Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Lucy,

Great story, we got home late afternoon on Saturday, it was a break that Don
and I very much needed after relocating from the warm SoCal a year ago to
the frozen NorCal just below the Oregon border.  And we got to see old
friends, it was very nice!  And we can't forget to mention that Chris Heron
won the Toad award!

We left on Xmas eve, and drove straight thru (about 600 miles), just barely
staying ahead of the storm and much of the going was very slow.  Montgomery
Pass was scary, blizzard conditions and almost zero visibility, but again,
we were a little ahead and it had just started, we could see the lines
(barely) on the road in 2nd gear :).  We so wanted to stop, but we were
afraid we'd get stuck somewhere, so we continued, it was even starting to
snow in Bishop when we got there, and snowing on the way into Ridgecrest,
and snowing on many of the miles we traveled.  We arrived at Jackie
Bumgardner's house about 2:30 am, plopped the horses in some empty corrals
with hay and water, and climbed into the gooseneck for a little sleep.  We
got up around 8 am, checked on the beasts, and went into Jackie's house, it
was Xmas morning!

Going to Jackie's is a real treat, walking thru her house is a trip thru
endurance history, it was Don's first time there, my second, and Jackie's
house is very casual and comfortable.  And it was Xmas!  The XP gang was
there, Annie and Dave, some of the help (Joseph and Dave), and of course
Nappy.  My son, Darren, drove up from Malibu and we all had a wonderful Xmas
dinner orchestrated by Annie, I did the dishes as I'm not a dessert person
:).  Jackie accommodated my son for a few nights, and on Friday, Don took
our beasts out with Jackie for a warm up ride while my son and I did
shopping (that I couldn't do here due to snow conditions) and did a few
errands for Annie.  On Saturday, we arrived at base camp.  Did a quickie
warm up ride, my son was there to help Joseph mark trail and do waters, I
brought the tamales and we had that for dinner in the duck camp.  My son
slept in Annie and Dave's trailer that night!

Sunday was ride day!  I saw my son briefly that morning, he had to return
home for the work week.  I asked him if he had coffee, he replied yes, that
Annie takes care of everything!  I hugged him and said good-bye.  Don and I
took off with our wooly boys.  It was a hard day, after a year off from
riding AERC rides.  The boys were pulling the entire time, but at the vet
check, they both pulsed in to start the hold, but had a bit of a problem
pulsing lower during the hold.  Willy was doing better than Whyatt (aka
Fatboy), but it just didn't make a lot of sense, yes, they get hot because
they're fat (especially Whyatt), yes they have major winter coat, but they
looked good (EDPP, good hydration, bright eyed, etc.) and were pulling on
us.  We spent extra time at the hold and returned back very slow. Dead last
I think and vetted thru.  I decided to not ride the next day, first because
I was wearing 2 layers on the bottom (and forgot the body glide on my
thighs) so I was chafed because Whyatt spent so much time pulling and
jigging, and second because of the nagging feeling something might be wrong
with Whyatt (high pulse/pain?).

So Don took off on day 2 with Willy, I packed camp to move and groomed
Whyatt.  While grooming I found a 4" gash in his armpit, it wasn't new and
probably came apart with the sweat.  Likely due to the recent expansion of
his paddock, we have a lot of trees, and who knows what else may have been
there!  So Whyatt was out for the rest of the ride.  I felt really bad for
riding him and not knowing that gash was there, also showed the gash to
Melissa and she told me what to do with it.  But Don and Willy did all 4
days, cool!  I just volunteered the rest of the ride and mostly ended up
being second shift finish line person, although I was also potato lady at
the New Years dinner :).  And only 8 of us remained to ring in the New Year
on Pacific time, what's up with that XP riders?

On New Years Day we returned to Jackie's (just a very short trip, like 30
minutes), put the horses up and went to breakfast, yummy!  I hung out in the
sun (it was 75df) and watched all the horses interact, Jackie's old horse
Ross at 31 running everyone, fatboy Zayante being sassy and giving his
historic dirty looks.  Then we went for Chinese that night, yummy again!
This time we stayed in Jackie's spare room for the night so we wouldn't have
to set up the trailer.  Jackie made us breakfast next morning and sent us
off.  Weather was coming, we didn't know if we'd make it home and we got
hammered with rain at Walker Lake, and weather reports said it was bad.  So
we stopped in Fernley (just outside Reno) at Heidi Siegal's house.  Heidi
put our horses in the front pasture, they were VERY happy, and Heidi put us
up in her spare room, again, a beautiful and comfortable house and a walk
thru endurance history.  We went 2 blocks to a casino for dinner (very cheap
prime rib, yummy), and we gambled a little (Don lost $20, I won $5), back to
Heidi's, and one of her Burmese cats (Bruno) slept with us all night :).
Heidi made us breakfast and sent us on our way.  Heidi was also at DVE as a
volunteer.  We arrived home late afternoon, following morning was a brisk
5df, now you know why I complain about the cold :).

Without wonderful folks like Jackie, Heidi, and Annie, we never could have
managed this trip, and because of their generosity, I CAN say I had one of
the best holiday seasons ever!!!!!  Thank you to our friends, I can never
repay what you did, and, we were able to also share with our son, how much
better can it get?

Next year should be pretty exciting as Dave is planning the "escape" from
Death Valley.  Dave is pretty incredible, he does a LOT of research into the
history of these rides.  Don't know if we can make it or not, but I'd really
like to.  It was really good to see everybody at DVE.

Pam Bowen (a lost SoCal soul)




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