High Country ride (story- long)

[vanhove@unavco.ucar.edu (Teresa Van Hove)]

Grey Moun and I went up to the High Country ride this year.  It is a beautiful
area with a very scenic drive up there (too bad I can't really enjoy scenic
drives when I'm towing the trailer!)  Sometimes I actually enjoy the
process of packing for a ride but this was one of those times when I just
threw everything in on Friday morning - forgetting a few things of course. :(
Actually I think I only missed my chairs and an extra bucket and those were 
not big problems.  But I found out Friday night that the ride was a 50 mile
loop with an away vet check (I am not used to those.)  So packed up a crew bag
and some mash for Grey and sent up in one of the ride vehicles - I was running
my stuff up to the vehicle right after the ride started.  I caught up to 
Randy Winter, he was riding slow because it was his horses 1st 50 this year,
she's had some problems.  I wanted to take it easy with Grey since he was off
at the end of his last ride so we decided to ride together.  Randy's wife Cheryl
and Nancy Loving were riding together, setting a more medium pace.  

Randy is good riding company, it is always nice when the person you ride with
has the same style of taking a little extra time if the horse doesn't drink
right away and encouraging the horses to grab a little grass.  It was kind of
hard riding his pace though because he was doing a slower trot and I usually
take it easy with Grey by letting him do his normal trot but just walking more.
Well the slower trot was probably good for keeping Grey sound - did I mention
this is the High Country ride.  Its a beautiful area but these are the Rocky
mountains!  

Since I was running late at the start and the vet check was at a lodge I
decided not to take a few extra minutes to pack myself extra "kool lytes" 
or food.  I'll just run in and buy something,  Rich Childs had encouraged 
us to give the lodge some business anyway.  Ha!  I should have known that
even a full hour hold would rush by too fast.  I never even made it inside
the lodge.  I had powdered electolytes but no syringe for Grey - luckily I
was able to borrow a syringe from someone.  Everyone at the ride was Sooo
nice.  Rich is a great ride manager, he had volunteers pointing us in the
right direction at almost every turn.  Unfortunately the ribbons were a 
bit scarce on the few turns w/o a person - Heard later that there was some
trail sabatoge and some (hate to even think of it) suspicion that it was one 
of the riders.  Apparently people right in front saw ribbons in some places 
where there were definitely no ribbons later.  Not a big problem for Randy
and I going slow and able to follow the majority hoof prints but still what
lousy sportsmanship!  Rich had put up signs for Sunday's ride and when he
checked them in the morning he had to replace them - they had been torn 
off the posts - one might have been the cows- but all of them - had to be 
sabatoge.  

Randy and I took it easy on the last half of the ride.  We were not climbing
up as much so we actually set a little faster pace then on the 1st half but
we let the horses stop and graze a couple times.  I got so light headed and
tired (I will never again skip packing food and "lytes" for me as well as
the horse.)  At least I had water and I did discover 1/2 a tube of cliff
shots left over from my last trail ride.  We got back to camp at a quarter
to 5.  They must have flipped a coin- Randy got the tail ender award.  Grey
was a bit tired - dragged his toes on the trot out and had been stumbling
some during the ride and I felt exhausted so I decided that we would not 
attempt to do Sundays ride.   

Sunday when I finally got myself moving enough to start packing up I was
missing my cantle bag -Aaagh with 2 easy boots, my rain pants, poncho, and
the cost of the bag itself I was not happy.  Asked management if anyone had
turned it in (no) debated and debated whether to search for it.  I was worried
that I was a little low on fuel - I had decided not to top up on the way to 
the ride because I was running later than I wanted.  Finally, got easy driving
directions to the lodge and to follow the road portion of the trail we had
taken from the lodge and un-hooked the trailer and drove up there.  Very
scenic drive -somewhat easier to appreciate w/o trailer.  The folks at the
lodge were incredibly nice.  Someone had found my cantle bag and turned it
in, when I tried to buy some iced tea they said "just take some" and they
even sold me some diesel fuel! They didn't have regular pumps just a farm tank,
but I was very relieved to get some safety margin on fuel. Only wanted to 
charge me $10 for over 10 gallons - I insisted they take $20. Got back to camp, 
led Grey to the water tanks one last time. Hitched up and got going about 3.  

I had wanted to get going by 2 so I wouldn't be driving down I-70 in the dark
but not too bad.  Topped off the tank at Paonia and headed east.  When
I hit vail pass I didn't realize I was really climbing and experienced a
couple minutes of panic over the pickups loss of power when I had to shift
all the way down to 3rd until I passed a few vehicles and realized where
I was.  I was not able to find a good rest stop so Grey just had to get
out of the trailer in a parking lot in Frisco to stretch a wee bit - he
was annoyed that there was just a tiny bit of grass along the edge to eat
and he wouldn't drink any water so I stuffed some hay in the bucket and
tied it in the trailer for him and gave him a couple carrots.  Made it
home a little before 10 - Grey couldnt wait to roll and start munching
hay with his buddies. 

Teresa and Grey Moun (750 miles) Mt. Region