The Twenty Eleven Ride, Part 2

Enduranceridestuff.com/blog - Karen Chaton
Here is more basic information on the 2011 XP ride. This is also posted on the xprides.com website.

If you are interested in attending this event be sure to read a lot of the information that is on the XP website about the 2001 and 2004 XP rides.

The 2011 ride will be essentially the same as the 2001 ride was. This one will definitely be the last time it’s done by XP/The Duck.


XP 2011

December 31, 2009

For quite some time we talked and dreamed about doing the MexiCan Ride, a ride from Mexico to Canada similar to the XP2001 and XP2004 rides. After several years of preliminary work we were finally forced to give up on the idea for many reasons, not the least of which is the increasingly difficult permitting process on public lands. In lieu of the MexiCan Ride we announced that we would do one more ride on the Pony Express Trail before we got too old and tired. Much has happened since making that decision. Obviously the collapse of the world economic system plays a gigantic role in all of our plans. Not only are all of our finances in jeopardy, according to some of the prophets of doom, the world is going to end in December of 2012, Obviously we will be unable to do the ride if the world comes to an end. That being said, we are committed to going ahead with the XP2011 on the Pony Express Trail. We have made some important changes in the terms of engagement, especially the financial terms.

The event will consist of eight weeks of five-day rides, starting on Tuesday, May 24th in St. Joseph Missouri. Each ride will be 50 miles and will be conducted as all of our XP point-to-point rides have been in the past. We will ride five days and rest on Sundays and Mondays. In previous years we started in June and suffered more from the heat later in the ride. The early pioneers left Missouri in April but they were traveling much slower and needed more time to get to through the western mountains by snowfall. Since we are traveling at a faster pace we will be able to enjoy the best of weather throughout our trip. We have notified AERC of our plans and have requested time to meet with the AERC BOD in Reno to advise them of our plans and to request sanctioning as we did in 2001 and 2004. Although the ride will follow the original Pony Express Trail, as close as possible, we will be making some detours that provide a better horse/rider experience.

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