Description

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On The Pony Express Trail: One Man's Bikepacking Journey to Discover History from a Different Kind of Saddle recounts Scott Alumbaugh's experience bikepacking the Pony Express Trail during the summer of 2021. The narrative follows his day-to-day experiences and impressions--the challenges, the sites he visited, the country he rode through, and the interactions with the people he met--while taking a fresh look at the real Pony Express in the context of mid-1800s historical events along the trail: The Mexican-American, Utah, and Paiute Wars; the California and Pike's Peak gold rushes; the overland emigration of hundreds of thousands to Oregon and California; the exodus of tens of thousands of Mormons to Utah; and the increasingly contentious fight over slavery along with the looming threat of civil war.

About the Author

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Scott Alumbaugh is an avid cyclist who has ridden numerous ultra-distance events. His short fiction has been published in StoryQuarterly, Kestrel, Hunger Mountain Review, Black Fork Review, and Meat for Tea. His stories have been read onstage by professional actors at Stories on Stage Davis and Stories on Stage Sacramento. Before realizing his true passions lay far outside the courtroom, he practiced business litigation in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.