Pack Trip (4 page)

On signal from Eli, the riders and the packhorses formed a single line and started off. Lisa noticed that nobody was talking, and she wondered why. It wasn’t because of the difficulty of the trail. In fact, they were riding along the side of a road. For the moment, anyway, the path was quite straight and flat—no challenge at all. Perhaps, Lisa thought, it was because of the early hour and the chill of the morning. Lisa glanced at her watch. It was about eight o’clock, and they had been up since five-thirty. But Eli had shooed them into bed by nine-thirty,
so they’d all had enough sleep; that wasn’t it. So why weren’t they talking?

She looked around, but what she noticed wasn’t the other riders. It was the strange new world around her. It was what everybody else was noticing, too, and she soon realized that it was why nobody was talking.

The road they were following threaded its way between two mountains. At this hour they were still partially enshrouded by the morning fog, which now hovered about halfway up the fir trees that edged the road to the right. To the left was a field, filled with bright wildflowers and dotted with occasional evergreens. Beyond the field was the sheer cliff of a mountain, rising dramatically skyward into the dense fog.

“Oh!” Lisa gasped, noticing it all for the first time.

“Something, isn’t it?” a voice behind her said.

She turned in the saddle, pleased to see that the speaker was Seth, Amy’s attractive brother. She nodded.

A breeze came through, shifting the fog around like curtains. At one moment she could see mountains beyond, at the next they were completely hidden.

Chocolate paused to munch on a dandelion. Lisa tugged firmly at her bridle. It wasn’t that the dandelion was bad for the horse or that she didn’t want her to have a snack. It was just a bad idea to let a horse do anything
without permission. She’d seen too many riders get into trouble by letting their horses take the lead. Chocolate obeyed Lisa’s signal and continued along the roadway.

Fifteen minutes later the fog was gone. It had disappeared almost magically, rising to reveal the incredibly beautiful landscape that surrounded the riders and their horses.

“Up ahead we’re going to leave the road,” Eli called back to the riders. “We’ll be in an open field, and we’re going to trot for a bit to let the horses stretch.”

Lisa could see where they were going to turn. They were going left, directly toward the sheer cliff. The trail through the field led to a side of the mountain where, Lisa presumed, there was a trail that circled it. Eli gave the signal, and the riders left the road, entering the field.

“Now we’re really beginning our trip,” Stevie said.

“You don’t count the first two thousand miles we covered in an airplane?” Carole teased.

“You know what I mean,” Stevie said.

“Yes, I do. And you’re right,” Carole conceded.

“Ready to trot?” Eli called back. All of the riders nodded. As soon as Eli’s horse picked up the pace, the other horses joined in.

Lisa loved to trot. It had always been her favorite gait. It was fast enough to be exciting and slow enough to be
safe. In English riding the riders usually posted when their horses trotted. In Western, the riders normally just sat the trot. There was no rule against posting in Western, but it wasn’t the way it was done. When Chocolate trotted, Lisa never even thought about posting. The mare had a wonderfully smooth trot, and Lisa had no trouble sitting it out.

She was so involved in admiring Chocolate’s trot that it took her a moment to notice the thumping sound of another horse bearing down on her and Chocolate. Lisa looked over her shoulder. It was Amy, and her horse wasn’t trotting. Amy had gotten her horse to canter, only in Western riding that faster three-beat gait was called a lope. Amy had a big grin on her face, and it didn’t change when Jeannie called out after her, telling her to bring her horse back to a trot.

“You’re supposed to trot!” Lisa called to Amy, thinking that she might not have heard Jeannie’s warning. “Tighten up on the reins, sit deep in the saddle. He’ll slow down,” Lisa said.

Amy glanced at her, barely acknowledging Lisa’s presence as she passed by.

Almost instantly Jeannie came by at a gallop. When her horse was next to Amy’s, she reached out, grabbed the reins, and drew the horse to a stop. By then Eli had
figured out that something was going on, and he brought all of the riders to a halt.

“Are you okay?” Jeannie asked Amy.

“Of course,” Amy retorted. “Why shouldn’t I be?”

“Your horse was out of control,” Jeannie said.

“Out of
your
control, maybe,” Amy said tartly. “He was doing just what I told him to.”

“But it wasn’t what
I
told him,” Eli said, stepping in.

“Who’s riding him, you or me?” Amy challenged.

Lisa gasped. She couldn’t imagine talking back to Eli that way.

“Amy!” Seth said. “Remember, you’re not supposed to do that kind of thing. Eli’s in charge.” He turned to Eli. “I’m sorry,” he said. “She just forgets sometimes. Don’t worry, okay? I won’t let it happen again.”

Eli looked quizzically at Seth and seemed to be about to say something. He changed his mind, though, and just nodded. “Okay, let’s get going again, at a
trot
until we reach the wooded trail. Ready?”

They were ready, and the trail ride continued.

When they came back down to a walk, Eli had them ride side by side. Lisa was pleased to find herself next to Seth.

“You’re a good rider,” Seth said to her. “Have you been riding long?”

“Not really,” she said. “It’s just that I love it so much that I do a lot of it, especially with my friends. I guess I’ve learned a lot in a short time. Do you ride a lot, too?”

“Pretty much,” he said. “Amy and I ride at my mother’s place. She’s got a stableful of horses, so whenever we’re there, we get to ride as much as we want.”

“It must be wonderful having horses right there. You don’t even have to drive to a stable, and they’re all
your
horses,” Lisa said. “I mean, my parents say I spend so much time at Pine Hollow that I might as well live there, but it’s not the same, is it? You’re lucky to be able to just finish your breakfast and walk out to the barn. That’s the way it is with Kate, who lives on a dude ranch, and Christine, who has her own horse. Carole has a horse of her own, too. His name is Starlight. He lives at Pine Hollow, though, and on weekends she has to take a bus to the stable. On weekdays, of course, she can walk from school, but …”

Lisa had the funny feeling that what she was saying wasn’t making much sense, but she didn’t seem to be able to stop talking. It had something to do with Seth being next to her.

“I guess I’m just babbling,” she said finally.

He grinned at her. “No, it’s okay. It’s interesting.”

Eli saved her from the embarrassment of saying anything
else by bringing everybody to a halt. He made them bring their horses up next to his so they could see out across the land.

Lisa had never seen anything like it. In front of them—below them, really—lay a long, thin valley surrounded by snowcapped mountains. “This is Victoria Pass,” Eli said. “And that’s where we’re going.” He pointed to the far end of the valley where one mountain, far higher than the others, seemed to stand guard. “The next section of our ride is downhill into the pass and can be quite dangerous. Everybody”—he paused for effect—“and I mean
everybody
, has to follow my lead. You’ve got to keep your heels down and
don’t
lean forward. That helps balance the horse and you. Walk your horses and keep one and a half horse lengths between horses. Are you ready?”

“You bet!” Amy said. The excitement practically bubbled over in her voice.

Eli took that as agreement. “Then let’s go!”

He turned his horse onto the narrow trail with a half dozen switchbacks that led down to the floor of the pass. The others followed in turn.

Lisa was behind Stevie and in front of Seth. Amy was the last rider before Jeannie, who brought up the rear.

At first the path was extremely treacherous. It wound
down the hillside, snaking back and forth. The horses needed to be given enough rein so they could pick their own ways along the rocky trail. Although Lisa wouldn’t have wanted to admit it, she was glad for the pommel and saddle horn that kept her from slipping over the saddle and onto Chocolate’s neck. She held onto it tightly.

“Thank heaven for the saddle horn!” Stevie said over her shoulder.

“Just what I was thinking,” Lisa confessed.

Then, as Lisa was wondering if Chocolate could take another step down, the trail made a final hairpin turn and leveled off a little. It still wasn’t level by any means, but it was leveler than it had been. It was also still very narrow, edged by bushes clinging to the sharp drop-off.

“Whew!” Lisa said.

“Double that for me,” Stevie agreed. “Is everybody down?”

Lisa looked over her shoulder. Seth was right behind her, and Amy was behind him.

“Everybody but Jeannie,” Lisa said. “I’m sure she’s—”

“Ya-hoooo!” came a loud cry from behind.

Lisa turned around again. She could barely believe her eyes. There was Amy, kicking her horse’s belly as if she wanted him to win a race. He responded obediently, breaking into a trot and then a lope. Amy and her horse
brushed past Seth and were headed for Lisa, who was at a very narrow part of the trail. There was no way Amy could pass her, and no way she could stop the horse in time.

Lisa did the only thing she could think to do. She gave Chocolate a nudge. The horse didn’t need much encouragement. She was as startled by the sounds behind her as Lisa had been. Chocolate broke into a trot, nudging up behind Berry, who had begun walking faster.

Berry was a fast horse and a temperamental one. Lisa didn’t want to let either Chocolate or Amy’s horse get into a tangle with him. As soon as Amy’s horse drew next to Chocolate, Lisa did what she’d seen Jeannie do. She reached out across the gap between her horse and Amy’s and grabbed the reins. She tugged sharply. It wasn’t the signal Amy’s horse was used to, but the meaning was clear. The horse stopped quickly.

“Are you okay, Amy?” Seth asked, drawing up to them.

Stevie turned around then to see what had happened. “Come on, guys,” she called back to Lisa, Amy, and Seth. “Let’s keep this moving.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Amy said.

“So you are okay?” Seth asked.

“Of course,” Amy said. “I’m always okay.”

Lisa began to wonder if that was true.

At that moment Jeannie’s horse made it around the final sharp curve of the trail onto the more level area.

“Everything okay up there?” she asked.

“Just fine!” Seth called out cheerfully. “We were just chatting and giving our horses a rest.”

“Good idea,” Jeannie said. “That was a steep path. They deserve a break. Now I think we’d better catch up with the others. Ready?”

Lisa answered by signaling Chocolate to begin walking again. Her thoughts were focused on Amy and Seth. Poor Seth had to work so hard to make things be all right for Amy! She felt sorry for him and wondered if she could help him at all. She certainly hoped so.

“I
NEVER THOUGHT
I’d say it felt good to be
off
a horse!” Carole said to John.

It was late afternoon, and the group had chosen their campsite for the night. The two of them were carrying grain for the horses to the temporary corral.

“We rode for almost six hours, with just a short break for lunch,” John reminded her. “That’s enough time in the saddle to test even the most hardened, uh—” He stopped, obviously groping for a polite word. Then he blushed.

“Mine, too,” Carole agreed, saving him the trouble. They laughed. “But it really doesn’t matter because I loved every minute of it.”

“Me, too,” he said.

Carole and John had been riding next to each other for much of the day. Carole found she liked him a lot. They had a lot to talk about because he knew almost as much about horses as she did. He had definitely decided to be a veterinarian, and he had already learned a tremendous amount about it. Carole loved listening to his ideas about horse care. It was true that sometimes he could be a little
too
knowledgeable, but after all, that was what her friends said about her!

“Let’s give this horse a couple of extra carrots,” Carole suggested, patting the gray gelding named Ashley that Amy had been riding all day.

“There aren’t enough carrots in the bag to make up for what she did to him coming down that hill,” John said.

“You really saw her kick him?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” he said. “No doubt about it. I heard her telling Seth that Ashley just ran away with her, but I saw differently with my own eyes.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Carole asked.

John shrugged. “It’s none of my business,” he told her. “Amy is trouble, and Seth is her brother. He thinks he can handle her. What could I do?”

There didn’t seem to be an answer to that. Carole reached into her pocket and fished out a couple of carrot
sticks for Ashley. There was a lump of sugar there, too, that she’d brought specially for Berry, but she gave that to Ashley as well. He really had earned it.