Re: Lake Oroville Vista <story>

["Dyane Smith" <sunibey@sisqtel.net>]

Wonderful story and pictures.  No trouble over the concrete structure?
Dyane
N. Ca

----- Original Message -----
From: DreamWeaver <karen@chaton.gardnerville.nv.us>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Cc: <enduranceriders@onelist.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 1999 7:57 PM
Subject: RC: Lake Oroville Vista <story>


> This ride was definitely an endurance ride, in every sense.  This rider
was
> in for a big surprise anyhow. ;^)  I went there expecting a nice easy ride
> with all the vet checks back in camp.  I was planning on using this ride
> solely as a conditioning ride for Rocky, in preparation for Silver State
at
> Thanksgiving.  His last ride was Outlaw Trail, and I knew he'd be a
handful
> at this ride (aren't they always after a multiday?).
>
> Basecamp was next to Lake Oroville and the reservoirs around it.  We had a
> nice view.  Camp was flat and gravelly with plenty of room, though we did
> get packed in fairly tight.  They had quite a turnout for a first time
> ride. (over 100)  It took us 5 hours to get there between stopping for
gas,
> air pressure in the tires and the horse, and food for us :).  Checked in,
> then vetted and looked over the map.  Hmmm....looks like this is one 50
> mile loop out of camp.  Well, looks like Dave gets to disconnect and crew
> afterall (he was looking forward to hiking with the dogs and wanted his
> title to be solely 'driver' on this ride - no such luck) haha.
>
> Quickly became nervous at the ride meeting when it was announced that our
> horses pulses must be 60 at the trot by <bg>, (quick, run fast and you can
> get his pulse as I trot by.....hurry....) then the vet announced we must
> pull all tack at the other vet checks, including bridles.  I quickly
> envisioned 100 horses running around loose at an away check without any
> tack or bridles on. <vbg>  I think they were just nervous, being a first
> time ride with new vets and all.  They had changed our start time to 6
> a.m., but then found out they couldn't because 6:30 had been published in
> EN, so in spite of the time change and having riders finish in the dark,
> they changed it back to 6:30 a.m.  Darn!  (they did put glo-bars up for
the
> late finishers)
>
> I had been concerned about the length of Rocky's coat.  Most of it is an
> inch long or more - he's really furry.  I clipped his neck to help him
cool
> out faster.  I knew it was going to be humid when I woke up and the
outside
> of his blanket was soaking wet (underneath was dry).  It really felt humid
> too, for what I'm used to.  I hate humidity.  Bleah!  I made sure and
> electrolyted him well throughout the ride.
>
> So we started at 6:30, and the 25's started at 7:00.  We began down a
flat,
> gravel road.  We were doing pretty good for a ways. Rocky was strong and
> wanting to go, but not pulling or fighting.  Then, another rider galloped
> past us at high speed and suddenly......a Demon possessed my horse....and
> we were suddenly off in hot pursuit.  Grrrrrrr!!! I tried slowing him
down,
> which caused him to argue and darn near ran us thru a tree branch, which
we
> narrowly missed because he almost fell on his face.  Got him back under
> control and lucky we turned off onto a single track trail shortly and
began
> going up and down hills.  Being that the trail was narrow with switchbacks
> and somewhat technical each horse goes at a different rate so we weren't
> really getting to go - getting stuck constantly which wasn't going over
> well with my Demon. ;^)  We zipped along over the hills and made our way
> down towards the dam, where we thought the vet check was down on the
> pavement, but it was just the ride photographer.  (he took really great
> photos, btw)  I was really glad to have easyboots on Rocky, and had lent
> another one (or two) :) to another rider and stopped while she put it on
> (her horse lost a shoe).   We finally made it to the trot by and the
> water.  Continued on, we had lots of pavement to go up and highways to
> cross. They had lots of volunteers to help with the road crossings which
> was nice.  We passed a couple more water stops and eventually wound our
way
> into the first vet check at 20 miles. This was a half an hour hold.  The
> vet check was the same for the half hour hold and then later for the hour
> hold, at 35 miles. It was a horse camp so very nice - had flush toilets,
> hitchin' posts and pic-nic tables....plus water!  I went right in with
> Rocky at 64.  :(  Darn, I knew his recoveries would be affected by his
long
> coat, not to mention the difficulty of the trail combined with the
> humidity.  I let him drink and sponged his neck and he went right down to
> 60. (criteria was 60)  Went right over to the vet and got that over with
> then headed over to our truck where Dave had our stuff all set up.  What a
> good crew person :).  He filled up my water bottles for me while I e-lyted
> Rocky and mixed up a mash and some carrots for him.  He was mostly
> interested in hay at this point.
>
> Our half hour went by fast, and I headed back out for another 15 mile
loop.
> This one was a series of circles, in figure eights.  We did fairly well on
> them I think.  I'm sure we went thru all the spotter checkpoints and gave
> our numbers everywhere we should have. I think some riders (ahemmmmm)
> didn't follow the trail correctly, but that's for RM to figure out.
>
> We were doing some good climbs.  Rocky's specialty :).  Sometimes a horse
> in front of us would quit going up, and we'd just motor on by.  I was
> keeping him slowed down.  The Demon in him wanted to go full out on all
the
> downhill, so I got off and walked him down some of the longer steeper
> sections, which caused me to get really dirty.  When you are wet
everything
> sticks to you.  This time I walked him into the vet check at 35 miles and
> he P&R'd right away at 60.  Then we went to vet.  I told the vet I had
been
> slowing down some with him because he was so hot.  (I took approximately 2
> 1/2 hours to do the first 20 miles, and 2 1/2 hours to do the next 15)
She
> said it really showed and that the horse looked great.  He definitely was
> warm to the touch, so I kept sponging him and in no time he was cool and
> felt normal.  Still though, none of the horses dried out all day.  At
least
> it was warm enough that they didn't get chilled from being wet with super
> heavy coats.
>
> I was keeping a close eye on Rocky, paying extra attention because it
> seemed that there were a lot of horses having problems.  Rocky was peeing,
> eating and drinking well. My HRM is on the blitz and keeps giving me
double
> and half readings so it was basically worthless.  Whenever it did give a
> reading, it would stay stuck on that reading for the next half hour so I
> stopped paying attention to it.  We left right on time and left for our
> last 15 miles back to the basecamp.  It was 1 p.m.  So 6 1/2 hours down
and
> 15 miles to go!  We had one more vet check to go thru, with no hold, 4
> miles from the finish.
>
> Luckily I left the check at the same time another rider did and we had
each
> other to help figure out the trail.   Soon, two other riders came towards
> us from the other direction.  They told us we were going the wrong
> way.  Nuh uh.  (can't be, I was pretty sure.....I had been looking at the
> map and knew better)  We asked them what they had just done, and they said
> "we just did the loop and we're on our way back".  Huh?  I looked at the
> map, and there was no such loop.  We continued on and they roamed all
> around, totally lost and couldn't find the trail.  (that's cuz they were
> just on it, going the wrong way--I have No Idea how they did that!)  We
> soon came upon some spotters and confirmed that we were indeed on the
right
> trail, and going on it in the right direction.  Whenever we told the
> spotters about a problem, they went and fixed it right away, so hopefully
> that helped the riders behind us.
>
> The 2 lost riders eventually caught back up to us, just about the time we
> popped out onto a highway (162 I think).  Well, shoot here we all were out
> on the highway and no trail markers, no arrows and no idea which way to
> go.  I looked at the map but couldn't really tell where we were to know
> which direction to go in.  We looked up the road and saw some guy sitting
> by a truck way up a ways, so we went that way.  Luckily, we spotted a
> ribbon and found the trail.  I think they were supposed to have had a
> spotter there, but they were changing shifts when we went thru.  By this
> time, the Demon has been exorcised and I had my Rocky back.
Unfortunately,
> he was putting his energy into spooking tactics.  Lucky for me we were on
> narrow single track trail with drop offs, so he could only spook in place
> <g>, and I just had to laugh at him.  If he was really stupid, I'd smack
my
> rommel on his water scoop on the saddle (makes a loud, scary sound!) and
> that'd straighten him up, at least for the moment.
>
> We managed to do very well the rest of the way, into the vet check.  I had
> to sponge Rocky down really well and finally got him to drop into the
> 50's.  His recoveries were definitely not as good as they normally are.
He
> vetted thru fine, still with good attitude and bright and alert.  There
was
> no hold but I let him eat a few bites of hay and then we continued on, I
> walked him on foot and carried hay for him to eat when we left.  We now
had
> 2 miles to go to the finish line, then 2 more miles back to camp.  Rocky
> wanted to walk, and I let him.  A faster group went by us, and the girl
who
> had been following us left to go on with them.  Her horse wouldn't go on
> it's own (too tired), but she just didn't know any better.  I'm lucky with
> Rocky he has figured out that if he needs to slow down, then he's gonna
> slow down and he won't try and keep up with other horses.  We came across
> the finish line just behind a group of 4 or 5 others and then all walked

> into camp.  I'd really wiped myself out getting off and doing hillwork and
> not being used to the humidity <wimp> it really affected me.  Actually, I
> just hadn't drank enough for being out there for 9 1/2 hours...and the
> smoke from the fires was giving me an awful headache.  I was sooooo glad
to
> be finished!  I pulled Rocky's tack right away and went over to vet
> him.   He vetted thru just fine and still had a great attitude :).  We let
> him have a couple of hours to rest before heading back home.  He was
> drinking really well so I didn't think it was necessary to spend the
night,
> though I probably would have with a less experienced horse.  Or if he had
> looked like some of the others -- saw a lot of overly tired looking
> horses.  Or well, maybe they were just feigning being tired and I have no
> clue.  So if I see somebody that I think is going beyond their horses
> limits, should I tell them?  I'm not always sure, afraid that the person
> might think I'm an arrogant SOB and just get pissed off.  On the other
> hand, how do you tell them that nicely?
>
> All in all, we had a great time.  The food was excellent and all the help
> they had was really great.  They overall did a super job for their first
> time, and I'm sure next year will be even better.  Awards were t-shirts
and
> I even got one in my size!!!! wahooooo :)))))   I still don't know
placings
> or anything, they couldn't tell us at the finish line or later that night
> so I guess I can say "I completed" and that's all that counts :).
>
> Pictures can be found at:
>
> http://members.xoom.com/ridephotos/oroville/oroville.html and
> http://members.xoom.com/ridephotos/oroville/oroville2.html
>
> Happy Trails,
>
> Karen
> in NV
> & Rocky, 2,060 miles
> & Weaver, 3,155 miles
> http://members.xoom.com/ridephotos/
>
>
>
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Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
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