Ridecamp: [RC] Nick Warhol- Eastern High Sierra Classic 50 part 1 of 2

Nick Warhol nickw@xxxxxxxxx
(CLick here to read on line) http://www.nickwarhol.com/EasternHighSierra2002.htm

The Eastern High Sierra Classic 50
Nick Warhol
(Or, more aptly named ?The great mountain sheep round up.?)

There?s nothing like doing a ride for the first time.  I love seeing different trails and terrain, especially in a place as pretty as the Sierra Nevada Mountains.   Jackie Bumgardner, the wandering ride manager, lives in the So Cal desert in Ridgecrest in the winter, and then when the XP rolls around in June, she relocates to Bridgeport for the summer.  She hosts the Death Valley Encounter and the 20 Mule Team ride in the winter down in the Dez, and puts on the EHSC in the fall in the mountains.  I have done the first two rides a bunch of times, but this was my first attempt at the mountain ride.  Big mistake.  Not for going, but for waiting.  In all my rides to date, this one has to rank up there with the best in terms of the incredible terrain.  It was a long drive from the Bay Area, since I wasn?t about to take the rolling breakdown rig over one of those Yosemite passes.  (yeah, we need a new truck.)  We drove to Reno, then headed south on 395.  Judy elected to leave Wabi the wondrous at home this time, so I made the trip with my riding buddy Sally and her new horse Phathom, the guy I rode at the Fireworks a couple of weeks ago.   She is jazzed about this horse, as she should be.   I got to ride Zayante again, which for me is a treat, every time.  We?ll see if we can?t get the old Tursk to 11,000 miles at some point soon.  Judy drove over early in her car to hang out in the mountains for a few days and give Jackie a hand with the ride.  The base camp is located in a big, green, pasture at the foot of the mountains, at about 7000 feet.  This place is pretty, especially since I have a soft spot for high desert.  The turnout was okay with about 80 people total, a little less than usual.  There were only 10 LD riders or so, that surprised me a little.  Head vet Dave ?the Duck? Nicholson gave a good talk at the riders meeting about his theory of endurance riding and vetting, in that the rider is responsible for the well being of their horse, the vets are there to help.  In a ride like this, where assistance can be a long way off, the rider really has to be in charge, and willing to take on that responsibility.

The 50 mile ride started out at 6:00 am- it was a little warmer than people thought it should be, but the day ended up being very pleasant, especially up at the high elevations we were headed for.   Sally and I started out at the back of the pack, wanting to see how her horse would behave with fewer horses around.   He was a little ?in a hurry? at Fireworks, but with Zayante in the lead he was being a good boy.  The ride is a controlled start for the first mile or so over a desert hill covered with sagebrush (smells sooo good).  We walked over the hill and down to the road, then started trotting along the green pastures of the dude ranch on the left, the open desert on the right.  After a half-mile or so we got on to a nice desert single track that started heading up right away.   The climb was mild to start, but got steep enough to walk the last third of the way up.  We climbed up maybe a thousand feet to the top of a huge ridge that led up to the actual mountains that line the valley.  These are big mountains, very similar to Yosemite.  The trail on the ridge was fun- great trotting on good footing.  It was pretty easy to follow the trail, but once I tried to go left, nope, wrong, said Zayante.   He bolted to the right, he was on trail.  Pretty handy to have my own personal guide!   We crested the top of the ridge and saw the incredible sight of the twin lakes down in the valley below, it was a spectacular site that could be on a postcard.  We started down a long, long switchback trail that took us all the way down to the edge of the lake and a quick pulse and trot vet check without a hold.   Zay and Phathom zipped right through the check, we were on our way along the lake on a dirt road that wound in and out of cabins and homes.   After a couple of miles we hung a left and started up.  We went up.  And up.  Oh boy, we went up.  It was a single-track trail that we just walked up, being flabbergasted at the views.  There were rocks, and some pretty steep drops on the side of the trail, but not too bad.   It was hard to quit looking down at the lakes, but when we got to the top at last it was worth the climb.  There was this trail up there, only a mile or more long, that you really have to ride to believe.   It is a rolling single track, with nice sandy footing, that winds along the top of this ridge, between Aspen and pine trees, with views you can?t imagine.  If you ever wanted to shoot a video of the perfect trail in the mountains, this one would be a contender.   If only it were longer.   We just flew along at a fast trot and canter, diving in and out of the trees, just whooping it up.  What a rush!   Much too soon for my taste, the trail become tighter and more technical, so we had to slow down and walk most of it as we climbed some more.   We were coming up to the top of another ridge, on a real steep part of the trail, when I heard something.   It sounded like, well, loud gargling?   What in the heck is that?   The horses didn?t seem to care, but it got louder.   It wasn?t cows, but there was something out there.  Suddenly there was a long line of horses stopped on the trail in front of us, waiting for something.   Not a great place to be stopping, since it was single track on a steep mountain.  Then the mountain seemed to be moving.  And then I hear a cowbell.  And more gargling.  What in the world?.  It was sheep.  Lots of sheep.  I mean lots of sheep, as in hundreds.  Thousands maybe.   The whole mountain, including the trail, was covered in sheep.  Big sheep, little sheep.  Even some black sheep.  There was more wool out there than you can imagine.  And it was blocking the trail!   The first horses had to split the herd in order to move forward.  We were parting the sea of sheep at 8500 feet!  My first thought was- I hope the horses like sheep!  It wasn?t a problem for any of us in our string of horses.  The weird part was having a solid sea of sheep on both sides of the trail, with the stupid sheep not sure which side they should be on.  They were dashing back and forth, between the horses.  Talk about a spook potential!   Zay was fine, I was worried about Phathom, I don?t think he has ever even seen a sheep!   He just stood there, taking it all in like a spectator at a chess match.  Boring!  What a good horse.   It took several minutes to crawl through the sea of wool, but most people were laughing.  Except maybe the poor sheepherder, who no doubt would spend the next couple of hours trying to get those bah bah?s back in line.  He just smiled and said hi, what else could he say?


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-