Santa Fe, N.M. ? It took more than eight years — in bits and pieces, five or 10 miles at a time — but Inez Ross has finally walked the Santa Fe Trail.

The retired English teacher from Los Alamos trekked 875 miles across five states, from tony downtown Santa Fe at the trail’s end to tiny New Franklin, Mo., at its beginning.

She trudged across range land and farm fields, along dirt roads and highways, followinga the wagon ruts of the trading route.

For much of the way, the 73-year-old Ross had the company of four friends: Jennifer Reglien and Carolyn Robinson, both of Santa Fe; Phyllis Morgan of Albuquerque; and Reglien’s sister, Judith Janay of Fort Collins, Colo.

The other women, though, still have varying distances on the trail to go. Robinson, for example, has about 180 miles. Janay is close to finishing with 20 miles.

It was Reglien who proposed the hike to Ross in 1996. For the first few years, the women got together whenever they happened to have a free weekend. Then they got serious, planning the trips months in advance and confining their hikes to the weather-friendly spring and fall months.

Typically, the group would take two cars, leaving one at the start of each hike and one at the destination. They’d spend a few days, walk about 10 miles each day, and stay in motels or bed-and-breakfasts.

Residents of little towns along the way helped them locate the trail, invited them in for tea, and included them in community events.

Robinson recalls the hikes as “very peaceful” — except for the occasional rattlesnake, the hot day they got lost and ran out of water, and the time they had to jog five miles to keep warm enough.

Inez Ross, left, and Carolyn Robinson, sit in front of Journey's End, a statue on the Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe, N.M. It took more than eight years, but retired teacher Inez Ross has walked the entire length of the Santa Fe Trail. She and her walking partners will celebrate the journey today in New Franklin, Mo., about two hours from Lawrence on Interstate 70.

“You’d think the hours would go slowly, but somehow we always had something to talk about,” Robinson said.

Once, in Kansas, the walkers couldn’t believe their eyes: a covered wagon, pulled by two big horses, coming across a meadow.

It was an Arkansas man on a solo, six-week trip to Colorado, inspired by his mother’s stories of crossing Kansas in a covered wagon as a child.

“I thought we were hallucinating,” said Ross, who has written an account of the trek.

Ross and the other hikers plan to celebrate their journey today in the community of New Franklin, Mo., at the South Howard County Historical Museum.

On the agenda: a three-block parade including a Conestoga wagon and a fire truck, lunch, music, and a slide show Ross put together.