Nick's Tevis 2001 - part 2

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Judy Long julong@cisco.com

        Saturday morning brought more of that wonderful oatmeal and really
cool weather.   It was even a little overcast.  We got everything packed
up
and got the horses ready, then sent our drivers off to do their massive
crew
thing.   As Judy drove our rig out the dirt road in the dust, she saw a
site
that gave her a start; a full size truck with a big camper and horse
trailer, laying over on its side!   As in rolled over!  Ouch again!  That
is
certainly not the way to start one's ride.  Luckily there were no horses
in
the trailer, and no one got hurt, but the rig was kind of a mess.
Apparently the driver missed a turn in the dust and went over the side and
crashed.  Judy said it just looked weird to see the thing sitting like
that.
In the mean time, Rebecca and I headed over to the start 30 minutes before
the ride began, with me telling her how crowded the start is.  Surprise,
surprise, the start has been fixed.  I want to give the ride management
some
real credit here, for what they did to the start.  See what I wrote in my
Tevis story in 1999?

 "The Start!  I was riding by myself this year, which helped me on
Warpaint.
We started moving up the road, and as always the pack would stop, then go,
then stop, then go, etc.  This would drive Warpaint nuts!  Once we got
going
we only stopped a few more times, but I hate to think of what some of the
riders were thinking of me and my sideways horse.     Maybe Tevis needs a
three tiered start, sort of like a foot race?  Let the people who are
planning on going faster leave at 5 minutes until 5, let the next group go
at 5, then let the slower people leave at 5 after.  Who knows, it might
help
the crazy congestion and dust of that start.

Someone was listening, because they changed the start since 99.  They used
a
method of putting the faster riders up front and the middle ones in the
middle.  But more importantly, they used a long, straight hunk of the
first
road for the start area.  It was way, way, better than in the past.
There
was plenty of room, there were no crowds and massive piles of horses, and
when the ride started, it was absolutely mild.  It was like the start of
any
other ride, except for the dust.   Okay ride management, hats off on the
start, now how about that water truck for the first three miles?
        We rode off in the choking, blinding dust at a nice trot and
really
never had any delays or crowds at all.  It was actually a nice trot to the
single-track trail, where we headed up through the forest on our way to
the
first road crossing.  Warpaint wanted to hurry, but he was being very
good,
considering the way he is.  Our little group of riders formed up early-
Mike
Maul was riding my buddy Zayante, the legend horse.  (That's legend as in
he's one of the best horses ever, not the drug)  Gary Fend was riding
Cinabon, Er, sorry, Cinabar,  with his daughter, on wife Laura's horse
Katrina.  (Isn't it cool how these wife's do the crewing, and the hubbys
get
to ride?  I better watch it here.)  She must have had a great deal of
trust
in her dad, since Gary has been known to get lost on many occasions, and
has
even been known to frequent many lakes, streams, and water troughs.   I
think he even fell into the ocean once, but that's an unconfirmed rumor.
Maybe an urban legend?  Brenda Binkley and Karen Botiani were cruising
along
together with Corey Soltau and a small band of riders.   It was a long
string of riders up the new single track trail that climbs up the south
side
of the Squaw Valley area.   The pace up this climb was perfect this year-
trot, walk, trot, walk.  Just right.  Warpaint was pulling hard, with
Moose
on his tail.  The dust was not bad at all, thank goodness.  The weather
was
cool already, and we were not even half way up the mountain!  I saw those
guys in tee shirts and thought "you are going to be cold pretty quick!"
I
hopped off Warpaint for a moment when there was a quick stall on the
trail,
since Warpaint is not known for standing still, especially on single
track.
(Here's where Gary reminds everyone of when Warpaint and I took a dive off
a
steep hill at Oakland Hills in the same situation, but still finished!)
Poor Brenda- the horses stopped, so her horse took the opportunity to pee.
What a good boy.    Here's Warpaint moving all over the place, and here's
Brenda thinking she's going to be the one responsible for Warpaint going
over the edge again.  No problem, I just hopped off and waited.  Safety
first.  I wasn't about to take a trip down that mountain again.  Thanks,
Brenda- I appreciate your concern for my "well behaved" trail horse.  Off
we
went with no problems, until I got nailed by two yellow Jackets, right
under
my left knee.  That hurt!  I think I have been targeted by all yellow
jackets in the state of California, but that's another story.   We
continued
up through Squaw Valley with happy horses, and my leg burning.  A water
stop
at High camp let both horses drink well.   Up and over the top past Watson
Monument at 10,000 or so feet, but it was cold up there in the wind.  What
a
view!   Everyone should go up there and see that view.
        Now for the fun part!  The Granite Chief Wilderness!  About 4
miles
of the gnarlyest, nastiest, rockiest, treacherous trail there is.   It
seems
to change each year, based on the work the snow does to the trail.  This
year it seemed rockier in places, but it was sure drier.  The bogs were
nothing, there was no snow at all on the ground, and even the cool little
waterfall you have to ride up was dry.   The nice thing about this year
was
we rode through it with very few horses around us.   Mike and Zayante the
mountain goat led the way through the snotty rocks.  We got through with
no
problems and started down the rocky and dusty road to Lyon Ridge and a
trot
by.   No problems, we let them drink and eat for a few minutes.  We spent
one of our "dawdling credits" here.  You can't dawdle in Tevis, since if
you
dawdle for five minutes every hour, it will cost you two hours over the 24
hours of the ride.   We were ten minutes ahead of schedule, so we let the
horses eat for a while.
        We headed out on the rocky, dusty trail that headed to Cougar
Rock,
watching two fools ride up it together.  They were really lucky they did
not
both crash down the thing.  We rode on, and there in the middle of the
wilderness, was none other than Teresa Cross, directing traffic at
Elephant's Trunk!  She was helping one of the Japanese film crews do their
thing.  I'll probably be on their shows, since they seemed to like the way
Warpaint looked different from all the "solid color" horses.   The next
stop
is the new vet check at Red Star Ridge, a pulse and go stop put here by
the
Vet committee to calm things down a bit before Robinson Flat.   It was a
non-event for me, since I walked Warpaint in and he recovered in a couple
of
minutes.   The ride workers at this ride are the best!  They come running
up
to you, asking what they can do.  Water, hold the horse, sponge the horse,
whatever.  It is plush.   We headed down the 7-mile dirt road to Robinson,
trotting nice and slow the whole way, with an occasional walk up some
grades.  We hit the first real check, Robinson Flat, at 10:45, right on
time. (I kept forgetting the ride started fifteen minutes earlier this
year)
Warpaint vetted through just fine, although the vet seemed to be doing a
pre-purchase exam.  That's okay with me, but it took ten minutes!   We
went
over to the blood donation station, since the Appy was enrolled in the
blood
and weight study.   Then it's off to the best part of the check- our crew
spot.  Long time good buddy Jean Schreiber (two for two at Tevis) always
comes up here a day early and stakes out a great spot in the trees and
treats the riders like royalty. She and Judy took complete charge of
everything- it is so nice to just sit and eat while they do all the work.
Crewing this ride is much more work than it sounds like.  I was
disappointed
to hear that Moose was pulled due to lameness.  He had a popped abscess on
his left rear foot, right at the coronary band.  Darn!  Rebecca was out.
She was disappointed, but took it well, and was actually very happy, since
Moose had come through the toughest part of the ride and was in fine shape
and eating very well.  She had been having some concerns about his eating
at
other rides, but not here.  Way to go, Moose.