This weekend was our annual spring Rough Riders' ride. Here we are setting up camp on the San Rafael River.

We just had 5 riders this year, which is the number that we started with 20 years ago.

Our first day ride was Cane Wash, one of our favorite tracks.

There are a lot of smooth sandy stretches where we can let the horse out.

I had to pull my hat down to win this race!

As usual Sylvia's pies were a big hit. I got the last piece of pumpkin with some luck at hot dice!

On Friday we took off down the San Rafael river with the intent of going all the way around the north side of Mexican Mountain and finding our way to "Swazy's leap".

It had been 15 years since I had been there, and we had come in from the other side before, so I had a little trouble finding it. As a matter of fact, we overshot it by about 4 miles on the first pass, and about 3 miles on the second.

But it was spectacular, rugged country so we all enjoyed the ride.

Can you imagine trying to raise cattle in this desert like the Swazy's did back in the 1880's?

It takes 200 acres to support one cow!

Finally LeGrand and I made it to this famous site. It was here that Sid Swazy was challenged by his brother to jump his horse across this 14 foot wide gorge that had a 54 foot drop to the river. As you can see, LeGrand's horse is not too eager to try, but Sid Swazy's horse did and won him the prize of 6 heifers.

I often tell this story to illustrate the principle of commitment. There must have been some moment when Sid said to himself, and his horse, that they were going to do it, they were not going to turn off or balk, and they were certainly not going to go half way. They were going to go all the way and that was all there was to it. There are some times in life when we need to make similar commitment's; such as accepting a mission call, getting married, going to school or many other worthwhile challenges.

The river was the only source of water for our horses, and also served as our bathtub.

Todd just completed the Iron-Man run 2 weeks ago and you can see what it did for him!

The Iron Man race is a two and a half mile swim, a 122 mile bike ride followed by a marathon 26 mile run. He did it all in 14 hours! He had to get up at 4 am every morning for 9 months to train. Way to go Todd!