Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Richard and Sedona Baumfalk rest with their horses at a corral at Union Creek Ranch. The couple and their two children are on a 4,000 mile journey south on horseback to the U.S./Mexico border.
Their faces are sunburned, and Richard Baumfalk is walking like he’s saddlesore. Sedona Baumfalk said she worries about their 19-year-old horse.
“She’s getting ribby,” she said quietly.
Their two wiry, sunburned children wrestle with the host’s dog. The 7-year-old girl’s hair is snarled into golden strings from the wind.
Meet the Baumfalks, a family from Alaska who stopped at the Gilchrist Ranch on Union Flat Creek road south of Colfax Tuesday night, a month and a half into a 4,000 mile journey on horseback to the U.S./ Mexico border.
“I haven’t slept under a roof since June 20,” Richard said.
The family, who bedded their six horses down at Gilchrist’s ranch Tuesday night, were tired from the heat as they have been every night on their journey.
They began June 20 at Ellensburg where they bought their horses.
The family of four is on a mission to ride down through the U.S. all the way to the border by Christmas. They’re doing the ride to promote Shriner’s Hospitals.
“I want to have a warm Christmas,” Richard said while the whole family nodded their heads.
They are from Nenana, Alaska, where every Christmas is usually set to a background of 40 degrees below zero.
The logistics of their trip are daunting. Richard is pushing for an average of 20 miles a day. Thus far they’ve ridden mostly during the day on highways, coping with the scorching central Washington heat and traffic rushing next to their mounts.
They started out on the John Wayne Trail at Ellensburg but ran into complications for riding on the trail too long. They got sidetracked at Vantage trying to cross the bridge over the Columbia River on I-90 and had to wait five days while searching for a legal way to cross the bridge. A friend finally drove a horse trailer from Ellensburg and hauled them across.
Sedona’s father, Mike, runs a supply car. He drives ahead to buy food and find their next place to stay for the night. They carry the food for the horses, high-performance pellets, in the car and the family dog, a lanky golden lab from Alaska, rides in the car with Mike.
How did this begin?
It all started, Richard said, with his lifelong dream of riding horseback from the U.S./Canada border to the U.S./Mexico border. Richard just retired from his teaching job in Nenana, Alaska.
Richard figured their journey should have some kind of benefit and after seeing the Shriners take care of several of his students for free, he and Sedona decided to promote the hospitals along their journey.
So they set up a web-site (see below) and with every state they pass, they will post a child in need of medical procedures, asking people to donate to the Shriners who are facing a national funding problem with the shrinkage of their endowment income.
“When Richard said that’s what he wanted to do, I was 100 percent behind him,” said Sedona. They have been married a little over a year, and Sedona said this trip “will help break them in” to each other.
They leased out their home in Nenana, and Richard drove down to Washington to buy horses.
He tried in Wenatchee first with no luck.
“It was all just cherries and rattlesnakes there,” he said with a grin.
He drove on to Ellensburg where a search through an auction and a few other venues led him to seven saddle-worthy horses.
“They were going to be dog food,” Richard said. “A lot of them were really good horses.”
One of the horses was green-broke at the time and another was a retired professional bucking horse. They had to sell the one horse along the way. Their mounts now include a Tennessee Walker, an Appaloosa, and several Quarter Horses.
During the day, they ride on four of the horses and pack on the other two. At night, they tie up the horses and the family sleeps in a tent. Tuesday evening, their stay at Gilchrist house was the longest the family had been away from the horses, who were grazing in a small corral a half mile down the road.
“We eat, sleep and live with them” Sedona said.
Penny Gilchrist invited the family to stay at the ranch after meeting them Saturday at a horse show.
Their next destination is Moscow, and from there they plan on riding across the panhandle of Idaho and into Montana. When they reach the eastern edge of Yellowstone Park, they plan to turn south and follow the Continental Divide trail that runs down through Colorado. Then, they’ll either drop down through Arizona or New Mexico until they hit the Mexican border.
Sedona said it hasn’t been too hard on the kids so far. Richard is still a certified teacher, and he’s been giving them their lessons on the road.
Still, when you’ve been in the saddle for six hours in 100 degree heat, someone is liable to get cranky, Sedona noted.
Are they worried about running out of money, getting hit by a car, getting sick, or running out of water?
“We’re pretty sure there’s going to be accidents along the way. It’s all a part of the adventure,” Sedona said with a smile.
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