By Linda Kor Members of the Navajo County Sheriff’s Hashknife Posse are slated to leave on the 58th Pony Express Ride from Holbrook to Scottsdale carrying the U.S. Mail on Wednesday, Jan. 27. Each year the posse leaves Holbrook with bags of official U.S. Mail under the longest continuously sanctioned pony express mail contract held with the U.S. Postal Service. The ride begins at 8 a.m. on Wednesday when the first rider leaves the Holbrook Post Office with a bag of letters to be carried over the Mogollon Rim and on to Scottsdale. The posse riders will exchange the mailbags every mile, relaying the letters to the next rider waiting alongside the roadway. All of the packed mailbags will be carried in turn over the route. The pony express riders will travel over State Route 77 to SR 377, stopping in Heber for lunch, then going on through Pine, where letters will be added to the mailbags. The riders will arrive in Payson in the late afternoon to deliver the mail at the Payson Post Office, where it will be held until Thursday morning. On the morning of Thursday, Jan. 28, the pony express riders pick up the mail and begin travelling down SR 260 to Fountain Hills, where the mail will be dropped off at the post office late in the afternoon. The following morning the riders resume their trek and arrive at the bronze Hashknife Posse monument in downtown Scottsdale on Friday, Jan. 29. The ride will finish when the mail is delivered at the main Scottsdale Post Office on Osborn Road at 12 noon, and from there the mail will be carried by conventional carriers for the remainder of the delivery. Prior to the ride there will be a number of events for the public to take part in. Beginning at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26, a parade will be held in Holbrook that will start at Eighth Avenue and travel east on Hopi Drive to Navajo Blvd., then continue north on Navajo Blvd. to Arizona Street. Fol¬lowing the parade will be the swearing in of the posse at the historic Navajo Coun¬ty Courthouse. Free posole and hot chocolate will be served to those attending. That evening the annual pony express send-off dinner will be held at the Holbrook Elks Lodge, located at 714 Elkdom Ave. Social hour will begin at 6 p.m. and a pulled pork dinner prepared by Lori Reynolds will be served at 7 p.m. Tickets will be available for $10 per person at the door or in advance from the Chamber of Commerce. At 6 o’clock on the morning of Jan. 27, the public is invited to breakfast with the posse at the Holbrook Senior Citizens Center, located at 216 E. Joy Nevin Ave. Meals will be served for $6 per person. The Navajo County Hashknife Sheriff’s Posse organized in 1955 as a search and rescue group, and is still involved in these types of missions. It is an equipped and trained posse that can join searches wherever needed throughout Arizona.