Woman Riding High On The Divide

Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. The journey of one 34-year-old Englishwoman sounds more like a Hollywood script than real life.

Jo Cooke, a former police detective from England, decided she needed a little adventure in her life and a little time alone. Intrigued by stories of the “American West” and always fond of horses, Cook decided to travel by horseback along the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico.

In Idaho she adopted a beagle mix, loaded up her three horses and set out to conquer the Divide.

She has encountered bears and mountain lions along the way, as well as a cowboy from Wyoming who she met in March, fell in love with and was engaged to by the Fourth of July.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry - it’s the feel-good story of the summer, and it’s all true. Cooke started her 2,700-mile journey at the Canadian border in Glacier Park, Mont., in July of 1996 and hoped to finish by mid-October in Antelope Wells at the Mexico/New Mexico border.

The winter came earlier than expected, so she boarded her horses and started again last April, from the bottom up. She wanted to get the New Mexican desert out of the way before it got too hot, so she drove from Idaho to New Mexico to do part of the journey and then drove back to Idaho to hit the high country during the summer.

So far, she has ridden 1,800 of the 2,700 miles.

“I wanted to see the Rockies,” Cooke said. “I wanted to travel slowly and meet local people and see who they are … as well as it being a huge personal challenge.”

Cooke had done quite a bit of international travel, but wanted a greater challenge and she found it.

She travels as far as she and her quarterhorse, Billy, and her two pack horses, Buddy and Classy, can stand each day, and then sets up camp. She carries an electric fence so the horses can graze freely at night, and must set up and take down the fence along with her tent and camp at each stop.

Travel-weary bones can’t keep her from brushing, feeding and watering her traveling companions and fixing dinner for herself before she crawls into her sleeping bag.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” Cooke said. “But I get a great pleasure in the evening from seeing the horses graze in fresh grass in the beautiful mountains, knowing they put in a hard day’s work.”

She leaves the Divide every two to three weeks to go into towns along the way to resupply. She looks forward to small cafes, fresh coffee, good food and human companions when she comes down from the mountains.

She has her mail sent “general delivery” at each of her expected stops to keep in touch with her family and her fiance, blacksmith Matt Stubblefield, whom she met when he shod her horses in Wyoming in March.

“It’s been great being able to travel through amazing country,” Cooke said during a recent stop in Colorado. “I’ve met some amazing people along the way and I’m very appreciative of all the help.”

Hard work and wet weather haven’t deterred her from her goal. She says she’s never considered quitting. When she ends her trip in October, she plans on writing a book and touring with a slide show.

Then she and Stubblefield plan on settling in New Zealand and running an outfitting firm.

“I suspect it will be difficult to settle into normal life,” Cooke said.