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To begin with....we arrived at the ridecamp in the morning on Friday. It
wasn't soon after that myself and Dorothy Beebe were sent out to mark trail.
Apparently some jerk had pulled ribbons on almost the entire ride. Gary C.
went out on his motorcycle and Dave R. were also out re-marking and liming
the trail. Dorothy and I re-marked part of the trail going into and out of
camp for all of the loops and the entire yellow loop for the 25 milers. I
also picked up quite a few pink ribbons that had been pulled and dumped on
the side of the trail on the yellow loop. You would think that if somebody
were bothered by the fact that there were ribbons on the trail that they
wouldn't just pull them to throw them down somewhere else!!! rrrrrr.....
So, no sooner had we untacked then we got volunteered for additional
duty...they were short on vet secretaries and # markers. We actually had a
lot of fun getting to help, and I got to draw lots of funny faces, hearts,
feathers, etc. on horses behinds. Even got to dodge a kick that was a near
miss from one.....never drop your guard around horses! (right, Gary? hehe)
The rain had stopped for most of the afternoon. By about bedtime, it
started raining, and I don't think it let up until 5 a.m., when we started.
We did luck out there at least...the trail was actually in pretty nice shape
because of the rain. It wasn't dry and dusty and hard. I didn't get any
sleep. I thought we would get rained on, so I donned full rain gear at the
start. BIG mistake!!!! I didn't realize it until way too late...but the
rain pants I had put on over my tights had zippers on them. Zippers on the
INSIDE of my leg! Yeooooowwwwweeeeee!!!!! Darn was I happy to be back from
that 31 mile loop and get those stupid things off! I tried my best to keep
the zipper from turning in, but it didn't help much. I was also wearing a
goretex jacket which became incredibly hot when I got off to run downhill.
>From that point on I think I was wet with sweat the rest of the day!
Oh yeah, and something got into the back of my sock and rubbed my heal raw.
Boy does that feel good today! <NOT>...I also did not eat very much during
the ride...just didn't feel good :(. So of course I felt even worse by not
eating....dah!! Why is it that on some rides you like the food you bring to
eat - and on others nothing looks good?
Somehow or another those 75 miles went by pretty quickly...it was pretty
enjoyable. We got to see a herd of endurance cows (they really were
running!), two dear, a bobcat (we think)...and though we didn't see any
alligators, we did ride past the alligator farm right next door to our
ridecamp. I was real pleased with how Weaver was doing, he was eating from
the very beginning and drinking out of all the puddles along the way.
Another benefit from all the rain! It was also much cooler at the ride this
year. Though later in the day it did warm up and feel pretty humid. We
only got rained on in the last four or five miles and it wasn't bad at all.
Felt kind of good actually!
I rode with Gary and Tom most of the afternoon. Gary was 2nd and Tom was
3rd. Tom got BC and Gary got Reserve BC. Dale Nance won - she was flying
on this one! We only had one set of tracks ahead of us. This way we knew
she covered the entire trail at least <vbg>. At the last vet check I went
in with 58 on my HRM, but by the time I got a P&R person Gary was trotting
Czar out for the vet and so that got Weaver all excited and sent his pulse
up to 64....so I got my in time a couple minutes late...and then the vet
said that Weaver had a tight rear hamstring and to take it easy going in.
So Tom and Gary left me behind in their dust....ah....rather...mud....and
when I left I grabbed a flake of hay and soaked it in water and took off
leading him -- Weaver was really hungry and ate every last bit of it!! I
wasn't in any hurry because I knew I was going to finish in the top ten and
was happy about that. When I vetted thru with the head vet, she said she
didn't see anything in his rear - that he looked just perfect. So I think
Weav just got a little stiff in the wind at that out vet check. (relief -
but I had to have something to worry about, right?) :-0
All in all, it was a good ride. The trail was marked well, there was plenty
of water for the horses...the weather cooperated and the tri-tip BBQ was
really good. For awards the 25's got T-shirts, the 50's and 75's got
plaques...top ten got silver apple shaped pie plates with engraving on
them...and the First/BC/Weight Divisions got trophies.
Congratulations to Deanne, Linda and Dorothy who all completed (from
ridecamp) the 50; and of course all of the others there as well :). Many
thanks to John Collier and the NASTR club for working so hard to put on this
ride!!!
Happy Trails,
Karen
in Gardnerville
& Weaver 775 miles
& Rocky left at home and not happy about it!
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