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Owyhee High Country



Well it's over. Not too bad, for a first time ride. We had some really great
folks helping out, working hard and long. I think everybody had fun though.
The nice cool temps that had been predicted never materialized and it was
HOT! 95 degrees and sunny. Down to about 60 at night. There was a light
breeze most of the day, so we managed to survive, but a lot of the riders
had problems with the heat.  They all perked back up with water, ice, cooler
evening temps, but there were some distressed looking folks in the late
afternoon.

We had a good turnout (better than I expected, we were all working pretty
hard to keep up).  30 in the 25-mile, 21 in the 50-mile, 14 in the 100-mile,
and 15 trail riders. That's 80 horses ... about 20 more than I expected.

The trail worked pretty well, but the sand and rock combined with the heat
made for a slow ride. I actually think the horses did so well because they
had a very rocky section of trail during the heat of the day, and had to go
slow. This is where the riders suffered the most though. There was a 16 mile
stretch of rocky trail with a couple good climbs that took some of the
riders close to 3 hours. The horses had water in the creek, but the riders
weren't able to replenish their drinking water, and that's a long time with
only a couple water bottles. So - we'll probably change that loop somewhat
next time.  Plus the upper creek canyon through the Junipers was supposed to
be cooler, but the riders said it was one of the hottest sections. oh well.
Better to stay out in the open and catch the breeze I suppose. The sandy
sections got a little deep too, so the 100 milers slowed way down later in
the day. There's tons of trail around here - so now that I have a better
idea of what does (and doesn't) work well, I can come up with some different
loops next year. More 2-track good footing, a little less sand and rock.

The October ride won't have the upper canyon/rocky section and should be
quite a bit faster. And it should be considerably cooler!

Thanks thanks thanks to all the folks that helped!! The vets were wonderful,
volunteers cheerful, the riders were all great. Had 2 minor problems
following the trail, (and one 100 miler got lost in the dark for a while in
the Badlands), but otherwise things went well.

Thanks to all of the riders too - the vets were all impressed by the quality
of the horses, and the cheerfullness of the riders. The folks from Canada
(BC) had a hard time with the heat (the riders, not the horses!), but they
all finished (100 milers) and were smiling the whole time. And their horses
did incredibly well in the heat. There were a lot of smart riders here. All
14 of the 100 milers completed... pretty impressive.

Thanks again to everybody!

Steph and John



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