Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

At reading this section of Cindy's comments I had a wonderful vision of what
it would be like to restore the grizzly bear back into our area :-))  Big
Basin and Rancho del Oso State Parks once were famous for grizzly bears.
Rancho del Oso means "ranch of the bear" for those who are Spanish-language
challenged. The Waddell Canyon through which all Swanton Pacific riders pass
was well-populated with bears.  William Waddell was so badly mauled by one
of them that he subsequently died.  E.S. Harris, who lived in a little cabin
about 100 feet from the start-finish line of the SP ride, was also
mauled........on his right leg, in April 1866.  He lived a few weeks longer
until it was determined that his leg was gangrenous and needed to be
amputated.  Local residents took up a collection totaling $125 and hired a
former Civil War surgeon to remove the leg.  Harris wore a wooden leg ever
after, but his real leg is buried in a small cemetery at the end of the flat
where SP starts and finishes.
Now, envision 50-75 riders entered in SP, riding through Rancho del Oso S.P.
at night, starting and finishing the ride in the faint light of either dawn
or dusk, or perhaps even in the black of night, with a population of
Grizzlies around.  I would be willing to bet there wouldn't even BE a couple
of state parks existing if the Grizzly still did.

Barbara McCrary

----- Original Message -----
From: "Cindy Collins" <ccollins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 9:47 AM
Subject: [RC] re: wolves, ranching, westerners vs. the coasts, etc.


> Out here in places like Wyoming, we get to live
> year around with the rules others make so that they can come out here for
> a week once or twice in their lives and see the West as they want it to
> be.  (Please forgive me, Barbara for the next part!)  CA has the grizzly
> bear on its flag, why doesn't every one demand that grizzlies, and wolves,
> be reintroduced into the Sierras???  I'll tell you why...because we
> mountain westerners are politically insignificant and others can force us
> to deal with their fantasies about what wilderness should look like.  Many
> of them have ruined the land around them, so they live vicariously on our
> land.  They'll never have to worry about mountain lions, wolves, or
> grizzlies attacking their horses or making their trail rides or hikes
> dangerous.
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The very essence of our sport is doing the trail as quickly as practicable,
while keeping one's horse fit to continue.  Taking the clock out of the
equation makes it another sport altogether.  The challenge is how to keep
the sport what it is while honing our skills (both as riders and as those
in control roles) in detecting where "the edge" is for each horse so that
we don't cross it. 
~  Heidi Smith
ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/

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