The Chief Joseph Trail is 1,300 miles long, beginning in Wallowa Valley, Oregon and ending about 42 miles south of the Canadian border in Montana. In 1965 the ApHC began the tradition of riding about 100 consecutive miles of it each year as a sanctioned trail ride. Known as the Chief Joseph Trail Ride, the complete trail has been ridden only 3 times since its inception. This year found riders enjoying the eighth leg of the journey from Spencer, Idaho to West Yellowstone, Montana.

Along for the ride was one very special member. A legend among the trail community and ApHC Trail Hall of Famer, Anne Mischel has been on every single Chief Joe. We are pleased to share her story with you.

Anne Mischel has become a living legend among Appaloosa Horse Club trail riders by participating in every Chief Joseph Trail Ride since it began in 1965. For this and many other reasons, both Anne and Jim, her husband of 62 years, are members of the ApHC Trail Hall of Fame.

It all started with a last minute “invitation” from George Hatley for Jim to document the ride as its official photographer. “We had other shows on the calendar and four kids to deal with, but we figured it out, left home at midnight and made it to Wallowa Lodge just as the riders were mounted up and ready to go,” Anne says. “But George took us into the lodge and fed us breakfast while everyone else waited!”

For the next 25 years or so, Jim made thousands of pictures and the couple made hundreds of new friends. “We always knew we’d always do the ride,” Anne states. “It was rough and tough for a while and the fees were steep ($50), but we were one big family and everyone pitched in to make it all work.”

During the early years, logistics were much less complicated and the list of “necessities” was much shorter than today. The inaugural ride included 34 riders, a pack horse, two trucks and camp stove. These days, the club has to enforce a limit on the number of rigs in order to fit some of the campsites and the motorcade includes a refrigerated truck, a kitchen and a trailer for trash.

“In the beginning,” Anne explains, “we had a harmonica player, someone may have brought along a guitar and we always enjoyed visiting with the ranchers and hearing their stories. That was about it for entertainment—okay, I take that back —sometimes the best entertainment was the Monday morning rodeo when everyone was trying to get going on the first day of the ride,” she adds. “We had 11 buck-offs in one year and I think that’s still the record.”

One of Anne’s most vivid memories of the trail came from a near disaster. “I’d have to say that Jim’s wreck at Ryegate stands out for me,” Anne says. “He rode out to take pictures, but his mare wanted to come back to camp, so she bucked him off in the rocks and stepped on him.” For the rest of the week, Jim rode in a motor home while Ann took over the photography and horse care duties. The story ended well, as the mare in question was top-selling horse at an auction. “All I said to the prospective buyers was that she hadn’t been ridden in a couple of months,” Anne explains with a slight grin.

Many veterans of the “Chief Joe” can also tell stories about the span of time Anne spent as one of the scouts for the ride.
Most of the accounts seem to start the same way—“Anne was not interested in excuses and she didn’t put up with anyone who didn’t follow orders.”

The specific word mentioned most frequently when describing Anne is “tough,” and it would seem that genetics helped a lot. “Three sides of my family pedigree came out on the Oregon Trail in covered wagons,” Anne explains. “People need to realize what a tough bunch the pioneers were,” she adds.

High regard for those who blazed our trails is a lesson that is reinforced on the Chief Joe. Anne especially appreciates the participation of Nez Perce adults and youth on the ride and, beyond the lasting friendships, hopes that the atmosphere of mutual respect remains a key component. For anyone considering the Chief Joseph or any other significant time in the saddle, Anne offers some basic advice…”Get in shape, get your horse in shape, prepare for anything, don’t complain, don’t crowd other riders but keep up and expect to have fun.”

We have to assume Anne Mischel knows of what she speaks. From 1965 until 2009, she had not missed one day in the saddle on the Chief Joseph Trail Ride!

“I can’t remember when I didn’t ride horses,” Anne says. As a kid, her day’s activities would be arranged so that she would be available to ride one of the work horses in from the field. Her first ownership experience was the purchase of a neighbor’s under-used roping horse that cost Anne $125. “That took every penny a farm girl could get,” she notes.

From there it was rodeo races, where enough prize money was earned to pay for winter feed. Then it was Pony Express races. “They probably changed the rule about going directly from one horse to another because of me,” Anne admits.

Her competitive spirit was also on display when Anne played basketball. She played all through high school and later in what we would call semi-professional leagues in Portland and Seattle. “I absolutely loved basketball,” Anne says. “They even tried to get me to travel with a professional team, but I didn’t really want to leave home.”

Home in Amity, Oregon, is still a favorite and busy place for Anne. According to Jim, she has an almost-unreasonable passion for gardening and is especially happy when her roses and irises are doing well. Spending time with their grandchildren is an even larger source of pleasure for the pair.

“We’ve had so much fun on the Chief Joe and anyone who’s even thinking about coming along should just go ahead and do it,” Anne says. “The ride is educational, the country is beautiful, you get to meet lots of good people and the food is great!” And then, the former scout in Anne Mischel comes out as she adds a bit more advice. “Remember to be darned sure your horse is in condition and just go with the flow.”
By Steve Taylor
Photos by Kristin Reiter & Lori Richards

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