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Alex McNeil and Pepper at the Continental Divide
When Alex McNeil and his horse, a five-year-old Tennessee Walker mare named Pepper, dipped their toes in the Atlantic Ocean at Hampton Beach on Saturday, Nov. 23, it was the end of a 3,800-mile journey from the west coast, and McNeil’s fourth time making a cross-country trek.
A crowd of friends, family, and people who have been following McNeil’s journey on his blog, americaonhorseback.org, gathered to meet him at the beach.
“I was quite humbled and very appreciative,” he says. “People who had sent me positive comments on the blog for weeks and months sometimes, all of a sudden, there they were.”
The Wire recently caught up with McNeil by phone. He’s staying at his family’s home in Warner. His trip began nine months ago in Brookings, a town on the southern Oregon coast about 10 miles north of the California border, on March 19. He and Pepper traveled almost 3,800 miles through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts before ending their trek at Hampton Beach.
McNeil and Pepper made their trip without any additional support. It was simply the two of them, some camping equipment, food, a map, a GPS, and an iPad. McNeil camped outside most nights, usually in the woods or in a town park or baseball field.
“Even though people were very friendly to extend accommodation to take some food or water, I was always self-sufficient,” he says. “I didn’t want to rely on my surroundings to get water or find shelter.”
During the trip, McNeil took notes about his surroundings. He had initially hoped to use the trip as a way to promote interest in land conservation issues, but that took a backseat once he started traveling.
“The actual work of caring for a horse took … all the time,” he says. Now that he’s staying in one place for a while, he plans to write a book about the trip and use his experiences as a way to look at topics like ranching issues in Oregon and Wyoming, the advantages and disadvantages of GMO corn crops, and fracking in Pennsylvania.
“One thing that’s happened is, these issues seem to be black and white to a lot of people,” he says. “I feel like we’ve got to come to a middle ground and bring parties together.”
This isn’t McNeil’s first time making an unconventional cross-country trek. He traveled across America on a moped in 2004 and across Canada on bicycle in 2012. In 2008, after obtaining his pilot’s license, he flew from Washington to New Hampshire and back again. In 2010, he took a motorcycle across the country.
“I think by far, travel by horse is the most real. It’s actual speed and it’s been the most personal and social,” he says. “People seem to really let their guard down and want to interact. I’m not sure why the horse ends up being such an ambassador to friendships, but it happens.”
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Alex McNeil and Pepper cross the Merrimack River
McNeil grew up in Warner and plans to stay there with his family for a while and work on his book, which will be called “On the Hoof, Sea to Sea.” He’s currently looking for a new home for Pepper.
“I don’t have the capacity to keep her long-term,” he says. “I got her for the trip and out of a desire to learn more about horses, so I’m in the process of securing a good home for her.”
Two days after finishing the trip on Nov. 23, McNeil says Pepper seems ready to get back on the road. “It’s uncanny. She has a lot of energy … she’s been a really good horse,” he says.
—Larry Clow