Re: Gold Country Ride 2001

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

In a message dated 09/11/2000 9:07:21 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
glassman1@foothill.net writes:

<< Also, I heard a
 rumor this
 weekend that you are cancelling the Castle Rock ride for next year and 
giving the
 date to
 Mt Diablo. Is that true?  I hope not since your ride is my favorite of all
 endurance rides! >>

Yes, it's true.  Very sad for us, as we've managed it for 25 years.  But 
that's also part of the reason we're giving it up.  Our three daughters and 
their husbands work very hard on the ride, as well as Lud and I.  They've 
recommended we consolidate and put on just one event a year.  Considering the 
amount of time and energy we all expend on ride management, and the fact that 
they have their own lives to live and families to raise, we're going to throw 
all of our energies into one event a year.  Since we all agreed that the 
Swanton Pacific is our favorite ride, we're going to offer it as a 
two-distance ride.  It will be extremely simple to shorten the ride in two 
places, without changing the vet check sites, thus allowing us to offer a 70 
(approx.) mile ride as well as the 100.  Whether we also offer a R&T on two 
mileage levels will be determined by the number of teams who show any 
interest in the event.  We've had as many as 6 teams in the past, this year 
we had only 3.  So it may simply die for lack of participation.  It really 
breaks my heart to think of dropping Castle Rock, especially since it is the 
longest running 50 miler in the world.  But managing 2 to 3 events a year 
takes up most of our time for 6 months, and we haven't had the time to 
condition our own horses.  We've been to only 1 or 2 rides in two years.  
And, I spend quite a bit of time as an AERC director.  It's time to smell the 
flowers...... we're not getting any younger, and we've begun to enjoy a bit 
of traveling.  Often we are thinking, "Oh, we can't do that, it's right at 
the time of Castle Rock".  We can't go on letting the ride run our lives, or 
someday we'll realize that we've missed some wonderful adventures because we 
"had" to stay home and manage a ride.  Some other ride will come along.  
There are new ones all the time, and good ones, too.
Yes, Diablo is taking the May 2001 date that Castle Rock would have had.

Barbara