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Re: [RC] Riding at Night - rdcarrieI have one whole 100 under my belt, this past May. I'm one of the ones who chose to ride au natural (no lights, glowbars, etc. on my horse). We had a full moon, and about 80% of the trail was in the open. The moon wasn't up for part of the first loop I rode in the dark. The sections of trail I rode early on that went through the patches of woods were blacker than the inside of a cow...I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. But my horse could see just fine, and flew down the winding trail as if it were daylight. It was really fun, and kind of surreal. It was nice and bright in the open once the moon came up. To me, having any light source on my horse would have ruined the experience for me. I loved being out there in the dark, even in the patches of woods, which were still kinda dark even when the moon came up. I just trusted my horse to follow the trail and watch where he was going, and he never took a misstep. I could feel him moving side to
side on the trail to avoid ruts, etc., slowing down on his own for rough sections, etc. I did have a light in my pommel bag that I could pull out and use if I needed it, and a small flashlight in my camelbak in the event my horse and I parted company. <G> All of the advice I had read was to "trust your horse, he can see" and that's what I did." He came through with flying colors. :)
Dawn in East Texas
and Bear (trust me, Mom, I know where I'm going!) -----Original Message----- From: Aaron Turnage <ajandcrysta@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; new100milers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 09:38:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [RC] Riding at Night Having in the last month both managed my first ride, a night ride, and ridden my first 100 I thought I'd contribute to this topic. Here are some tips and tricks for Night Riding:
Source for glowbars - www.glowmania.net These guys have really good prices ($0.54 - $0.50/ea depending on quantity). They also have free shipping and send glow bracelets for free with every $50 you order. We gave the bracelets to riders as they came to sign in, kind of a fun little extra.
For marking trail, get the 6 inch, not the cheaper smaller 4 inch, the smaller ones don't last as long. Green was definitely the brightest, their pink was not as bright as I would have expected. All were still visible from sundown to sunup though. I had a green sample one still producing a faint glow more than 24 hours later. USE A DIFFERENT COLOR FOR MARKING WATER. Even in the open NV desert we had at least 2 riders tell me they didn't see the troughs, they did see about a million glowbars but the troughs were on a turn to a different trail and they thought we had just marked the turn really well. And I have this suspicion that we as riders missed some water on our 100 for that same reason, could not see the troughs in the dark. We'll probably use the pink next year to hang off the troughs and use green and blue or orange to mark trail (2 different loops to mark). We ended up using so much chalk and glowbars that we didn't even need to have put out ribbons, and probably won't ne
xt year. I'm still looking for a good method to pick up the glowbars off the ground after the ride, we don't have a lot of vegetation so were just putting them on the side of the trail/roads, could only actually hang a few.
Plan to actually ride in the DARK. Even though our night ride was sanctioned around a full moon, we had pretty heavy cloud cover for the first half. For our 100 - the moon was still up in the afternoon and I remember riding and looking at it thinking "that's not going to be up again for a long time." Yep, we rode the last 20 miles or so in the forest with no moon. =) At Tevis last year those were Cathy's first words after crossing the finish line for her win "It's DARK out there!", again, the moon was not up yet. So be prepared and practice at home.
Lights and glowbars - this can be kind of controversial. Some people prefer to have nothing. I've heard of people who get motion sick from the light moving around. I've found for me personally I prefer glowbars on the breastcollar, as low or close to the center as possible. I've been using the single-use battery powered ones found in the WalMart camping section (thank Jonni) on the lower part of my breastcollar and two "standard" ones on the sides, mainly because I need to get more of the battery ones, I only have 2 for now. The battery ones seem to be brighter. I haven't run one out yet so I'm not 100% on how long they last, each has about 6 hours of use so far and they are still going strong. On a "bright" night with a full moon I only need the one down low on the part between his legs to cast a pool of soft light near his feet. On my 100 I was glad to have the 2 extra on the sides since they cast enough light I could just see tree limbs, etc as I needed to duck or move.&n
bsp; These needed to be low and in front of his chest otherwise you can see them as your horse moves in front of their shoulders. Again, try things out at home and see what works best for you. I've heard of people using a battery fluorescent light, but haven't tried one myself. I'm a little worried it may be too bright and affect my horse's or my night vision, but again I have not tried one so I don't really know.
NO GLOWBARS, LIGHTS, ETC ON THE BACK OF YOUR HORSE. Makes the people behind you disoriented. If you are worried about cars or traffic use some kind of reflectors.
Headlamps - if you are riding by yourself or with someone else who has one these may be okay. I think where people run into problems is when they come up on someone who doesn't. My friends each had a red one on our 100 (there were 3 of us together), as long as they stayed in front of me and didn't look around too much it was GREAT. But if they were behind me their light cast my shadow directly in front of me and my horse. Also, they had to not look around too much, just follow the trail, since the moving light was kind of disorienting. I've heard you will be severely chastised and yelled at for trying to use one on Tevis (and maybe other rides), so just beware of this and maybe plan on having some kind of alternate light. I would say the biggest problem is casting shadows, especially as other riders move into and out of your light, I think this is why glowbars are more popular because they don't cause much shadow.
Trot proof and/or test your gear. I put a backup Minimag flashlight in my packs during the lunch stop (just in case) but it came apart in my packs somehow during the day and then was dead when we went to check it before heading out on our night loop. =( Maybe the bulb just was damaged or something but I grabbed another flashlight and hoped for the best with that one. So make sure you have BACKUPS. Glowbars can burn out way too quickly too, carry a few extras. When one cracks in your saddlebags it's fun playing "What is THAT?" as it glows through the material. =) I've heard of horses spooking when their riders reached down to "snap" the glowbars, so be ready just in case, or get off. I like to get mine turned on while it's still dusk so they are already glowing by nightfall. Seems there is less adjusting that way then if it's fully dark already.
I'm sure there are WAY more experienced people than me and I've carried on long enough I suppose...
~ Crysta & Sinatra, Tevis Bound!
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