Re: Heritage Endurance Ride

["Sandy Bolinger" <bolinger@bigsky.net>]

I agree with this most of the time...HOWEVER ;o)...let me tell you a story!
When I was putting on the Blackfoot Valley ride here in Montana, I had a
doosey of a head-rangerette to work with. In order to use the FS trail on
the ride, we had to clear it..something normally done annually by FS crews.
The trail was 13 miles long...half of it was through an old burn where each
year a major part of the dead trees would fall over..the other half was
through a wet forest which had never been logged...lots of down-fall..most
3-4 foot diameter. Whitney and I would head off  on foot with chain saw and
saw-gas...take us at least 10 hours every year just to get that part
cleared.  One week before the ride rangerette called me and told me we would
have to figure out a way to reroute the ride around some helicopter
logging...there was NO other way around!!! Unless you wanted to drop 200
feet into the raging river or climb straight up a 500 ft cliff....they
weren't even flying on Saturday but she thought the horses might run into
the equipment, or something? Then 2 days before the ride she called and said
we would not be able to use the trail AT ALL because a couple of grizzlies
had been spotted.  Needless to say, I did some major pleading, butt-kissing,
etc to get her to let me go ahead with the ride.  THEN..a week or so after
the ride, she called me into her office (I felt just like I used to feel
when called into the principal's office!), and on her desk was a paper bag
in which were six ribbons that we had missed when taking them down ....she
was very disappointed etc...Luckily she was transferred somewhere else and
the next head-rangerette was from Old Dominion country...had worked with the
Old Dominion people in the past and was WONDERFUL to work with!!!!  The
rangers that I'm working with this year in a different district are about as
good as they get...once they realized I wasn't going to go away..;o)

----- Original Message -----
From: <BMcCrary27@aol.com>
To: <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>
Cc: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 10:21 PM
Subject: RC: Heritage Endurance Ride


> In a message dated 02/12/2001 7:51:36 PM Pacific Standard Time,
> fasterhorses@gilanet.com writes:
>
> << Having read other ride
>  managers'  reports on nightmares working with the Forestry Dept. I have
>  been waiting for the other shoe to fall - but so far the only thing that
is
>  falling is the Forestry Dept. people falling over each other trying to
help
> me!
>   >>
>
> And I've had good luck with the BLM during the Applegate-Lassen rides.  I
> really think the response one gets from the federal agencies depends a lot
on
> how ride management treats THEM in the beginning.  Ask, don't assume......
> "please, thank you, may I , and is it all right if I do such and
> such?".........  Works wonders in all walks of life.
>
> Barbara
>
>
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