Part 3 or Why are we lugging this thing around?

[Victoria A Thompson <toriandsteve@juno.com>]

OK, it's race day.  My alarm went off at 5 AM, so in 15 minutes the race
will actually begin.  I guess it's time to roll out of my comfy air bed
(besides, the cat is clawing my shoulder).  Sarah had coffee made (thank
God).  While we downed some English muffins we sorted out all the things
we needed to take with us.  Computers, check.  Cameras, check.  Floppy
discs, check.  Food, check.  Water, check.  Chairs, check.  Jackets,
hats, sunscreen, bug repellent,  all checked.  We loaded everything into
the Suburban and  headed up the road to Auburn and Robinsons Flat before
7 AM.  So, do you want to know what we forgot?  Of course, you know, it
had to be me that left it behind!  Nothing crucial, but it would have
been nice to have a clip board with 3 extra pens and a bunch of paper we
used to record rider numbers.  Oh well.  Are you people beginning to
notice a trend here ... like it's always me that screws up!  I'm going to
be known as a jinx here pretty quick.  

During the drive from Auburn to Robinsons Flat we were pretty much the
only people on the road.  Everybody kept asking, "Where is everybody? 
Are we that early?"  I just kept saying, "They're already there."  But
nobody believed me.  We finally came to the end of a long line of
vehicles waiting to be allowed up to Robinsons Flat.  Traffic control was
pretty good here.  You had an option.  You could park your car in a big
landing there and ride up in a bus (a pick up truck would haul your gear
up for you), or you could drive your own vehicle behind the bus, unload
at the top and then drive your truck about 1 1/2 miles back down the
road, park it yourself and hike back to Robinsons.  We opted to take the
bus.  

I have to back track here a minute.  When we left LA Thursday morning I
was insistent that my chair come with us.  Donna already had 4 chairs
packed, but I wanted my chair too.  The reason why I wanted my chair is
because it has wheels on it.  All I have to do is pile everything into
the seat and pull it along behind me.  I can pull alot more stuff than I
can carry.  I'm not so stupid after all.

So, there was the little cooler with the water and our lunch.  Sarah had
her daypack filled with fruit and her stuff.  I also had a couple plastic
bags filled with food and pharmaceuticals (aspirin, allergy pills, bug
spray, sun screen, cell phone, etc).  Donna had a camera.  Mary had a bag
or two.  Alice had a camera and carried something - off hand I can't
remember what - chairs I think.  And then there was the suitcase.  Since
Donna was going to go to a friends house to download the pictures I
honestly don't remember if there were any computers carried into
Robinsons Flat or not.  There was this huge suitcase that had all sorts
of computer stuff in it, though.  Mostly floppy discs and paper. It was
an incredibly awkward piece to carry.  I wanted to put it on my chair,
but someone would have had to prevent it from falling off.  Sarah decided
to carry it.  At one point I asked why we had to take it.  After all, we
could put extra discs and paper in pockets, bags, the cooler.  Donna was
quite adamant that it go, so Sarah lugged it around.  We piled onto the
shuttle bus with a whole bunch of other people and lounged our way up to
Robinsons Flat passing others that chose to park their own cars.  The
string of parked cars was about 1 to 1 1/2 miles long, and we stopped a
couple of times to pick up people that were walking.  I remember that
first time I crewed for Suzanne Hayes, and what a horrendous hike that is
when carrying all your crewing gear.  I almost felt sorry for them ...
almost.

Before I forget, while we were waiting for the shuttle bus to come and
pick us up we overheard some race volunteers talking about the lack of
hay at Robinsons Flat.  The hay truck had yet to appear and there were 35
horses already in camp.  They started asking anybody with hay to donate
some so they could get some hay up to the horses, but I don't think
anybody had any.  At about that time the bus showed up and I heard them
say the hay truck was just down the road, but still ...  They should have
had hay there the day before and plenty to go around too.

Anyway, we got off the bus about 9:30.  We didn't really know when the
first rider would be leaving, so Donna and Alice raced off to the out
gate just in case a rider was to leave fairly soon.  Mary, Sarah and I
lugged everything into the out gate and we settled down for a long stay. 


The first thing we did was find a spot for the clock.  Donna had this
marvelous idea of putting a clock up so that people would be able to see
what time the rider left the vet checks.  All we were going to concern
ourselves with was getting the pictures up.  We would call to each rider
as they passed what their number was in order to try and put those up
with the picture (at least with the first 15 - 25 riders).  We weren't
going to bother with names.  We figured if we had the number there people
could look up the names at the official rider list.  But this clock idea
was great.  In the past, people were always asking what time did
so-and-so get to here, or leave there.  This way you could see for
yourself and kind of keep track as to where the rider would be along the
course. 

Well, we set up the clock and played with the camera a little to make
sure you could make out the time and then we busied ourselves with
something else.  At this point Donna still had the camera.  I believe I
had just gotten back from filling up water bottles and was putting those
in the cooler.  Don't remember what everybody was doing.  All I remember
was hearing a loud clapping and some hoots.  We looked down the trail and
here comes the first rider out of the vet check.  Donna went running over
to our picture spot turning on the camera hoping it would initialize
before the rider passed us by.  Just as he was going by the camera was
ready.  Donna presses the button and ...
"Bad Disc" flashes across the screen!  Ooooo ... you should have heard
the naughties coming out of Donna's mouth.  All that time and preparation
and we missed the first rider out.  Talk about depressing.  

Donna handed the camera over to me and I went to my chair and plopped
myself down into it.  We were not going to let another rider pass us by. 
And that is where I stayed until the vet check closed at 1:30 PM.  Numb
butt, numb mind ... I got it in both directions.  Donna pulled the other
camera out and took a seat.  Alice and Mary manned the paperwork.  Sarah,
having never had anything to do with horses before was fascinated by the
goings on and was told to wander around for awhile.  

Horse and rider number 2 were spotted at the out timer so it was my turn
to try and get the picture.   Not knowing anything about this camera,
what I decided to do was hold the camera steadily on the clock so that
when the rider went by the clock I could just push the shutter button all
the way down.  As it turned out I had zoomed in too much and as the rider
passed I realized that his head was cut off.  Well, at least the disc was
good.  I zoomed out a little and went from there.  We had agreed that I
would take all the pictures until more than one rider came by.  If I was
unable to get both riders into one shot the person manning the other
camera would take the picture of the other rider.  We decided that after
the first 25 riders position wasn't all that relevant and that when alot
of riders started coming through we would simply alternate who took the
next picture.  It actually worked out pretty well.  I honestly believe we
only missed 4 or 5 riders because the camera's couldn't recycle fast
enough when 5 or 6 people came through at one time.  We did our best,
though, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

After we had been there about 1 1/2 hours it was time for Donna to take
the discs we had and go back to Forresthill and put them up on the web
site.  Alice now began what I consider to be the toughest job of the
entire weekend.  For the rest of the day I doubt she was out of the
Suburban for more than 30 minutes.  She was the chauffeur.  Alice missed
pretty much the entire race.  I don't know how she managed it.  I have to
admit I was more than a bit grateful when Alice said she'd take that
suitcase full of discs back to the truck since we didn't need it.  I
grabbed a bunch of discs out of it before they left and never thought
about it again.

Sarah now took over the duties of second camera.  She sat next to me and
we clucked away like a couple of old hens.  I told her some pretty hair
raising horse stories (I think she's amazed I'm still alive - or at least
still the owner of a real stupid horse).  A couple of pictures of the
clock all by itself snuck in there.  And until we got the rhythm down we
had some duplicate horse pictures, but after awhile we got the hang of it
and enjoyed the day.  Mary was faithfully taking numbers and when it got
too heavy she would just tell people to smile for the camera.  Mary once
again played gofer for us.  I was too chicken to leave my chair for fear
of missing a rider (naturally that would be the rider YOU would be
looking for).  So she brought me water and took my full discs (Sarah's
too) and generally made pleasant conversation.  She got to sit in the
shade.  I got stuck in the sun.  There was no place I could go to get out
of it and still be near the trail.  Fortunately it wasn't all that hot
and I had plenty of sunscreen.  But brain fry is totally different from
skin fry, but that comes later.

About 1:30 the drag riders gathered at the out gate.  All the other
horses left in camp were either pulled or were over time.  We packed up
our gear and headed for the road.  I was really surprised by the number
of horses I saw lined up in the vet area on IV's.  I don't believe I have
ever seen that many hooked up before.  One rider was bemoaning that she
had done  everything right.  She didn't understand why this had happened
to her horse.  It wasn't hot enough to give electrolytes.  Well, I guess
she didn't do everything right.  Horses were being carted down to
Forresthill  all morning and there were still about 9 horses that were
still hooked up to IV's.  I hope everything turned out for the better for
those guys.  Alice hadn't made it back from her third trip yet, so we had
to wait for a little while.  

After about 15 minutes we piled into the Suburban and headed for
Forresthill.

Oh, did that wedding occur at Robinsons like we had heard?  You tell me. 


Enough for now.  Stay tuned for Part 4 or Blue Shaved Ice Saves the Day.

Tori