of Utah, Katie said.
“In the huge undertaking of getting permits for this, the organizer ran into difficulty with a (government) agency in granting permission to ride as a small group across its state — just one example of why this particular ride may never be held again as our culture moves further and further away from our historical roots of traveling by horseback and as the West becomes more populated and fenced in,” she said.
The riders re-grouped near Ibapah, Utah, and the Nevada state line.
“We stayed with a man whose family settled there generations before, after working for the Pony Express station there,” Katie said.
From there, the riders made their way to Nevada’s Schellbourne Pass, also a former Pony Express station, then to Ruby Lakes, the Roberts Creek area, Dry Creek and on to Smith Dry Lake near Austin, Nevada.
“We had two rest days there at a private ranch that had an original restored Pony Express barn and station,” said Katie, adding that the group made its way to Cold Springs near the California state line — on July 3.
“We rode past rattlesnakes, endangered sage grouse and beautiful salt flats,” Katie said. “… On the 4th we rode to Bucklands and then through Virginia City into Carson City on July 5th.”
That is where their cross-country adventure came to an end, she said.
“The last part of the trail between Carson City, Nevada, and Sacramento, is the rocky Sierras, but Highway 50 pretty much paves it over, so there’s just no safe equestrian access … No equestrian trail has been preserved yet — maybe someday,” said Katie, who hopes endurance rides like this will continue for years to come.
“I would love to see a multiuser XP trail preserved for the entire length — much like the AT (Appalachian Trail) or PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) — so that we and future generations can relive history and explore our country in the same way that we were able to,” she said.