THE GREAT OUTDOORS
HAPPY TRAILS RETURN
IN WESTMORELAND COUNTY
Appalachian Wagon Train to celebrate its 50th anniversary trek starting Father’s Day 2019
BY MELANIE WASS
Trib Total Media
What started as a group of diehard old horsemen
who wanted to celebrate the bicentennial has
grown into a multigenerational adventure. And
while the organization’s membership might be dwindling,
there were still 21 wagons and more than 100 people — ages
1 to 80 — taking part in this year’s Appalachian Wagon Train
(AWT).
In 2019, the AWT association will celebrate its 50th
anniversary trek in the Donegal/Acme Ridge area of
Westmoreland County.
The ride begins on Father’s Day and concludes Saturday,
June 23.
“They were the real pioneers,” member Donna Penich said.
“They really roughed it out there.”
Donna and her husband, Tony, have spent about 17 years
on the trail, even celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary
on a trek with a special marriage renewal ceremony.
Last year, their 5-year-old grandson, Milo, joined them on
the trail.
“He lasted a couple days but got homesick, so his mom
had to come get him,” Donna Penich said.
A typical day on the trail starts at 6 a.m., preparing the
horses for the trek, feeding and watering them and spraying
them with fly spray.
After breakfast, the group harnesses and saddles the
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animals, hitches them to the wagons and they’re on their
way by 8 a.m.
Moseying along at a cool 3 mph, it’s “easy to enjoy nature
and the rhythm of the horses,” Penich said. “If you’re riding
in the wagon, it’s easy to fall asleep.”
The group stops around 10 a.m. for a bathroom break and
again at noon for lunch. They’re back in camp in mid-after-noon,
but times are not set in stone because the trails are full
of uncertainty. Harnesses break, animals get hurt and general
mishaps just happen — it’s par for the course.
“On one trek, we ran into ground bees,” Penich said. “It
was a real circus with the horses bucking.”
Penich said no one was injured during that adventure and
that, with everyone being horse oriented, it was handled
calmly and swiftly.
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