Hashknife Ride

["Dorothy Foster" <hitech@sunset.net>]

Just got back from Cooley Ranch - 22,000 acres of incredibly beautiful
country. The ride was very well-managed with a wonderful team of vets. If
you have a horse that doesn't like to cross water, this would have been a
great ride for you. After 100 or so water crossings, he wouldn't ever worry
about it again. The streams were all full and there were lots of them.
Someone had told me that the Lake Sonoma ride was a fairly easy ride, and
since this one is just "down the road apiece," I figured it would be
too...WRONG! Even though much of the trail was on ranch roads which
meandered around and through streams, there were some killer hills that
appeared to have been bulldozed straight up and down the biggest peaks on
the ranch. It made for some spectacular vistas, but they were really tough
climbs. The 50 milers had to repeat the 25 mile loop which made it nice to
plan strategy, but it also meant that we all knew we had to finish with a 1
1/2 mile killer climb. Lari Shea finished first and won BC in something
over 6 hours. I'm sorry I didn't write down the other top ten people. I
know Heather Bergantz was among them and Steve Shaw. Oh yeah, Carolyn Day
was second. 62 out of the 79 starters finished and as far as I know no
horse had to be treated. In fact I thought the horses on the whole looked
really good after the ride. The banquet was very tasty, and all in all it
was a very nice ride, even though it took Roshani and me longer than any
other 50 we've done - over 9 and 1/2 hours to complete!

For all of you that sent me advice about which way to go, I have some
really interesting info. Here are the facts:

Going to ride:			Coming back:
Oroville 162, 5, 20, 101		101, 116, 12, 80, 113
212 miles 4:20			211.9  4:15			

Coming back I stopped for gas or it may have been a little more difference,
but I was amazed at how close the two routes turned out to be. Taking 80
back was definitely less stressful for both me and the horse, but 20 was a
very pretty drive.

Dorothy & Roshani 1575 miles together 
Hi Tech Tack
Oroville, CA