AUSTIN, Nev. -- A Global Positioning System would have come in handy for Pony Express riders on the nearly 2,000-mile route from St. Joseph, Mo., to Sacramento, Calif., a century and a half ago.

And while technology helped spell the end of the original mail delivery service in 1861, the latest high-tech advances now are helping re-create the journey.

Horseback riders are equipped with a GPS tracking device this year as they carry the famed leather mail pouch through eight states as part of the annual Pony Express Re-ride.

"It's low-tech transportation with high-tech coverage," said Larry Carpenter, national secretary of the National Pony Express Association.

The satellite location technology is allowing organizers and the public to track the trek that began Wednesday morning at Pony Express Plaza in Old Sacramento.

At midday on Friday, the rider was in the middle of Nevada on the Old Overland Road about 35 miles west of Austin and about 140 miles east of Reno, according to the map on the Web site: http://ponyexpressnationaltracking.com/RiderTracking.html.

The final rider is expected to deliver the pouch full of letters and documents to the U.S. Postal Service 1,966 miles away in Missouri by 11 a.m. on June 28.

A letter in this year's pouch cost $5 a half-ounce, the same price as when the Pony Express operated in 1860-61. With inflation, that postage would cost $85 today, Carpenter said.

Several riders took turns at the reins on Thursday crossing northern Nevada. Lynne Heller, wife of U.S. Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., rode through Genoa before handing the pouch to a waiting rider.

"I'm a huge Pony Express, horse and history buff," Heller told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "It's kind of an experience of a lifetime for me."

The Niday family, descendants of Pony Express co-founder Alexander Majors, waited for Heller in front of the Genoa Courthouse and Museum.

"It's great being part of history and showing it to my kids," said Erika Niday of Fallon.

The original Pony Express was a delivery service, opened in April 1860 by Majors and investors William Russell and William Waddell. The project was started essentially as a publicity stunt and was an unsuccessful effort by the men to snag a $1 million government mail contract.

Cross-country telegraph eventually lessened the need for express mail.

The riders were scheduled to pass into Utah sometime tonight and arrive in Wyoming sometime on Sunday.