Happy! We did it!!

We were both VERY happy to stop for lunch. They had a campfire going, and the snow never stopped falling. We all stood close to the fire and let our clothes steam dry. Sierra got her boots off and tried to remind her feet that they were still alive. We had a great lunch of hot beans, cold cut sandwiches and hot chocolate along with chips and cookies. It was a bit less than an hour stop but it did the trick. Warmed us up and gave us the much needed encouragement and energy to keep on going. Our leader would have let us turn home then if we had all been too cold. But we persevered and had a great afternoon.









Sierra changed into her snowpants (in the tiny outhouse...with me trying to help...quite the funny experience...just ask her!) and was extremely happy that I brought them!! They kept her dry for the rest of the afternoons ride. We also got to canter and run around fields a lot which also kept us warm and inspired to go on.
During the ride we crossed rivers (and not shallow ones either) went up steep muddy hills, went down STEEP muddy hills, went down STEEP, MUDDY HILLS INTO RIVER'S and traversed many mountiansides filled with trees and fallen logs. The whole time in wet, heavy snow and -1 to 1 degree celsius weather.





When we got back to the lodge for our steak dinner all our layers were wet, the outer ones were so wet it was like we had dumped them in a bathtub, pulled them out and left them on the floor in a great puddle. However...It was great fun and we hope to do it again next year. We'll both bring better rain gear next time...Jackets AND pants!

Sierra and I layed down on the couch as supper was being fixed and both of us actually fell asleep cuddled up together (we got pretty chilled) Luckily when we woke up we got to eat a great meal and they started a fire in the fire place which helped us regain feeling everywhere. After supper they did a little raffle. Sierra won a 'bit warmer' and I won a pocket knife. Pretty cool I say! All that on top of what we got for fundraising which for me was a 25.00 gift certificate to their camp store (which I gave to Sierra as it was her birthday) and Sierra....

One of the highlights for Sierra was that she raised enough money (she raised $827.00 in only 8 days) to win the prize of an 8G IPOD touch. Pretty cool for a 9 year old.

When I first decided to do this with Sierra I read that we'd have to each raise 100.00. About a month later I realized that we needed to start and I needed to tell Sierra my plans so that we could get fundraising. So I signed us up and went online to get the info.

There I learned we'd actually EACH need to raise 200.00 as we were using their horses and I almost cancelled us out thinking it would be impossible to do that in the 8 days we had left (I procrastinated and then poor Sierra had to work with what was left...) But Sierra did so well and worked hard and by day 2 I knew we could do it! So I kept us signed up. She raised money by asking at school, going door to door in our neighborhood and even venturing downtown to ask businessess for their support (while her chicken mother sat inside the car waiting and praying that they'd say yes to her--once I had my 200.00 I quit and let her take the lead).

Tomorrow we will be working on our thankyou cards for all of you and the strangers too, who gave so freely to her (and me).

THANKS EVERYONE. JOIN US NEXT YEAR...on the actual ride!!

If you run into Sierra, get her to give you the story. She's in bed now so I didn't get to give you her version but it is WAY better and more in depth than mine. But I figured if I waited, I'd never get the pictures up. So...ask questions if you would like to know more. But the summary is 'fundraising for REBC, snow, horses, riding, snow, camp lunch, snow, loping, snow, loping, more snow, home again, soaked clothes, nap, supper, prizes, snow, truly excellent memories.'