You roll into camp on a Friday night, greet your friends, pay your money, vet in your horse, and attend the riding meeting to hear all the details about ribbon colors, water sets, and vet checks. On Saturday morning you cross the start line for another endurance ride in some of the most beautiful country in the world . . . but did you ever wonder how all the stuff that you depend upon for a great ride actually gets there? Gail Williams' trail crew comes from near and far to make the Renegade Rendezvous ride in Central Washington successful each year. Some of us drive for five hours or more, arriving in camp a week before the ride, ready to work. Our rigs are loaded, not only with horses and saddles, but also with shovels and rakes, Pulaskis and McLeods, chainsaws and handsaws. We bring kids, dogs, and our work gloves. And as soon as we get the camp set up, we hit the trails.

Gail and Mike Williams check on trail conditions periodically through the spring to prepare for their mid-summer ride, noting fallen trees, trails that have eroded, and other hazards and obstacles that the trail crew will clear, fix, or re-route. They decide on priorities for the trail crew, so that we tackle the most important (and usually most strenuous) tasks during the early part of the week, and leave the finer details for last. This also gives us enough time to strategize and make changes if a trail obstacle proves too large or too dangerous to move.

Because several members of this trail crew are graduates of the Trail Masters course, there is a mutual understanding about what makes a good trail. If a section of trail shows up on the list of "fixes" every year, we examine it to find out why it needs so much attention. Almost always, a trail that needs frequent repair is poorly designed. While re-routing and building a new section of trail is hard work, we know that a new and properly-built trail won't need nearly as much of our time in future years.

Of course, we aren't able to rebuild or re-route 50 miles of trail in a single season, so our first priority is clearing off trail that can be made safe for a few more seasons with some minor changesÑcutting out fallen trees, widening the bed, clearing rocks, or deepening a switchback. Almost all of the early-week work is done on trails that will need to be re-routed in future years. These trails can be made safe for another season or two and that is our task.

We haul equipment to the worksites however we can: using pickup trucks and the quad, on packhorses and saddle horses, and sometimes in backpacks on our own shoulders.

We teach the horses to stand tiedÑsometimes for hoursÑwhile we work around them. They are totally accustomed to the sights and sounds of chainsaws and other trail tools, and so most of them cock a hip and take a nap while the humans work at clearing trees and moving big rocks off the trails.

Mid-week the crew turns attentions to trails that demand re-building and re-routing. We scout the area on foot, planning out the new route, making sure that even a large-bodied or inexperienced animal will have enough room to travel the route safely on ride day. This year, we removed a steep "scramble" trail from the route, and replaced it with a side-hill trail that is not only safer for horses and riders, it is also more stable and will require less work to maintain in the future.

We started the new section of trail by cutting the path into the side of the hill. Then we deepened the backcut into the hill, and widened out the bed where many feet will trot in just a few days. We scraped out the loose dirt, using tools and our own feet, pushing it downhill and out of the way. We finished by clipping loose roots that might cause a tripping hazard to quick-stepping horses.

Finally, we tested itÑby riding our own horses up and down the new stretch of trail. Although we can't imagine that plastic ribbons taste good, nobody has ever been able to convince elk to quit eating them, and so we leave trail marking for the final three days before the ride.

Resources for trail marking use every bit of technology we have available, from horses . . . to kids.

In less than three days, we mark more than 50 miles of trail, using ribbons, lime, and fiberglass poles. On Friday morning, we split into groups of two and three to ride portions of the trail and fix any problems and elk-vandalism that we find.

Friday evening, we shuttle the water tanks into position and fill them up with cold creek water. Then while the riders attend the ride meeting, the trail crew membersÑwho do not need briefing about trail conditions, after allÑhead for a nearby camping resort for well-earned (and much-needed) showers.

We do all this because we love the work and we love the trails. When riders cross the finish line successfully and tell us how much fun they had on their journey, the trail crew considers it a job well done.

The Regade Ride trail crew: Jim Beidle, Willy Beidle, David LeBlanc, Jennifer LeBlanc, Riley Leingang, Madeline Smart, Aarene Storms, Gail Williams, Mike Williams, Ryan Williams and Jillian Zemanek. A special note from Aarene: "In memory of WSR Corzak, the Renegade Rendezvous' best trail horse ever. We will never travel these miles without thinking of him."

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