Applegate Lassen <Ride Story - Long>

[DreamWeaver <karen@chaton.gardnerville.nv.us>]

How I spent my summer vacation....

This was a five day ride covering 250 miles.  We went from Imlay, Nevada to
Cedarville, California.  The ride this year turned out to be ah.....quite
interesting and unusual for several reasons.  Mainly...mother nature felt
she wanted to re-arrange things and so we ended up having quite an
adventure.  This ride goes over the Applegate-Lassen trail that the
immigrants and gold prospectors took in 1849.

First let me say what a great job the ride management did in getting this
ride off to begin with.  The weather this year has been iffy to begin with,
then due to flooding and problems encountered during the ride which
required that the trail be completely re-routed it sure made for some quick
thinking on Barbara and Lud's part....they really did a wonderful job
getting us all thru safe and sound.  

I have put a few pictures up of the ride.  Mostly the first three days
(more film is still in the camera):
http://www.greatbasin.net/~sportssaddle/AL.html   If anybody has more pics
that they would like to add, please let me know!

We arrived at Burns Truck Stop on Saturday.  The ride started on Sunday.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  Blue sky...the sun was even shining.
We were next to a casino with a restaurant, which was kind of nice.  Plenty
of room for all the rigs.  Approximately 25 riders showed up to start the
first day.  On Saturday afternoon Brian (@) was kept busy pulling and
putting on shoes, and I was kept busy putting on easy boots for several
people.  

The ride started on Sunday at approximately 7 a.m.  We weren't sure if a
train would go by at 7 a.m. or not...but it didn't....so we had no problems
with horses spooking when we went over the train tracks.  Our original
camping location was under water, which Brian pointed out as we rode by.
The temperature was warm enough to start out in a t-shirt.  We were riding
to Rabbit Hole Springs.  Due to all the recent rain, we had water on the
trail and plenty of nice green grass for the horses.  The views were nice,
with mountains surrounding us and plenty of wildflowers.  This was the one
day that a few of us got D.C. (directionally challenged), and went
approximately a bonus 7 miles out of our way.  Oooops!  I got my P&R rather
quickly at the lunch vet check, so went out ahead of a few other riders
(just barely), and rode with Iylia for the remainder of the day.  We saw
our first antelope on this part of the trail, along with a wide variety of
glorious wild flowers.  We let our horses cruise along, maintaining an
average heart rate of about 100...stopping to let them eat green grass on a
few occasions.  Lud met us out on the trail with water and lemonade.  

Camp at Rabbit Hole Springs was really nice.  There were two ponds, plenty
of grass (if you knew where to look), and some spectacular views...very
peaceful place.  This was the same place some of the immigrants set up camp
when they went thru.  

On the second day of the ride we rode to Gerlach.  It was before the lunch
stop that we were trotting along the trail...myself, Brian and Val...when
all of a sudden, Weaver (my horse) jumped right on top of Brian and Goofy
(practically), and within half a second I looked down and saw and heard it.
 A rattlesnake!!  It was coiled up, and ready to strike...and not in a very
good mood.  Whoa!!!  It had been right directly in our path, and we were
going at a nice trot....this was the second snake we had seen.  I think it
took till the vet check until my heart stopped beating a hundred miles a
minute.  After that you better believe that all of us riders were real
careful about what bushes we went behind!! <g>

The vet check on the second day was in a really beautiful location.  We had
large trees for shade, and hot springs.  It was so nice!  There was also
plenty of green grass for the horses.  Just a beautiful setting.  The vet
noticed that while Weaver was sound, that he seemed to be a little sore on
the right front.  So I pulled off his easy boots, and sure enough...the
alkaloin soil (being so abrasive) had rubbed his heels, and the back of his
foot was really soft and starting to crack.  Yikes!!  I took him back to
the vet for a re-check, and he said that it wasn't that bad.  After lunch,
I kept a close eye on that foot and by the time we finished it seemed to be
100% better and the horse felt and looked really good.  I arrived back in
camp after finishing this day to find Plan B (Rocky) still in the trailer,
and Dave fixing a flat on the trailer.  Uh-oh!  Luckily, the gas station
was able to repair the flat even though it was a nail right in the
sidewall.  We filled up our gas and water here.  Gerlach is an interesting
place.  There is a guipsum plant there that makes 90% of all the drywall in
the country.  

I should have known to put everything away that night.  The clouds were
building, dark and heavy in the sky above.  We had our awards at Bruno's
Restaurant...btw, we got really nice awards at this ride...let's see..the
first day we got a Kool-Off (necker-chief that keeps you cool), the second
day a visor with our choice of horse prints on it along with a pin of a
wagon-train, third day...rope halter, fourth day...matching lead rope...and
fifth day..t-shirt.  Okay...so after awards we made it back to camp,
settled in to bed...and all of a sudden the wind came up!  If it weren't
glued down, it weren't there the next morning! <vbg>  Then, it started
raining sometime during the night.  About 4 a.m. I pulled Weaver out of his
pen and put him in the trailer.  He was having a hard time eating outside,
being that all of his hay was blowing away....so was very happy to be
inside out of the weather for a little while.  By the time start rolled
around things had cleared up.  Actually...by the time start rolled
around...we weren't sure exactly what we were doing.  We couldn't ride the
original trail...which was supposed to go over the Black Rock Desert...the
playa (sp?)...the place where they set the land-speed record last year (753
mph).  It would have been too slick for the horses to go over, so instead
of trailering 10 miles to the start we rode from camp and then trailered 10
miles after finishing.  Because of the re-routing of the trail, we did not
start until 9:40 a.m.  This also allowed camp to dry out enough so the rigs
could all get out.  We had to ride alongside a road shoulder for awhile,
which turned out to be okay since it was a wide shoulder with good footing.
 Everybody's horses were looking really good.  Weaver's heel was looking
much better and I knew he would be okay if things stayed dry (haha).  It
was a sunny and gorgeous morning.  I rode with Brian, Donna and Debbie for
awhile and most of us were together until the lunch vet check.  I think
Donna went on ahead a little ways.  Not long before we were due to leave
from our hour holds, it starting raining.  Pouring rain....by the time I
left the horse was already soaking wet, and so was I.  I assumed
(incorrectly) that it would be a typical Nevada afternoon thunderstorm that
would last about 15 or 20 minutes.  Soon, we were surrounded by big dark
clouds...the rain continued along with thunder...then shortly
thereafer...lightning!  It was hitting all around.  I separated from the
others when Weaver appeared to be sore on his right front...oh NO!!!  I got
off and walked him...he soon seemed to be back to normal, and trotted sound
for several crews who were along the route and checked him out for me.  So
I got back on and we trotted most of the rest of the way in, and he did
indeed feel terrific!  Dave said that I (and Donna too!) are the only two
people he's ever seen SMILE so much while riding for hours in the rain
surrounded by thunder, lightning, freezing our butts off and going over
slick trail....WHAT FUN!!!!  It wasn't long before there was water flowing
alongside the trail....uh-oh.  I knew this was no typical afternoon
thundershower.  After finishing, we loaded up the horse and left to trailer
the remaining 10 miles to camp....Mud Meadows.  The rig in front of us
(Brian and Val) came to the creek crossing and promptly stopped.
Nuh-uh---we ain't crossin' that!!!  So we backed back up the windy hilly
(slick) road in the pouring rain and that's where we set up camp for the
night.  Lud went over to the other side and let the riders with rigs on the
other side know they would need to come back over.  He made sure they got
over safely (he has a winch in case anybody got stuck).  This was one day
where it didn't pay to finish in the front!!  About half of the riders were
on one side, and half on the other.  The vet made it back over to vet our
horses.  By the time it got dark, it stopped raining and we were able to
get the horses out of the trailer.  I knew if I unloaded them any sooner
they would have fallen flat on their rears as soon as they stepped out into
the mud.  I boiled up some water and made hot chocolate for a few people
and passed it around to all the tired and wet humans.  The dog didn't even
want to go outside!  

We all went to bed wondering what we were going to do the next day.  The
original plan was to ride day 4 from Mud Meadows up thru some canyon which
was supposed to be a really awesome day.  (we'll do it next year,
right??!!)  No such luck...there was no way they could get anybody (vet,
etc.) in there not to mention what kind of shape the trail might be in.  So
we were told to load up the horses and be ready to haul out of there at
7:00 a.m.  So we did!  We hauled them the 50 miles back out of there, and
down some road to start.  Unloaded, vetted the horses....I had decided the
day before that I'd be riding Rocky, not willing to take a chance on
Weaver's foot...all the rain was NOT doing his heel any good...so saddled
up Rocky.  Oh goody.  My fourth day...his first.  Vetted...tacked
up...heard Barbara call out "one minute to start".  Oh man! Where's the
bridle? My helmet?  Do I have water bottles? Electrolytes?  I didn't even
care about where in the @#$$ were we going....that is what made it so fun!!
Who cares...we were getting to ride and that's all the mattered, right? <g>
 So I walked him around real quick, got on and off we went!  It was 10:00
a.m.  

We started out at a nice steady trot....I followed Dave Rabe and Andrea
(??) down the road...within a few minutes we saw our first antelope of the
day.  It stayed with us quite a while, darting back and forth across the
trail in front of us.  Rocky wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but at
least he didn't spook.  It's hard to remember all the details about the
trail each day....I just remember LOTS of wildflowers, beautiful hills and
mountains in the backdrop...and always..the threat of clouds building up.
We passed some beautiful rock formations, a few creeks and again...plenty
of green grass for the horses.  Our crews were able to leep-frog again and
meet us every 5 miles or so on the ride.  Everybody's crews took care of
everybody else...I think all of the riders ended up with three or four
crews taking care of them...it was totally awesome! It was also very nice
that people were not afraid to ask if they needed something, and NOBODY was
shy about sharing or helping out...the way it should be.  Rocky finished a
strong third that day...his first ever top ten :-). 

We finished, and before trailering to our next camp we had to P&R first
before being allowed to leave.  Did that, then loaded up after the horse
had a break (and I washed my hair-boy that felt good!)...then we hauled 28
miles to the next camp...Massacre Lake. (that took an hour)  What a long
day, let me tell you!  By the time we had awards that night, finished
everything up...it was well after midnight!!!  We had a really nice camp
that night....in a beautiful green meadow with a creek running thru it.
You could hear frogs (as you could at Rabbit Hole Springs).  That night Lud
built a campfire and after awards filled us in on the history of the
trail...we missed our history lesson on the third day.  There is sure a lot
of interesting history about this trail which makes it even more
interesting when riding it.  

We actually started at 7:00 a.m. on day 5 - the day was gorgeous..sunny and
warm.  Barbara warned us about a rocky section about 8 miles long before
the vet check....but it sure didn't seem that rocky, and not nearly as long
as 8 miles.  Maybe I was semi-conscious and mis-understood.  I don't
remember any parts of this trail being very rocky...I thought the footing
for most of the ride was exceptional.  This day we saw wild horses...and
more snakes...a couple of antelope.  The ride went by really fast...of
course, we were moving along at quite a good speed.  The last few miles
into Cedarville are on a paved road where we have to go alongside the
shoulder.  Some of the rigs drove alongside to make sure nobody ran us
over...which was good cuz some horses in the pastures alongside the rode
came blasting over and Dave's horse went straight out into the
roadway....whew....amazing how well he stays on ;-0....again, Dave and
Andrea raced into the finish....Rocky came in 3rd again with Donna a close
4th.  I couldn't believe it was over already...that 250 miles had gone by
so quickly, and each day was over so fast that it all seemed like a blur!
I didn't want it to end...it was too much fun.  

Congratulations to all the horse and rider teams who rode all five days,
you guys did a great job.  Everybody's horses looked great...what an
awesome accomplishment!!!!  I think I know all the names of the people who
rode five days on the same horse...somebody let me know if I forgot
anybody:  Brian Reeves, Donna Brow, Scott Wachenheim, Trilby Pederson and
Pat Verhuel.  Dave Rabe and myself rode five days on two different horses.  

Thanks again Barbara and Lud!

Happy Trails,

Karen
in Gardnerville
& Dream Weaver, 1655 miles
& Rocky, 500 miles