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RideCamp@endurance.net
Day 36, 2001 XP
Hi! We're in Austin for the next two days that we have off camped at the
rodeo grounds. It's really nice here! The Lakso's saved us a great spot
underneath a big tree and right next to a water spigot. Pretty place, the
sunset tonight is really gorgeous. We just got back from going out to
dinner at one of the three places that there are to eat in town.
We had another really nice ride today. It was long and slow and we
finished just barely ahead of Trilby at a little over 11 1/2 hours. I had
two juniors again today -- Kayla and Calina, and rode Weaver. Now he gets
three days off and only has two days left to do next week. I sure hope
nothing happens over the weekend, unless something stupid happens he outta
be okay. Kayla rode Buzzy today and Calina rode Boomer again. Dave
crewed for all of us at lunch today, and then he hauled me and Kayla to the
finish while John and Dolly babysat Rocky and got us a spot in camp. They
left at 4:30 a.m. to get here and get a good spot. They did a good job. :+)
The trail today was super nice, we started out climbing up into the
mountains and riding thru trees and nice singletrack and two-track trail,
winding up and over the pass and then down thru another valley...complete
with badger holes and we're starting to get into rocky areas a little bit.
We were trotting along thru a grassy field area and Weaver caught a foot in
a rut or something and started to go down. I tried pulling him up, and he
kept going down.......I pulled more and he went down more...down, down,
down.....I saw some prime real estate getting real close between his ears
and as it approached rapidly, I gave one more pull and in the last possible
second before a crash landing or a Buddy type flip, he came
up......whew! That was a pretty close almost crash landing, and glad we
avoided any injuries from it. Man, if I had let go or not pulled so hard
(from the back of his neck <g>)......yeow! He may just need to be reshod
again, his feet have grown so dang fast...he normally isn't a clod like that.
Then a little ways after that, we went thru a gate and all of a sudden
Weaver perked up and looked like an Ayrab (an unusual occurrence for him),
and whinnied real loud. Hmmmm....we didn't see anything to I got on and we
kept going and in the next few seconds we saw what he was so alert about --
a wild stallion was galloping gallantly towards us thru the brush and came
straight towards us. I had the girls get behind me and we all turned and
faced him...he ran right up to us and got close enough to touch noses but
didn't try anything aggressive -- we tried shoeing and chasing him away but
he wouldn't leave us. (I took pictures, of course <G>).......finally some
other riders came along and he went after them and we made our safe escape.
Earlier in the morning MJ's horse got caught in wire and was
injured. Weaver got it caught on his leg once but I stopped him and he
backed up and it dropped down then he went over it. It was an old
telephone wire. I don't think anybody elses horses got hurt. MJ got
hauled to the vet check and they fixed the horse up there, hope it will
heal fast.
We don't really know which of the adults has ridden the most days or
miles. Heck, most of us don't even know what day it was or what town it
was that we were in last......if it weren't for somebody telling me I
wouldn't know that it was Sunday and that we get Monday and Tuesday off and
start again on Wednesday. I know that Dave Rabe was first today, on Dirty
Dancer. There are probably several riders who have ridden the most days,
minus 1 1/2 or 2......I'm just guessing here and will probably forget
somebody and maybe get a name wrong but here goes (remember, I'm pretty
deranged after living with horses out of a trailer for two full
months!).......Kayla Ramsdell (she has ridden every mile and is a junior),
Phyllis Bartholomew, Bonnie Way, Jane Wilson, MJ Jackson, Shawn Bowling, me
:>).....possibly Dave Rabe and Roxanne Greene........Terry Nance has been
riding a lot too.......now for people who have been riding just one horse
-- this is easy -- you've got Carol and Sunny who have done the most days
together, she has only missed 6 days so far...then you've got John Parke
and Skoldjur, the Icelandic....they are doing really well and have also
done a lot of days, and Kathy Thompson and Zane Grey who has also done
quite a few days and probably ten or twelve half days and have a lot of
front placings and BC's. Pat Verhuel has also ridden quite a lot of days
on her two horses. Debby Lyon and Jeff Herten have also been riding a lot
lately, so has Sandy Skinner. Can't think of too many other names right
now, I'm sure I'm missing some. Lots of people have come and left, and
come back again.....there are a lot of people here and probably more will
come this weekend for the last week.
We rode up thru a canyon where a Pony Express station was, including the
graves of a couple of station attendants that had been killed by
Indians. I took a lot of photos, but probably won't get them up this
weekend unless we luck out and find a connection somewhere. Hopefully the
cell phone will work so I can send email at least.
John and Steph Teeter passed us sometime after lunch, then after we
finished it was about ten minutes till five or so, and Trilby and John came
in together. I'll have to ask Steph what happened there, where was she and
how did John get behind us?
I forgot my electrolytes this morning. Well, those 5 a.m. starts seem to
get earlier and earlier and I get slower and slower and older and
older........I don't think it mattered though since he still peed his
normal 4 times before lunch and 7 or 8 times for the day total. Like
clockwork. There's not much water on the trail but when we do get water,
he drinks really well and I also fed him quite a few carrots today on the
trail plus he eats everything he can find even sagebrush. Rocky is almost
as bad, he's over here eating a tree as we speak. Sure do hope it's
edible. :+D
Barney and Linda are leaving us after this weekend <sob>. That really
sucks, but at least they were here up until now. It's not like the end of
the world, but we'll miss them. We'll see them back at Tevis a week after
this ride finishes up.
I can't get over how much the horses are eating still. I am glad I was so
prepared with all their feed needs along the route, because they have
needed more than I planned on -- it's hard to keep everything in
supply! Tonight when we got into camp (hauled from the finish about 20
miles to here)....I turned both horses out in the big arena and when Weaver
trotted towards me he still looks like a blimp waddling along <sigh>. It's
really pretty funny that he's such a Lard Butt, gotta love that
horse! After doing 17 AERC 50 mile rides in 7 weeks........sure do wish I
could clone him. It has worked out so that he has gotten every single
hardest day so far -- the ones with the most mountains or most climb,
etc. Weird coincidence, wonder if it would have worked so well if the
rotation had been different?
With only four ride days left, we're getting kind of sad that it is going
to be all over so soon. In a week from today, it'll be all over and we'll
have to go back to real life. Wake up from this dream. It sure won't be
an easy thing to do. One thing is for sure, none of us will ever be the
same again. Even the kids here are all aware of the significance this will
have made on all of us.
I better get some sleep, it has been a really long day. Nice one
tho. Hot, dusty, fun.
Happy XP Trails,
Karen
in Austin, Nevada
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