Long rider heads through C-Falls

It's not often you see a woman, two horses and her dog riding in a basket through Columbia Falls.

But Bernice Ende is used to the looks folks give her. Ende was riding through town last Tuesday, en route to a corral at Outfitter's Supply in Columbia Heights.

Ende said she's been interviewed 400 to 500 times on her journeys. From 2009 to 2011, she rode from her home in Eureka to Portland , Ore., down to Austin, Texas, on to Minneapolis, Minn., and then back home to Montana again.

Her team includes her dog and two horses: Hart, a 14-year-old paint from Texas, and Essie Pearl, a Norwegian fjord who packs all the gear - and the dog.

Ende's horses look as if she just took them out a a fancy corral.

"I'm out in the public on speaking engagements," she said during a brief stop at the Hungry Horse News. "The horses have to look good."

She uses a custom-made Tucker saddle which keeps her in top shape.

Ende has been doing long rides across the U.S. for years. In 2005 she rode 2,000 miles, in 2006-2007 she went 5,000 miles, and in 2008 it was 3,000 miles.

Through all those journeys, Ende said, Montana is still the best.

"We've just got paradise up here. We really do. All our National Forests and public lands. We take it for granted. We really do. I am a reminder of the freedom we have in this country," she said. "Isn't this a romantic image of what we stand for?"

Ende said her current journey will take her down the Hungry Horse Reservoir and then through the Bob Marshall Wilderness as she makes her way across the state.

Asked if the horses ever just want to go home, Ende just turns and rides away. There's another journey on the horizon.

To read more of her adventures, visit online at www.endeofthetrail.com.