{gallery}06_10_10/wagonlady{/gallery}Early on, a wagon overturned while reenacting George Custer's cataclysmic trip to Little Bighorn. Arleen Kessel, of Powell, riding on the wagon train from Mandan, N.D., to Hardin, Mont., was not a happy camper. Courtesy photo/Tom Stromme, Bismarck Tribune Powell woman rides wagon from North Dakota to Custer's Last Stand Wagons Ho! A Powell woman is among five people, four wagons and 14 mules that are trekking from North Dakota to Montana, tracing the doomed route of U.S. Army Lt. Col. George Custer.

They started at Mandan (Fort Lincoln State Park), N.D., and will head 420 grueling miles to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument east of Hardin, Mont., where Custer led his troops to destruction against Native Americans.

Wagons rolled May 17. They hope to arrive at the monument on June 25.

“I'm the outrider without a horse,” said Arleen Kessel, 59, of Powell. She is riding in a wagon during the trek.

“This is the woman that told me many years ago her idea of camping was a four-star hotel with room service,” said Kessel's sister, Cheryl Kolesien.

Custer went down in 1876, but Kolesien said she believes her sister is in capable hands.

But, Kolesien added, Kessel is a “greenhorn.”

Was a greenhorn.

Any muleskinner knows stock must be fed, watered and tended before sitting down to supper or your bedroll.

“It's a lot of work,” Kessel said. “The mules come first.”

Kessel said she opens gates and washes dishes. She admits mules were new to her, but she does what she can.

The mules were easily fatigued at first, but the hearty hybrids are raring to go now, she said.

“It's gotten easier,” Kessel said.

But rattling along in wagons like the pioneers did 100 years ago has its drawbacks, and little luxuries folks today take for granted can become precious pleasures for plucky adventurers.

On June 3, the group reposed in Baker, Mont. for a little R&R.

“I get a shower tonight,” Kessel said. “It's the first one in two weeks.”

While camping at the fairgrounds near Baker, the town loaned Kessel's posse a pickup truck to fetch groceries, Kessel said.

Along the way, folks have given them fresh eggs, sausage and hamburger. One man bought them steaks, and a woman baked them a cherry pie, Kessel said.

“People are awesome,” she added.

Twenty miles per day is a good day, Kessel said.

They plod along at 4 mph. It's tough going, but at least Kessel's group has the expedience of bridges or culverts on their country roads-route. Back in the day, settlers had to ford each river and stream, fighting mud and swollen rivers.

In 1908, Kessel's grandparents, Christian and Katharina Kessel, rode a wagon from Coldwater, N.D. to Hand Hill, Alberta, Canada, and then to Hoskins Basin, Mont., Kessel said.

Grandma Katharina had three small children in tow and delivered another upon arrival, Kolesien said.

“I'm in awe of our forefathers,” Kessel said. “I don't know how they did it, but they did it.”

But it is grueling, just the same.

Kessel contracted shingles — a miserable viral infection — a couple weeks ago.

A mule dragged Kessel into a lake while she was leading it to water. All members of the party have been bedeviled by hordes of mosquitoes, and all are achy and sore.

But there is no quit in Kessel.

“I'm not going to quit,” Kessel said. “It's wonderful; I wouldn't give it up.”

It's a trip of a lifetime, Kessel said.

Kessel and her retired pals hatched the plan to trail Custer's route last winter, she said.

“We're enjoying it,” Kessel said.

This old-fashioned odyssey begs the question: How many people gallivant cross-country via wagons these days?

“By God,” Kessel said, “I can say I did it!”

Kessel and company's destination is the Little Bighorn.