Old Warriors Water Hunt

["navion" <navion@lightspeed.net>]

> I want to thank those brave riders that we did not scare off with our
entry form for coming out to the Old >Warriors Water Hunt 50 this weekend.

    The entry form stated " the historic tribe of demented helpers will be
around to watch you suffer"...  "The Water Hunt never promises to take good
care of you"...  "don't bring people who complain"....   "Not many people
come to the Water Hunt because it's scary. If you are a real endurance
rider, you're gonna love it. If you're not, you won't come anyway. You'll
miss a great party, but you'll be safe."  "We will limit number of entries
if we get too many. (fat chance) "

    With an entry like that how could we not go!!!    My daughter Alicia and
I took the bait and showed up for the toughest 50 we've seen. But it was the
time and the training ride for Tevis we wanted.  At the finish, 11.5 hours
after we started and 10,300 feet of climbing and descent later, we knew it
was worth it.  We got to practice sponging out of the 50 stream crossings
like the SE riders do.  We got to see narrow canyons and steep dropoffs and
lots of rocks. We saw pine trees and lupines and green grass, (It is so dry
at Sunland time).  We didn't see any mountain lions but we did camp by billy
goats and Emu's and peacocks.
    Only 27 riders showed up by Friday night, 20 riders finished. The
winning time was just 1 minute under 7 hours I think.  I wisely went to bed
but my daughter stayed up for the live band and party, and now she can tell
some story's like the entry form warned "Things can get muy loco!"

   Thanks old warriors for the great ride.

Jim Mitchell