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Re: [RC] [RC] Tevis - headlamps??? - Steven ProeHi Lucy: My thoughts on Hall's statement maybe a little slanted as Hal is normally at the head of the ride as I have been and arrived at Francisco's in the Daylight. I have also ridden at the back of the ride where we left Foresthill at about 10:30 PM and the lights did really help. We even picked up a hitch hiker from Canada near the CA. Street trails that was not able to locate the trail leading down into the Canyon above the CA Street trail to Francisco's. We were able to travel very fast down the canyon without the lights, when we did use the lights though there was an immediate increase in speed from our mounts all who were top ten horses. We came across the walking wounded and late riders leaving Francisco's, we were screaming along on the single track next to the river with lights, when we came upon these riders that probably most would not finish. Their were cries to turnout the light with all of the usually threats and they also would not yield the trail. My ride mates suggested that I just ride through them, I stated that we should just wait until the trails opened up in the sandy section then we could be on our way again. This didn't go over well with some, but we did the safe thing any way. When the trail opened up again, were just cruised by this group and turned on our lights again. Yes, even though we were in front of this group, they started yelling again (go figure) needless to say we continued on to the American River Crossing. We tanked up and cooled the horses, and walked very slowly thru the river rock section and the raced to the (Cool #49 vet check not the present one) at the Quarry on the river. We ran up the portions and trotted on the down sides of the road/trails along the river. The long and the short of this story is that you should do what works for you, and try to accommodate any dispute, that may arise. P/S the three of use finished the ride with 5 minutes to spare (We got our money's worth). At the awards ceremony the next day, the Lady from Canada informed use that she was also pregnant, she had not told us this before. (thank goodness) So she and the baby, got a Twofer, but only one buckle. I like using the Lights as did our mounts and our hitchhiker had no complains. HTH Steven Proe & Trooper ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lucy Chaplin Trumbull" <elsietee@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2004 10:03 AM Subject: Re: [RC] [RC] Tevis - headlamps??? Melody As others have mentioned, many people don't like using headlamps. At the AERC convention, when the top buckle holders held a forum, Hal Hall mentioned that, in his opinion, headlights were not necessary and that if you are going to be out there in the dark, you should trust your horse and be comfortable riding him in the dark. And using one may be fine for you, but really bother other riders. I guess it'll be up to you as to who you're riding with and how they feel about it (and anyone you come up behind). And how well you/your horse personally know the trail. All that said, a couple of years ago I did quite a bit of night riding on the Tevis trail when I was helping a guy train for the WS100 run. He'd run on foot and I'd ride behind him (bear bait? <g>). He wore a yellow- beam headlight and I actually quite liked having him up ahead to mark the trail for me. Even though he was often 50'+ ahead of me, I was able to note any rocky/ odd sections coming up (note, I rode Cal Loop the first time in this manner - talk about mimicking Tevis situations <g>). While riding with him, however, I also wore a small LED headlight that I got from REI. It's a "Black Diamond" headlight (~$20) with four bright white LED bulbs in it. Runs for 11 hours on three AAA batteries. We liked it so much, we went back and bought another. There are two reasons I like this light: a) the headlight part is hinged, so you can point it wherever you want (i.e. away from the person's face you are talking to). (It makes a great winter mucking-out headlight for this reason, as you can point the beam at the ground instead of getting a crick in your neck). b) because the light is white, it doesn't seem to cast the same type of shadows as do conventional yellow-beam lights. My runner friend didn't like it for precisely this reason - it didn't give enough trail definition for him to be able to run comfortably with it. OTOH, any shadows cast by it didn't seem to bother the horse at all. There were several occasions when I felt the need to turn the light on as it was so dark under the trees that I literally couldn't see a thing and couldn't find the trail... (note these were not full-moon nights. The following is the moon rise/set data for Tevis night: Moonrise 8:53 p.m. Moonset 6:57 a.m. on following day We have it about as perfect as we could ask for, although the moon will take a few hours before it's high enough to peek over the sides of the canyon walls, so that may be the worse part - the first few hours after dark.) The trouble with headlights is, once you've got it on and your horse's eyes have adjusted, it's very hard to turn it off again without the horse thinking a black hole just opened in front of him. Another time my husband and I rode from Cool to Robie Point on a moonless night. My horse went along the trail with her face 6" off the ground to make sure of her footing. It was one of the more peculiar rides I've done, where I just had to put complete trust in her, because I couldn't see the trail at all. However, at one point, my horse became worried and stopped and didn't want to move forwards (we'd ridden out-and-back and there had been some deer on the trail on the way out). We were on the narrow trail up above No Hands Bridge and I really didn't want her spooking off the edge, so ended up turning on my light and she was content to go on. Trouble was, when we got down on the bridge and were picking up enough ambient light from the lights in Auburn and I tried to turn the light off again, she reacted with a mammoth stop and a loud audible grunt. I ended up having to keep it on until the end of the ride - so be warned. One thing about this light - it's designed for head- sizes, so to keep it from slithering off the top of my helmet, I had to secure it with duct tape. Might be a task to assign a single crew-member - affixing your headlamp to your helmet securely so it doesn't fire off the top of your head the first time a bush brushes past it. Or have a second helmet, ready-lit, available to you at FH? Oh. One other thing worth mentioning. Sue Flagg had a very valid worry about riding at night - she was (rightly) concerned about poking an eye out and has been experimenting with clear safety goggles for night riding. This may be more important than worrying about headlights? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Lucy Chaplin Trumbull elsietee AT foothill DOT net Repotted english person in the Sierra foothills, California * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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 Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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 Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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