Tevis 2001 (long)

["Marci Cunningham" <mcunningham@calcot.com>]

Eight years ago in 1993 I completed my first and last Tevis.  At that
time I made the statement that I probably would only return if I won
an entry.  Well that's what happened to me at this year's convention.
Fortunately we have friends with horse property in Penryn, which is
near Auburn so we trailered there from Bakersfield CA on Thursday and on
Friday trailered to Robie Park.

I hadn't ridden the new sections of trail between Robie and Squaw
before and though I like the trail I felt I lost time in this section.  I
came into Robinson Flat an hour and a half later that my
time in 1993 and the only difference in pace was on the new section
of trail.  The most annoying part of the ride was when the Japanese film
crew's helicopter was hovering above us during the Granite Chief Wilderness
portion of the trail.  It was very loud and distracting, taking away from
the peace and quiet of this tough part of the trail.  Somewhere between
Cougar Rock and Elephants Trunk Torch pulled a rear shoe.  As soon as I
noticed it I put on an easy boot but her hoof wall was torn up from losing
the shoe.  We vetted
through great at Robinson Flat but ended up pulling at Dusty Corners with
Torch being off on the easy booted foot.  In hind sight I
probably should have had a shoe put on at Robinson with the easy boot over
the new shoe or better yet, instead of padding her rear feet I probably
should have started with easy boots over shoes on the rear.  Her front feet
were padded also as I tend to pad her all the way around on rocky 100's
since she has thin soles.

My husband, bless his heart, got stuck on the road leaving Robie when the
tow truck showed up in front of him to retrieve the truck, camper and horse
trailer that crashed while leaving early in the morning.  Apparently the
dust was so thick the driver missed a turn and lost control while trying to
correct his rig.  No one was hurt but the rig was beat up and the road was
tied up for over 2 hours.  Chuck took out his folding chair and chatted with
the Forest Service employee until the road was cleared so he didn't get to
Forrest Hill until 2 pm.  I had someone else crewing for me at Robinson so
he wasn't in a hurry to leave Robie.  The trailer ride out of Dusty Corners
was harder on my horse than the 46 miles we rode.  It had been 4 years since
she had ridden in a 2 horse straight load and did a lot of scrambling on the
right hand turns.  She exited the trailer minus her other rear shoe along
with a bump and scrape on her left hip.  She seemed fine after spending the
night in our friend's pasture.

Will I ever return to Tevis?  Who knows?  One thing I have learned is
to never say never, however having already gotten my Tevis buckle
makes it easier to look for other new rides to do.  For the price of
Tevis you can ride a week long multi-day.  I do admit Tevis has an
aura about it, but it is hard on your rig, crew, horse and rider, not
to mention your bank account.  So I suppose if I win another entry
you might see me there.  BTW, when I was looking at my 1993 results I notice
that Henry Logan rode Sylvia's Harca, and finished a little ahead of me.
That year 90 riders out of less than 200 starters finished, a much better
completion percentage than this year.  Anybody know how many riders were
pulled for OT this year?

Marci Cunningham
AERC#1455