RE: [RC] AHA Endurance ride Times.. Clarification - EnduroGal
“…There
were a couple of places that were "Oh Shit", moments.. one place I
really had to hold my breath as we slid down a creek bank over rocks and roots
to get into the creek and then had to climb right back out.”
WHOA-A-A-A-A-A-A-AAAAA… Déjà vu moment!
Sounds like Spook Run in Indiana
last weekend! HAHAHA!
From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lucie Hess Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009
11:56 PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; ocer Subject: [RC] AHA Endurance ride
Times.. Clarification
I heard there was a buzz going on on Ridecamp today. Some folks
talked to me since I posted the winning time, and we then talked to Eric
Rueter, who is the ride manager. He said he figured the winning time
incorrectly and it should have been 9 hrs and 34 minutes. However, that is RIDE
time, not the total time it took to complete the ride. There were 210
minutes of hold time. Eric said he posted the results to ridecamp today, but I
only read the archives, so I haven't seen it yet.
I rode the trail on Tuesday, the footing was excellent, it was a nice
cool day. Perfect weather for the horses.
There were lots of single track trails, I nearly hit my knees several
times. Monica Chapman and I laughed about how her horse Latina is a" Noodle" since she
could weave through the trees at a trot. Spanky could get through, but
had to work at it a bit more. There was plenty of Rough - Technical
trail, the leaves were covering the ground so even after the 100's and 50's had
gone through it was still hard to see their tracks. There were a couple
of places that were "Oh Shit", moments.. one place I really had to
hold my breath as we slid down a creek bank over rocks and roots to get into
the creek and then had to climb right back out.
I personally talked to the Park Ranger. He had a reason for
Bulldozing part of the trail, he said he had areas that he couldn't get into
with rescue equipment.. like a Gator or something, so that if a "pleasure
rider" would get hurt, in some spots it would be difficult to get them
out. So he wanted to have some access routes.
NOT ALL OF THE TRAIL HAD WORK DONE ON IT! I rode this trail last
year on 2 separate occasions, one 50 and 1 LD about a month and 1/2 apart.
So I know what it WAS like.
But the work that was done was greatly appreciated. I didn't have
to duck for low limbs every few minutes or yell "duck".. to riders
behind me, I didn't have to worry about being speared by dead cedar limbs that
had not been trimmed correctly, so they stuck out from the tree looking like a
spear. I could go through most of the trees without hitting my knees or
other parts of my body. I could ride past thorn trees without my pants or
shirt getting ripped, that happened to me las year. I ripped one of
my favorite pair of tights on a thorn tree that didn't have much clearance.
That's how the trails WERE last fall. Lot's
of work was done to just clean up things that SHOULD have been cleaned up
several years ago!
Some of our OCER Members came to help work on the Trails,
Anne Mcfarland, Lousie Burton, Amber Burton are the ones I know about. Last
year Kathleen Prescott did quite a bit of work before our Thanksgiving Ride.
So I hope folks calm down abit. The trails are very scenic, not
"damaged" at all.
And I can tell you the same riders who rode fast here, rode really fast
in horrible conditions in Kentucky.
Go look at those times. These are "WORLD CLASS' riders, they ride
smart and they have horses conditioned to Gallop around the course, when they
have to go slow, they trot.. Very seldom do you see them walking.
They don't ride like most of us do, they ride the edge of the envelope,
most of us will never be able to do that or will even want to. I sure don't,
but they have my admiration, just like I admire any outstanding athelete in any
sport. So I hope this quells some of the contravrsy, and kind of snippy remarks
by some!
Columbia,
Missouri
NATRC Region 6
AERC # 65
AERC Central Region
OCER member
