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I went along to crew for my friend who was riding in the 50.
This is kind of how I saw it - I missed out lots of aspects
of the ride because of where I was and what I was doing, so
forgive the holes.
* * *
The weather had been reasonable throughout the previous week,
although a little cool, and we'd ridden the first 25 miles the
previous Sunday and the trail was dry, good footing, no problems.
However...
On Friday, around 4pm, I heard someone running on the roof of my office
building (five miles from ridecamp). Soon realised it wasn't someone
on the roof - it was "weather" I could hear. Basically, it was tipping
it down. Up on the top of the foothills, around Cool (mile 35+), trees
ere blowing down, large hail/snow was coming down, etc.
Luckily, the weather missed the ridecamp, so it didn't turn boggy.
It was sunny and cool. At the ride meeting the previous night,
they reported a tree down half way along the trail which they
were going to try and remove.
I was told that the turn-out was lower than normal, poss. because
the ride had been postponed from April?
The 25s were meant to camp five miles along the river, to make their
ride a 25, but apparently BLM wouldn't let them camp there, so they ended
up doing a 30 instead (which apparently is what they normally do anyway).
No rain in the night, but chilly in the morning (well, chilly by
our standards - probably quite balmy compared to the Nevada rides
coming up in the next few weeks)(plus I forgot my sleeping bag and
ended up sleeping in the pickup cab under a horse blanket, so it
probably felt colder than it was <g>).
Ride started uneventfully. Vicky Rudy and another rider stayed at
the front of the 70s all day. Vicky eventually came in 2nd, with
the other rider (don't know who she was) coming down to criteria
faster at the last vet check (after a very long hill)- Maidu - which
is a mile from the finish in Auburn. Vicky's horse was sort of
excitable, so when the other rider left the vet check, his pulse
went up again.
I liked Vicky a lot - a good advert for how endurance riders should
be. She was chuckling about the horse getting excited and going up
again, and seemed very laid back and mellow about the whole thing.
The other rider was much more competition-oriented and seemed almost miffed
that the vet who was supposed to be doing P&Rs and checking was busy with a
horse that was colicking badly, wasn't there to immediately attend to her.
And she seemed miffed that the colicking horse was sort of in her way
where she was trying to trot out (the vet check was about 10 ft square, so
not much room to manouever).
It must be very difficult to stay competitive, but also keep sight of
the rest of the world going on around you - very easy to get sucked
into this sort of attitude.
Up on the top at the penultimate vet check in Cool, it was very chilly
when the sun went in and the wind blew. First rider in for the 50s
was Marie Cook - who is an 18 yr old who'd done quite well at Tevis.
They seemed to question her carefully about which route she'd taken,
but seemed satisfied that she'd taken the right trail.
The next rider in was a lady on a pale chestnut mustang. Great horse.
Very relaxed (I'd pointed him out at the start as being a "good horse
to ride" - he was standing at the start, napping.
The lady was abit flustered, but politely said that she didn't think
that the people ahead of her had taken the right trail. She said there
were two people ahead of her, and they'd taken a wrong turning (she
knew this, because the trail she was on was brand new, muddy, but very
obviously virgin). She said the guy on the grey ahead of her had turned
around and gone back (and indeed, he arrived at the vet check ten minutes
behind her), but that the other person hadn't.
Now, at the time, I assumed this was Marie Cook, but later at the Maidu
vet check, they were talking about a guy on a chestnut who'd turned up
*totally* too early - and I'm fairly sure he'd gone out of the previous
check at the same time as the guy on the grey. Anyway, it turned out he'd
missed a huge chunk of trail, and was totally off course. It's possible
that the "two" people ahead of the lady on the mustang were the "chestnut
guy" and the "grey guy" - but that doesn't explain about the "virgin trail",
so maybe that isn't the case.
Anyway. The long and short of it is that, by the time we left around
5pm, no conclusions had been made about who'd done which bits of trail,
so I'd be intrigued to hear how it turned out and who was credited with
the win for the 50s.
There were several complaints about the second part of the trail (up around
Cool) - one person said it was like someone who knew the trail really
well had marked it, and that there was no indication of where to go when
you got to a clearing. But then someone also told me that the same person
had ridden up to them at one point, complaining about lack of ribbons and
saying "look there are none here, for example" only to have one in front of
his nose pointed out. I wonder if people who are racing to win tend to overlook
ribbons, or are on sensory overload and "can't see the wood for the trees"
almost.
Anyway, once again, I don't know how badly/well the trail was marked. I do
know that there was still snow up there from the previous afternoon, and
that it's entirely possible that a lot of the trail markers had been
swept away/blown away.
Generally, it was a good day for riding. Not too hot, not too cold. But
despite this, there was still a horse in camp at the end, basically flat
on its side from being over-ridden (this is according to the vet tech).
The horse looked dead - just lying there, next to its trailer. Not good.
<scowl>
As well as the usual arab contigent, there were several mules; the mustang
I mentioned; a large chunky paint that was leaping and rearing at the
start with excitement - but still finished the 50; and a couple of big Appies
that I saw.
-- ************************************************************** Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@calweb.com Displaced English person in Sacramento, CAhttp://www.calweb.com/~elsie http://www.calweb.com/~trouble **************************************************************
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