2014 Almosta Silver City - Merri Melde
Saturday July 19 2014
It was going to be the 2014 Silver City endurance ride, a ride from the Owyhee desert up to and through the old historic silver and gold mining town of Silver City in the Owyhee mountains, Idaho, something Northwest ride managers Steph and Regina had been dreaming about putting on for years. "We did find some spectacular trails and tried to put together a course that would work," Steph Teeter said, "but that country is just too darn mountainous for an endurance ride. A really fit tough horse/rider combo could do it but it just wouldn't be reasonable or enjoyable for the rest. (Sadly many of us are still game but not quite as tough or ambitious as we used to be)."
So, it became the 2014 Almosta Silver City endurance ride: "So since we have the date we're just going to move down from the mountains a few miles east and have base camp at Teeter Ranch and do some fun easy loops around the desert! (You can see the mountains from here and think about where you might have been while you're riding.)"
(My suggestion was to move the ride even further away, like up in the cooler mountains near Sun Valley, and call it the 2014 Not Even Close-ta Silver City endurance ride.)
"It was fun! low key, everybody took really good care of their horses, nice group of riders," Steph Teeter said.
It was almosta worth putting on.
So we put on almosta little endurance ride in the hot July desert, with the Teeter oasis as a cooler base camp. 38 mostly local almosta tough endurance riders showed up to ride, the 50's starting before the crack of dawn, 6 AM, the 25's sleeping in just slightly, starting at 7 AM, and the 6 trail riders starting whenever, and riding however far they wanted. (Gotta love endurance rides, the options you have, and the company you keep!)
15 riders started the 50 miler, looping out to the highway and the Snake River Birds of Prey Conservation Area badlands for the first 25-mile loop. There was enough smoke in the air from fires to tint the sun a red ball as we rode into the sunrise, but a nice cloud cover never let it get too hot early in the morning. Looping back toward home, you really could almosta see Silver City since the smoke in the air in that direction was minimal on this lucky day, and the Owyhee mountains, where we almosta had the endurance ride, were clear.
Loops two and three were the same: a 12 1/2 mile loop along the rim trail above Hart Creek. If you rode it fast you probably stayed cool; if you rode slower, it got warm as you rode away from camp with the slight breeze, then was almost pleasantly not-hot as you rode home head on into the slight summer breeze.
14 of 15 riders completed the 50, with Steph Teeter and Jose Viola
tying for first with Carol Brand and Ala August Haziz, with August
getting Best Condition. On a possibly historic note, 4 Belesemo
Arabians horses
finished in a row: Flora Gertsch and Belesema Epic Diva were 9th,
Bethany Sargeant and Belesema Finalia were 10th, Belesemo Dude (and
me!) were tied for 11th with Lynn White and Belesemo Moon.
14 of 17 riders completed the LD, with Virginia Ware and CT Calico Kid winning first and Best Condition. Virginia and the Kid are back after one long hiatus from endurance riding. This was their 4th LD this year, and second win, after 9 years off the trails. Welcome back! Her partner Bob did his first trail ride ever; the plan is to get him addicted to endurance riding too.