Experiences on the Timberon Ride

["Bill and Jane Cloud" <bjcloud@cal-micro.com>]

Timberon was a wonderful adventure and both my horse, Ezer's Cloud (9 yrs),
and myself completed all five days.  We rode slow, trotting as much as
possible the first 40 miles or so and walking mostly the last 15 miles into
camp each day.  We walked all the hard, rocky roads, and walked a great
majority of the ups.  Day 3 which was mostly on hard rocky roads was a day
we walked a great majority of the time.   I averaged about 9+ hours per day
and was happy to see how well Ezer looked after the five days.  This was
our third multi-day experience and I felt I rode this ride well by the
looks of my horse.  Ezer has thumped twice in prior rides over the years,
so his metabolic system is constantly a concern for me.  I electrolyted him
on an average of three times per day, and the slower pace seemed to agree
well with him.  Days 2, 4, and 5 were very nice trails mostly thru rolling
meadowlands with some challenging ups & downs that were short in duration. 
Day 1 was our toughest.  John, on the Icelandic Pony, had an instrument
that indicated how much we climbed.  I was riding with him before the vet
check and by 30 miles we had already climbed over 4,000 feet.  That did not
include our downhills which was very equivelant to the ups.  I thought it
was excellent planning on Randy's part to make the 1st day the toughest
rather than, say, the last day when we have tired horses to deal with.  

 I rode with some wonderful people during the five days.  The last day we
had a junior ride with us.  She had come with her dad on Tuesday and rode
her first 50 on Wednesday (The hard rocky road day) than proceeded to ride
Thursday and Friday.  Elise and Smokey were a tough endurance team.  Good
job Elise (age 12) and to her dad, Gene.  Next year we are going to be a
team: Elise & Gene Reddick, Linda Rogers, and myself.  Also a quick note,
riding in the back of the pack, I also rode with two people who were on 5
year olds and completed all five days: Scott from Phoenix and Kitty who
rode her young stallion.  One more point that I would like to make, there
were so many people from different states.  Alot from the South.  Coming
from California, it was fun to listen to their accents and drawls.  Its
pretty cool to see the variety of riders and horses and where we all came
from.    

Driving experiences to Timberon:  The ideal route in my estimation from
Turlock, CA. located in the Central Valley east of the Bay Area, to
Timberon is this  (and please note this is NOT how we drove it but rather
how we wished we had driven it):
  Day 1 drive to Needles, CA (stay at the rodeo grounds)
  Day 2 Needles, Ca to Gallup, New Mexico.  (Make sure you visit and eat at
the El Rancho in Gallup- Its a beautiful hotel where all the Hollywood
actors stayed when filming all the westerns back in the 30's-60's.  Lots of
need pictures to look at. Its well advertised on I40 - you can't miss it.) 
Fairgrounds? Not sure.
  Day 3 Gallup to Timberon.  Expect to drive the last 14 miles into
Timberon very slowly-it took us an hour to drive the 14 miles.   

I strongly recommend the I40 route rather than the I10 route due to the
extreme heat.  We drove to Timberon detouring at Kingman, AR to Highway 93
to  Phoenix to I10 towards Tuscon and Las Cruces.  Each day was about 106
degrees.  We had to stop every 150 miles to hose the horses off in the
trailer and water them.  Pretty miserable.  Luckily we didn't have any car
trouble!!!  On our return route, we went north to Albuquerque thru Gallup,
Flagstaff, Kingman, etc.  It was much cooler (90's) and more comfortable
driving.  

All in all,  It was great.  Thanks so much Randy for all your hard work. 
You sold me on riding in the Southwest.  I am planning on doing the
Timberon again next year and maybe even the Renegade Ride- if I can talk my
husband into driving point to point for me.   Many many thanks.   Jane
Cloud