In which the Cross-State ride continues east, and I join the lead riders

"You're an endurance rider, so you can keep up with us!"

That's what Susie, the club's lead rider, said the night before we rode to Warden.

As an orphan, my gear was in rigs all over camp, but the Dragon and I both portaged the river in Jerri's rig.
(please note: Fee was in the horse trailer, not in the motorhome with Jerri and me)

This ride was a little different than before, as there is not a horse-friendly path across the Columbia River (funding for the Beverly Bridge has been approved by the Washington State legislature and repair work will begin this year!).

I'm told that in the years before 9/11, riders and wagons rode across the top of Wanapum Dam, but in modern times that kind of security risk is unacceptable.  So now, we portage.

In practical terms, this meant reveille at 4:30am in order to tack up horses, pack up gear (in my case, packing stuff into Andrea's truck, Susie's trailer, Christine's motorhome, and Jerri's rig), load horses, eat something and hit the road.  Riding with the leads means we depart with the parking committee at 6:30am.

The view out the front windshield, with the Columbia River to starboard and our destination ahead.

Temporarily parked in Smyrna on the east side of the river, we off-loaded horses and made ready to go. 

Most rigs off-loaded and were driven further forward to our trail end at Warden, with riders catching the bus back to Smyrna where the horses waited, but because we needed to ride in front in order to unlock gates and mark hazards, we just left our vehicles behind and let the parking committee move them.

From left to right:  Jerri, Susie, and Andrea, with me on the Dragon in the rear

The trail from Smyrna to Warden includes the famous "mosquito alley" where swarms of skeeters the likes of which I've never seen, even in Alaska, fell upon us in a feeding frenzy.  Fortunately, that section of trail doesn't include any gates, so we jetted through briskly and lost very little blood.

On the far side of the mosquito hordes was a pit toilet.

Susie once found a rattlesnake in a pit toilet, and all other rest areas are now judged against that one.

The gates should be straightforward, with combination locks all coded either by the State Park system or by the Department of Natural Resources, depending which bit of land we were on at the moment.  As anyone who has ever worked with (or for) big government agencies might guess, it wasn't that easy.  Some gates were still coded with the 2018 code--or the 2017 code!  One gate didn't respond to any combinations at all, and the lock had to be removed with bolt cutters.

Combination-locked gates are a pain.

Finally, we reached our day's destination in Warden, Washington.  There, parked between live train tracks and the fire station, we stayed for 48 hours, making sure to buy groceries, wash laundry, take showers at the fire station, fill water and fuel tanks, eat meals in the local diner, and generally boost the economy.

Camp in Warden

Andrea's two horses take "rest days" seriously, while Susie's horse stands guard.

On our second day, the group took a field trip out to a Hutterite community north of the town.  I knew almost nothing about this group of communal farmers, and was charmed by our young guides and by the beauty of the farmland.

The children wanted to make sure that Rosalyn showed us the kittens

Far from being technophobes, the Hutterites use top-of-the-line machines and agricultural processes to grow crops like potatoes, corn, wheat, and legumes.

These enormous potato trucks are driven by girls (unmarried women over the age of 17)
because they have longer attention spans than the boys.

Teachers for the community children come from the nearby town of Moses Lake.  The classroom libraries contained many titles that I regularly see on bookshelves in public schools at home.  Residents also make use of the local public library, which pleases me! 

I always feel at home in the presence of books

Canning, pickling and preserving food for 35 families is a huge chore for the women.  Many (but not all) tasks in the community are gender-specific but not necessarily stereotypical.  For example, the women raise children, cook and sew, but also drive the huge potato trucks and run the woodworking shop.

At the end of winter, their stores are not entirely depleted.

Back "home" at our campsite, the Dragon entertained visitors from the town by performing her tricks-for-cookies routine. 

Dragon greets her fans

She's going to need to learn more tricks if we ever do this trip again!

Next up:  close quarters in Lind.