By Merri Melde and Karen Steenhof
October 12, 2026
The Southwest Idaho Trail and Distance Riders (SWIT&DR) teamed up with the Boise Back Country Horsemen to sponsor a trail ride under the full harvest moon on September 26, 2026. The Moonlight Scramble raised $2505 for the Murphy Reynolds Wilson Fire District (MRW) in Owyhee County, Idaho. Each club kept $175 each to cover expenses.
MRW is the first responder for all structural fires, wildland fires, and medical emergencies in its rural desert area of Owyhee County. The MRW fire district is comprised of 330 square miles of desert and mountains making it the second largest fire district in Idaho. MRW is an entirely volunteer department that currently has four stations and 32 volunteers.
This is the fourth year that Endurance rider Karen Steenhof has organized a fundraising trail ride, sponsored by SWIT&DR, for MRW in the Murphy, Idaho area.
Karen explained, “Our first fundraising ride for MRW was September 23, 2023, in Con Shea Basin, near Murphy, where we followed historical paths, including the Oregon Trail and the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee railroad.
“We called it the ‘Guffey Scramble’ because of the butte called Guffey in the area. We had hoped to host the first ride in 2020, but covid and weeds got in the way. In 2022 when a flash flood cleared the weeds from the sand washes, the ride was back on the calendar for the fall of the next year. We had 95 riders in 2023. The MRW fundraising ride returned again in 2024 and 2025 to the Guffey trails.
This year’s fundraiser, the Moonlight Scramble, took place near Murphy at the Wilson Creek Trailhead, part of the Wilson Creek Travel Management Area managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the Owyhee desert. Boise Backcountry Horsemen joined in sponsoring the ride. Volunteers from both groups and MRW helped with trail marking, registration, parking, refreshments, and monitoring riders on trail. Trails were marked with both ribbons and battery-powered LED lights, with options of 5- or 8-mile loops.
“One of the challenges of having a moonlight ride,” said Karen, “is that there must be a full (or nearly full) moon, when the sun sets at about the same time as the moon rises. And the ride needs to be on a Saturday night. The moon doesn’t always cooperate.
“This year the full moon fell on the last Saturday in September, so we decided to make the Moonlight ride the fundraiser for MRW.”
Most Americans are used to having a nearby fire station staffed by paid firefighters 24 hours a day in their neighborhoods. In the West, help can be a long way away. Merri said, “With the more dire droughts, hotter and longer summers, and extended fire seasons now, rural fire districts have become an integral part of the communities they serve, and are often the first responders to fires, particularly here in the West.
“In August, we lived 10 miles from the edge of the Big Grass Fire, which ultimately was the second largest wildfire in the US in 2026. It burned 578,637 acres in Oregon and Idaho. Without the immediate response of volunteer firefighters (and farmers and ranchers) from these rural districts, it would have become more catastrophic than it was. In addition to the Big Grass Fire, two smaller but closer fires erupted near Murphy that were quickly attacked by MRW and other local firefighters.”
MRW Fire Chief Chuck Cooley said, “To date this year we have responded to 42 calls on the fire side and about 100 on the EMS side. 25 of those were fire related. We didn’t deploy to the Big Grass Fire, but we did coordinate and maintain contact with Silver City in the event the fire reached that area.
“Your fundraisers benefit both fire and EMS. Fund raising and donations are the staple of MRW, since our tax base is very small.”
SWIT&DR is proud to be a part of the Endurance riding community that raises fund for the firefighting communities.
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