Riding the Outlaw Trail

Book excerpt: Two men retrace the notorious pair's footsteps, covering thousands of miles of hazardous country on horseback and discovering how little has changed from the saddle in the last 100 years Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the last of the legendary outlaws, were captured on daguerreotype, romanced in fiction, and immortalized on film by Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Simon Casson sets out on horseback to retrace the real-life footsteps of his boyhood heroes, covering 2,000 miles of the country's toughest and most treacherous terrain. Steeped in the lore of the Old West but lacking desert and mountain survival skills, Simon recruits ex-marine commando Richard Adamson. Together they grapple with hostile landscape, climatic extremes, vital supply shortages, and enormous personality clashes. Battling from one outlaw hideout to another and following trails sometimes only accessible by horseback, they are constantly taxed to the limit. In this dramatic account of their adventure, Simon and Richard also encapsulate the exciting and violent lives of the Wild Bunch 100 years ago, and providing an intimate and heartwarming picture of the rancher families who live and work this demanding land today.