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[RC] Valley of the Sun Ride 1 - Part 1 - irmurphy

The first ride of the Valley of the Sun rides was held on Nov. 29.  This is the first ride of the series and the first ride for me, Irene Murphy, as ride manager to host.  Thirty seven riders and numerous volunteers on horseback, hikers and vehicles came out to participate.  The ride site was the 30 acre lot or the newly christened Four Peaks Campsite  in the McDowell Mtn. Park in Fountain Hills, AZ.  The campsite has water, hitching rails and porta-johns available and the park continues to upgrade the facilities. The trails used were primarily within the park boundaries and were a combination of sandy wash, rock and hard packed dirt.  The weather was rainy in the week leading up to the ride which reduced the dust in the park and made the ride very pleasant.
On Friday before the ride a large group of volunteers (Stephanie Duross, A D Williams, Cindy, Dave, Corrin and Mark and Darrin Harper, Kayleen Helms, Mary Murphy) arrived at the campsite to begin marking trail.  Sections were identified for each group and everyone took off with ribbons flapping.  Meanwhile back at the basecamp we set up vetting and check in areas, filled water troughs and prepared for people to arrive.  The riders began to arrive around noon, setting up camp, checking in and vetting in.  Many local riders trailered over to check and vet in then returned home for the night.  A pizza dinner was held in conjunction with the ride meeting on Friday night.  Because of the close proximity to Fountain Hills we were able to use the local restaurants to have hot food available.  After the ride meeting many locals returned home for the evening after enjoying the dark starry night.  
The morning of the ride came early with some last minute preparations required to finish the trail marking.  It was discovered that a portion of the morning loop was not completely marked so a volunteer (Donna and horse Harley) offered to leave at first light and try and complete the trail.  If it was not possible it was communicated to the riders that they were to go to the water and back only.  We traveled to the water stop to make sure that everyone received the message.  The ride began at 8am and the riders were off.  A photographer (Joe Fanthorp) was present throughout the ride and took pictures of the start and several points on the trail throughout the day.  The goal for this ride was to have prints available as part of the completion awards as well as digital downloads after the ride on the website. 
The ride progressed until we received word that a rider (Lucian Spataro) had been thrown and the horse (Masquerade) had run off.  Quickly we reorganized the volunteers so that people could go and assist the rider in locating his horse.  We split up the trucks, tanks and checklists to make sure all the key points were covered and that no one would go too long without water.  Additionally, the Spataro’s contacted the sheriff’s department so helicopter searches of the park added to the ride.  
The first set of riders arrived at the vet check between 10:45 and 1:00pm for a 1 hour hold at basecamp.  We had a few rider option pulls and one metabolic incident where the horse recovered quickly after receiving fluids.  Because of the loss of key volunteers lunch was not available for the riders as it was at a remote check location.  The vets however, quickly told us of this issue and we managed for someone to go and retrieve our food so that we could at least feed the vets.  (we did however, still have soda available.)  The weather was beautiful and sunny all day which made the site very pleasant especially when the vets were no longer hungry.