After six days, 21 hours and 15 minutes and 3,217 kilometers on the trail, Lachlan Morton rode into Sacramento, California, at 11:19 p.m. local time this evening, 19 hours and 45 minutes ahead of the record pace set on horseback by the riders who delivered Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address from Missouri to California on the route of the Pony Express back in 1861.

For Lachlan, the real triumph was not riding faster than the 197 or so horses that those riders used to relay news across wild, rugged country at a gallop. This was his love letter to America – a country that can never be conquered, only better understood and brought together, the country that Lachlan now calls home.

Exhausted after struggling through the Sierra Nevada in the bitter cold on his final day, Lachlan rode the final kilometers to the Pony Express Terminal, also known as the B. F. Hastings Bank Building in Old Town Sacramento surrounded by dot watchers, friends and family. 

“I had an amazing time,” said Lachlan. “I wasn't desperate for it to end, which was odd. I was really just having a great time. It was something I'd been dreaming about for years, so it's great to be here. It's great to have the community out here, too. It's such a big route that it's always hard to know what to expect. You look at a map, but you just see a line. You don't really see what that line is going to mean. There was a lot that was intimidating, but I felt like I was able to enjoy it a lot more than I expected, even though it was really hard. There was so much riding that I loved, and it was a combination of the kinds of riding I really enjoy doing. On top of just being hard, it was really satisfying. I didn't think I'd be able to enjoy the route as much as I did, given how challenging it was. It's very satisfying.” 

When Lachlan set out from St. Joseph, Missouri, just a little under a week ago, he was inspired by the courage of the original Pony Express riders, their will to ride into the unknown, undaunted by danger or hardship, and their determination to do something that would help unite American citizens across distances near and far. 

“The scale of it still blows me away.” said Lachlan about the original Pony Express riders. “Thinking about it in a historical context, it's still hard to wrap your head around what that meant 160 years ago, piecing it all together. It's hard to do even now. When I was out there with people, a GPS, and lights, there were times at night when I was imagining trying to ride as fast as you could through that desert without being able to see where you were going. It's still unfathomable.”

That is the kind of courage upon which the United States was founded. In Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California, Lachlan saw that same courage in small towns and cities along the trail.

There was Shawn Kruse, from Gurley, Nebraska, who runs a little diner called The Outlaw, famous for its cinnamon rolls and French toast. Shawn greets every local who comes in by name and welcomes outsiders, like us, as if they were Gurley’s own. His diner is the heart of his community.

There was Tyler, from Kenesaw, Nebraska, who sells Polaris and mows lawns for extra cash. Tyler’s pride and joy is his family. He brightened Lachy’s day when he came over to chat one night when Lachy was bolting down a late dinner in the park.

There was Nate in Lyman, Wyoming, whose family has been ranching the same land for generations; or Kyle, the tourism director in White Pine County, Nevada, who moved west from Virginia after college and never looked back; or Katie, the owner of the historic Pony Express station in Dayton, Nevada, who spent years restoring the site and whose dream for her town is that they keep preserving their rich history.

There were hundreds and hundreds of Americans like them, all facing life’s joys and struggles with a smile, who spurred Lachlan on when he met them at gas stations, local coffee shops, and remote intersections on the route of the Pony Express.

When he and the crew met them, they asked them simple questions: What makes you happy? What is great about your town? He wanted to learn more about them and their America. Some of their answers made it into the letters he carried from place to place along the route.

What everyone Lachy and the crew met shared was a real love for their homes, their pride in their towns, their neighbors, and their communities. Some of them descend from the emigrants who headed west with wagons, horses, and cattle along routes like the Pony Express when the country was first being built. Many more came later and continued to build this great country.

Their courage is still there. The United States is still being built.

“There are so many remote locations and communities in those places,” said Lachlan “I think it requires a certain appreciation for the place you are in, and a resilience, to live in such harsh environments. It's cool to see that attachment to the past and an appreciation for history these people have.”

Lachlan faced his own hardships on the route. But when he was pushing into a bitter Wyoming headwind, or bogged down by mud or sagebrush in the Nevada mountains, or rising at 2 a.m. for another entire day and most of a night on the bike, he always remembered that this challenge was his choice, even if he sometimes questioned that choice. Many who came west before him had little choice but to build better lives every day. What a country they built.

Lachlan’s toughest day was his last one. The push from Middlegate Station in Nevada across the Sierra Nevada to Sacramento forced him onto his Cannondale Scalpel, as he raced across rough, mountainous terrain to try to get to the Pony Express’s final station in record time – and ahead of the tropical storm that was blowing in from the Pacific.

The day began in the Nevada desert, where sandy tracks eventually gave way to the alpine roads of the Sierra Nevada. After days of battling disappearing trails and deep sand, Lachlan was pleasantly surprised by what he found in the mountains. The route took him past Lake Tahoe and onto a gravel trail running high along a ridge before descending back towards Highway 50.

It was some of the best riding of the entire trip.

"I really thought we were going to be bushwhacking," Lachlan said. Instead, he found a beautifully maintained trail that he reckoned was among the five best he'd ever ridden, given the circumstances.

"I was having just the time of my life," he said.

After six days of battling the elements, the final day was shaping up to be a special one. From the sandy desert tracks that morning to alpine roads around Lake Tahoe, gravel high above the valley, and trails through the mountains, Lachlan had experienced just about every kind of terrain imaginable in the space of a few hours.

"The day's already won," he said.

Once back on Highway 50, Lachlan had just one more dirt section to contend with before he could settle into the final stretch towards Sacramento. The route would take him through Placerville and on towards Folsom, made famous by Johnny Cash's song about its prison.

From there, Lachlan would pick up the American River Bike Trail, following the river towards Sacramento, just as the original Pony Express riders had done more than 160 years before him.

With 120 kilometers remaining, the finish was finally within reach. But Lachlan knew better than to start celebrating early.

"Sometimes if you let your brain think you're there, it can become a lot harder than it is," he said.

Instead, he focused on taking it one kilometer at a time. And after almost a week of riding across America, he had found a simple thought to keep him going. He was no longer riding towards an unknown destination or another remote camp in the wilderness. He was riding back towards familiar roads, his family, and the cycling community he had come to call his own.

"My mantra right now is just that I'm riding home," he said.

By 11:19 p.m., Lachlan was in Sacramento. The timer read six days, 21 hours, and 15 minutes since he had left the Pony Express stables in St. Joseph, Missouri, 19 hours and 45 minutes faster than the old horseback record. Lachlan thanked the crowd that had come out to greet him and everyone who followed along and cheered him on online.

And then he headed home.

Day 6 | Middlegate station, NV | KM 2760

Another 4:30 a.m. start for Lachlan. He's getting oh-so-close to the end of his ride, but the trail isn't letting up. Tropical Storm Rachel is moving towards California, bringing strong winds and unpredictable weather to the region. Lachlan knows he's now in a race against the storm as well as the clock.

The first few hours were a rude awakening. Steep, rocky climbs greeted him in the darkness, followed by long, flat stretches covered in deep, powdery sand – “moon dust”. His wheels sank into the soft ground, forcing him to dismount and push his bike through the worst sections. Even the crew's off-road vehicle struggled to follow him on much of the trail.

By mid-morning, he came across a section of trail that had been fenced off. The track beyond looked rough, so he stopped for a quick scroll through the map on his Wahoo and spotted what appeared to be an alternative route over the Diamond Mountains.

He set off towards the mountains, only to discover that he'd stumbled onto the original Pony Express Trail. It was a happy accident, although the trail itself wasn't going to make life easy for him.

The track pointed steeply upwards towards Overland Pass, with loose rocks and rough terrain that were better suited to a mountain bike than his gravel setup. Just as Lachlan found himself wishing he had his Cannondale Scalpel to tackle the climb, the crew appeared behind him with his Scalpel strapped to the roof.

Just the tool for the job.

With his new steed underneath him, Lachlan pushed over the top of the pass and began the descent. He stayed on his mountain bike over Henderson Summit and through the gravel that followed, unsure what the trail might throw at him next. Even this deep into his ride, he's still largely flying blind, discovering what lies ahead as he gets there.

And somehow, the trails got worse and then disappeared altogether. The only thing he had left was his Wahoo and a few fence posts spaced out every so often to navigate through the sagebrush.

The final 100 kilometers of the day were more forgiving. Lachlan switched back to his Cannondale Topstone road setup.

Even though the route over the last day and half have been relentless, Nevada has been his favorite part of the Pony Express route so far. The endless network of gravel roads and singletrack trails stretching across the desert has captured his imagination. He's already looking forward to coming back one day, when he can explore them without a record to chase.

For now, though, there's no time to stop and smell the sagebrush.

The storm is looming large in his mind. Lachlan knows that rain could turn these already difficult trails into an almost impassable mess. He's pushing hard to get across to the Sierra Nevada and into Sacramento before the worst of the weather arrives.

Tonight, Lachlan has made camp at Middlegate Station along Highway 50, famously known as the Loneliest Road in America. The station is known for its enormous burger challenge, but Lachlan isn't taking that on tonight. Rice and tuna are on the menu instead.

Tomorrow is going to be a big one. If all goes to plan, he'll make it to Sacramento by night.

The finish is getting closer. So is the storm.

Day 5 | Overland Summit, NV | KM 2388

Lachlan overslept this morning. He is human, after all.

He set off half an hour later than planned into a pleasant Utah morning. The air in Saratoga Springs was already warming up, and everything pointed towards a good day in the wilderness.

By the time the crew caught up with him 30 kilometers down the road, Lachlan had climbed out of the valley with two dot-watchers by his side, and the temperature had dropped by 20 degrees Fahrenheit. He was freezing again. A familiar, yet still unpleasant feeling after the past few days in Wyoming.

He pulled on a few extra layers as the sun crept over the mountains and pushed on. One of his new companions punctured, while the other kept him company for another 50 miles. After they parted ways, Lachlan was on his own again, with no one to be seen until he reached the Great Basin Highway 300 kilometers later.

The going was good over Dugway Pass. With barely a breath of wind, Lachlan put his head down and went all out. He knows he has to make the most of conditions when they’re in his favor. A storm is forecast to sweep in from the Pacific on Sunday, bringing the threat of rain to the desert. If it arrives before he’s through, these dusty trails could turn into a sticky, sandy mess that would make progress painfully slow.

By the time he reached Callao, deep in the Nevada desert, the easy miles were well behind him. The trails turned rocky and rough, and a fierce, dry headwind picked up across the open desert. He drank more than on any previous day of the ride, trying to keep up with the heat and the dryness.

Then he reached a section of the original Pony Express Trail.

What looked like a trail on the map was little more than a dried-out marsh. The ground was so rough and broken that Lachlan had to dismount and push his bike through long stretches of it. The crew expected to find him exhausted and frustrated when they finally caught up.

Instead, he was grinning.

“This is what I thought it would be,” he said.

For as hard as the day was, Lachlan’s spirits were as high as they’ve been since leaving Missouri. These are the kinds of places he came to see, following the old mail route through country that has changed remarkably little since the days of the Pony Express.

Ahead lay the highest point of the route. The climb was steep and rough enough that Lachlan was forced off his bike once again, walking the final stretch to the top. A coffee provided a welcome boost before he got moving again.

Another dot-watcher soon appeared to keep him company.

With the hardest terrain still ahead and a storm looming on the horizon, Lachlan is making every kilometer count.

Day 4 | Saratoga Springs, UT | KM 2026

After a late night battling his way through the Wyoming wilderness, Lachlan allowed himself a little extra sleep this morning. He didn't make it to camp until almost 11 p.m. last night, and the cold and rough terrain had taken their toll. He set off again at 5 a.m., greeted by more of the same.

The Wyoming cold was relentless. When the crew caught up with him, he began swapping his bidons for bottles filled with hot water and tucking them inside his jersey, hoping to bring some feeling back into his frozen body. It helped, but only so much.

After a quick breakfast at sunrise, he pushed on into the vast emptiness of Wyoming, following remote doubletrack trails that have seen little traffic in decades. Some sections were washed out and barely distinguishable from the surrounding desert. Lachlan had to carefully pick his way through the shrubs, dodging hidden rocks and holes on his Cannondale Topstone gravel setup with Vision Metron SC 48 i25 wheels and 50-mm Vittoria Tirreno T30 tires, all while trying to keep his speed up. Other stretches were smooth and fast, with occasional sections of tarmac where he could switch to his Vision Metron 45 RS road wheels and 32-mm Vittoria Corsa Pro tires, stretch his legs, and make up some time.

He had expected today to be easier. It wasn't.

Despite calling it "the hardest day terrain-wise yet," Lachlan's spirits remained high. He covered another 440 kilometers today during his 17 hours in the saddle and on the trail.

As he rode, Lachlan found himself thinking about the people who had traveled these same paths before him. The Pony Express route followed major emigrant trails west, once busy with wagons, horses, cattle, and people in search of a new life. He reckons some of the trails might actually have been in better condition in 1860, when regular traffic kept them worn into the landscape. Today, many are little more than forgotten tracks through the sagebrush.

And then there was the cold.

Lachlan couldn't help but imagine what it must have been like for the Pony Express riders to gallop through this country in the depths of winter, with snow falling and temperatures well below freezing. He's had some of the coldest experiences of his life in this part of Wyoming. The thought of doing it on horseback, at full tilt, in the middle of a snowstorm is hard to comprehend.

By the afternoon, the wilderness started to get taken over by towns and summer turned into fall – changing leaves colored the landscape and a crisp breeze filled the air. Riders started appearing along the route as Lachlan approached Salt Lake City, joining him in ones and twos and sometimes larger groups. By the time he reached Emigration Canyon, he had barely spent a moment alone for the better part of 100 kilometers.

A brief rain shower brought a rainbow over Emigration Pass, before Lachlan descended towards the city.

It was a remarkable change of scenery. This morning, he had been riding through the empty Wyoming desert, with little more than sagebrush and distant mountains in sight. By evening, he was navigating the busy streets of downtown Salt Lake City, surrounded by buildings, cars, and people.

Tonight, Lachlan and the crew have traded their camper van for the comfort of an Airbnb and a proper night's rest. Tomorrow, they'll leave civilization behind once again. There are another 800 kilometers of remote country between here and Reno, with few towns and certainly no hotels along the way. 

We ride at dawn.

Day 3 | South Pass, Wyo. | KM ~1,650

Lachlan has been riding since 2 a.m. this morning and is currently bushwhacking his way through desert shrubs to try to make it to the crest of South Pass, Wyoming, where he plans to camp under a canopy of stars. It is going to be a shorter night than he'd hoped.

This morning got off to a wonderful start. A dot-watcher from Utrecht, in the Netherlands, who is studying at the University of Wyoming, caught wind of Lachy's adventure on the trail of the Pony Express and drove out to Glendo, before riding the final 60 kilometers to the motel where Lachlan was fast asleep. The crew met him and told him that Lachlan was going to set out just after 2 a.m., so he grabbed a room and got a couple of hours' sleep before joining Lachlan on the road.

The two of them swapped stories and took turns in the wind — headlamps bobbing down the highway in the cold of the night. At dawn, he had to turn back and sprint to his car to make it back for class.

Lachlan pushed west into a ferocious headwind, nodding at the cowboys tending their herds.

Ahead of him lay the Bighorn Basin, where Lachlan nearly suffered hypothermia and lost all feeling in his fingers for months during his record-setting ride on the Tour Divide in 2023. Thankfully, the sun was on his side this time around until it fell.

When day turned to dusk, Lachlan's trail disappeared. He tried to reroute but was soon lurching through deep, loose sand in the dark, his pedals and wheels getting caught in scraggly brush. He will have to ride deep into the night to make it to the summit of South Pass, where a cold bed is waiting for him. From there, it is another 400 kilometers to Salt Lake City.

That's tomorrow's destination if all goes to plan.

Day 2 | Guernsey, Wyo. | KM 1,105

After 1,105 kilometers on the trail, Lachlan stopped for a few hours of shut-eye in Guernsey, Wyoming, at about 6 p.m. this evening. He needed a rest after last night's orienteering mission in the dark and a battle with a headwind all day. Raccoons, jackrabbits, and opossums were out overnight, their eyes glowing in Lachy's Knog headlights, as he tried to stick to the windy, rutted trail across Nebraska and Colorado, rolling through endless farmers' fields in the dark. Dodging them as they bolted across the track kept his mind occupied and his mood up. He only stopped every 100 or so kilometers to take on food and refill his bottles.

Dawn brought a block headwind that dampened his spirits. Lachy pushed on regardless, getting on with the job, like those Pony Express riders over a century and a half before him.

This is no country for quitters.

Tonight, Lachy passed the 1,100-kilometer mark well ahead of record pace. It will be galloping up on his wheels as he enters the tougher land ahead. His plan was to gain as much time as he could during the first two, easier days.

Just take a look at the terrain map. Lachy's dot is about to move from the mellow yellow of the prairies into the rippled, mountainous green of central Wyoming. We don't know what the trail is going to look like. That mystery spurs Lachy on.

So do the stories we've picked up from locals on the route of the Pony Express. Today, Lachy rode past Scotts Bluff in western Nebraska. Over 250,000 westward emigrants passed by Scotts Bluff between 1843 and 1869 on their way to seek their fortunes and build lives in America. It was tough going.

Like them, Lachlan will rise before dawn and push hard tomorrow towards the setting sun.

“So far, so good,” Lachy said. “It’s still early days.”

Day 2 | Guernsey, Wyo. | KM 1,105

After 1,105 kilometers on the trail, Lachlan stopped for a few hours of shut-eye in Guernsey, Wyoming, at about 6 p.m. this evening. He needed a rest after last night's orienteering mission in the dark and a battle with a headwind all day. Raccoons, jackrabbits, and opossums were out overnight, their eyes glowing in Lachy's Knog headlights, as he tried to stick to the windy, rutted trail across Nebraska and Colorado, rolling through endless farmers' fields in the dark. Dodging them as they bolted across the track kept his mind occupied and his mood up. He only stopped every 100 or so kilometers to take on food and refill his bottles.

Dawn brought a block headwind that dampened his spirits. Lachy pushed on regardless, getting on with the job, like those Pony Express riders over a century and a half before him.

This is no country for quitters.

Tonight, Lachy passed the 1,100-kilometer mark well ahead of record pace. It will be galloping up on his wheels as he enters the tougher land ahead. His plan was to gain as much time as he could during the first two, easier days.

Just take a look at the terrain map. Lachy's dot is about to move from the mellow yellow of the prairies into the rippled, mountainous green of central Wyoming. We don't know what the trail is going to look like. That mystery spurs Lachy on.

So do the stories we've picked up from locals on the route of the Pony Express. Today, Lachy rode past Scotts Bluff in western Nebraska. Over 250,000 westward emigrants passed by Scotts Bluff between 1843 and 1869 on their way to seek their fortunes and build lives in America. It was tough going.

Like them, Lachlan will rise before dawn and push hard tomorrow towards the setting sun.

“So far, so good,” Lachy said. “It’s still early days.”

Day 1 | Kenesaw, Neb. | KM 440

Lachlan arrived in Kenesaw, Nebraska, in time for a quick evening meal, interrupted by the local tornado alarm sounding its monthly test. He has already put 440 kilometers behind him on his quest to break the old horseback record that was set in 1861 on the route of the Pony Express.

So far, it's been fast going on good gravel, rolling past cattle ranches into soy and corn fields, on hardpack with a few sections of softer dirt. Lachlan is keen to cover a lot of ground early to get ahead of the old record. He left the Pony Express stables in downtown St. Joseph, Missouri, at 4:03:45 a.m. local time, destination Sacramento, California, with a special message in his lightweight mochila.

To beat the riders who carried Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address the distance of the Pony Express by horse in seven days and 17 hours back in 1861, Lachy will have to cover almost 420 kilometers per day on rougher and rougher terrain. He expects to ride 17½ hours every day for the next week, averaging about 24 kilometers per hour, including the time to stop and refuel and change bikes.

The camper van following him with his mechanic Tom Hopper, his brother Gus, and his film crew is his traveling station, carrying food and drink and fresh steeds. So far, Lachlan has switched bikes three times, jumping between his Cannondale Topstone with Vision Metron 45 RS road wheels and 32-mm Vittoria Corsa Pro tires and his Topstone gravel setup with Vision Metron SC 48 i25 wheels and Vittoria Tirreno T30 50-mm tires. He's saving his SuperX for the really gnarly gravel to come and his Scalpel mountain bike setup for the Sierra Nevada.

With harvest season in full swing, lots of farmers are out in their trucks and tractors, trundling through the fields. They honk their horns and wave as Lachy races past, pushing hard into the west, with some diversions to skirt deep patches of mud left over from recent thunderstorms.

The Pony Express is the stuff of local legend. Lachy has passed old trail markers and stations preserved from its Old West heyday. The nearest highway is named after the Pony Express, but Lachlan is sticking to the original route, inspired by the riders who carried post across these prairies and plains long before the invention of the combustion engine.

Tonight, he is riding into a crisp October night, undaunted by the dark.

"I've been thinking about doing this route for over 12 months now," he said. "So, it is quite surreal to be out here. It is very sweet to be on the route finally."

Keep checking back here for updates from the trail. Lachy will keep you posted.

On October 5th, Lachlan Morton will set out on his next challenge: racing across the American West on one of the nation’s most fabled routes.

Lachlan is going to try to ride the route of the Pony Express faster than the horsemen who carried mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, during the heyday of the legendary 19th-century postal service.

He admires the courage of the young riders who signed up for that wild, high-speed horseback relay across the prairies and mountains that connect the western states. 

“The way they could get mail across the country at that speed – before there was any railroad connecting it – was revolutionary,” Lachlan said. “The idea of people traversing such massive distances just captured my imagination, especially knowing a lot of that terrain. Think of these big open spaces – huge plains, mountain ranges – and you imagine a slow transition, but with the elevation and the vegetation it's always evolving, and when you're covering big distances you get a really diverse variety of riding. It's a great canvas for adventure. It's existed there for so long, and you feel like you're participating in what the country is all about."

The Pony Express was founded in 1860 with the promise to deliver mail across the West by horse in 10 days or less. The fastest recorded time for the 1,966-mile (3,164-kilometer) route, which crossed Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California, was set in 1861, when young horsemen carried Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address the distance in seven days and 17 hours, changing horses every 10 miles (16 kilometers) and riders every 75 to 100 miles (120 to 160 kilometers). They carried the message that helped persuade California to remain in the Union.

The postal route ceased operation in October 1861, when it was eclipsed by the first transcontinental telegraph line. The Pony Express only ran for 18 months. And yet, stories from its early letter carriers – galloping across the range, day and night, whatever the weather, whatever the danger – inspired Americans long after those early postmen had delivered their final envelope out of its mochila, on time to its final destination, of course. Their heroism, their willingness to do something hard to help unite the United States when it was most divided, represented America at its finest. Legends from the Pony Express have connected Americans more than any single letter they ever carried could.

Now, our Australian adventurer, whose past exploits include riding the entire route of the Tour de France, plus the transfers, faster than the pro peloton; setting the fastest time for the Tour Divide, a rugged bikepacking odyssey from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico; and breaking the around-Australia record by bike, wants try to ride the route of the Pony Express faster. He will carry letters from citizen to citizen, delivering them between stations on the route.

"The appeal for me is the history of it," he said. "It's wild to get into that mindset – you're a kid trying to make some money, and there's this opportunity to ride a horse with a mochila full of mail through the night for 75 miles (120 kilometers) flat out, across remote, gnarly terrain that no one else has been crossing. It's quite a courageous thing. It's hard to imagine, and that's why I want to go out there and try to get a better understanding of what that would have been like, and the difficulties they faced doing it over 150 years ago.” 

Lachlan's plan to cross difficult land at pace was inspired by the strategy adopted by the Pony Express during its heyday. Just as those young riders switched horses, riding thoroughbreds on the plains, pintos across the middle section, and American mustangs through the Sierra Nevada, with quick pit stops at remote stations en route, Lachlan will swap between his Cannondale TopStone, SuperSix, and Scalpel, choosing the best bike for each stretch of country that he will encounter.

"The idea is to mimic how they used to switch out horses," he said. "I'll be swapping between a gravel bike, a road bike, and a mountain bike depending on the terrain. The route I've put together tries to get as close to the original as I could. I'm excited because it'll use all the different disciplines I've raced."

Lachlan will travel light, resupplying and switching bikes from a truck that will follow him across the West with his brother Gus, who will document the trip on film. Nights in the desert and mountains will be frosty, and there will be hot days where Lachlan only has tumbleweeds for company under the October sun. Most of the Pony Express route is very remote, so there will be long stretches where Lachlan will have to fend for himself, pushing on and on towards the setting sun, like those early riders on the range.

"You start on the plains, essentially, coming across Kansas, then across the basin through Wyoming, into Utah," Lachlan said. "The real crux is the Nevada section – the stretch from Salt Lake City across to Carson City – because it's incredibly remote and very exposed. There's a lot that could go wrong there, and you're very much on your own. That's probably the hardest part. Then you cross the Sierra Nevada on the southern side of Lake Tahoe and drop through the foothills, which I know well because I live out there now, and finish in Sacramento.”

The first Pony Express riders were early American heroes – brave, young souls who helped knit the country together by carrying messages back and forth across the country. 

Follow Lachlan – and his dot – on his journey as he seeks to better their times and understand their role in forging the United States.

He will be posting daily updates from the trail on this page.