Ridecamp: [RC] nick warhol- tevis 2002 story 2 of 5

nick warhol nickw@xxxxxxxxx
Ah yes, the start.  I don?t know what happened with the start this year.   Maybe it was sunspots, or El-nino, or just weird luck, but the start was a major pain.   Last year it was very different- we just walked down the road, waited around with plenty of space, and rode off down the road like any other endurance ride.   I was pleased at the change the ride management made by extending the start down the road a quarter mile or so, with those markers for different pace riders.   This year was rotten.  First of all, we had to deal with the herd of a hundred or more horses waiting for the guys to start taking numbers.   It took a while for one to go by at a time, and there was much congestion there, right out of camp.   We walked down the road nicely, until we got to the first tee-shirt that marked the start for the slower riders.  We passed it by, wanting to be at the next shirt, for the medium pace riders.   That whole idea didn?t work very well- it just became a packed mass of horses starting somewhere up there at the first shirt.  At least in the past when you had the mass of horses together up near camp, you had a lot of room off the road.  Not down here- there is a hill on one side, and a drop off on the other too steep to go down.  This put all the horses jammed into a pack on a regular dirt road with nowhere to go.  Normally it would not have been a problem, except for some of the people who wanted to move further up.   Hey guys- you can?t put seven beers in a six-pack, unless something gives.   Something did- people were pushing their way up front through the herd, causing some very un-polite (to put it mildly) interactions between riders.  Some people were doing their best to just move up and were apologetic, but there were some who were just plain jerks (again, putting that mildly) who plowed their way up to the front of the pack, pushing horses out of the way.  I saw one horse get shoved right off the road.  That?s the last thing you need at a time like this.   It was a tense ten minutes or so before the actual start, it was a big relief to get moving.  At least until we started trotting.  What in the world are some of these people thinking?   Whoosh!  Why in the world would you be trying to pass people now?  At a really fast trot, or even some cantering?   I think two horses side by side is pretty standard on a two-track road, but here come people flying by between the two horses, as well as on either side of the road, sometimes both.   There was more bumping and inconsiderate behavior than I have seen in a while.  Thank goodness Holly is such a dream to ride- she just went along at the pace I wanted, not even being disturbed when we were bumped into from the side.   Gloria was doing her plan to the letter- she parked Redman back behind me and just stayed there, safe.   We lost Quenby in the melee after only a half-mile or so- she just got pushed back until she could not see us.   In about a mile we all came to a screeching halt on the road- now what?  Ever seen one of those fog induced car pileups on highway five?  More confusion and short tempers.  Once we got moving again we came upon the problem- there was a woman down on the ground off the road sans horse.  She had a friend there with her, she was okay, just all scraped up.   We rode on a little more and another crash stop- yep, there is another woman down, but this one is up and jogging down the trail in search of her horse.    We go again, here?s one of the horses tied to a tree, spinning wildly, wanting to go.   That took some time to get around.   A few minutes later, another accident, again, the rider okay, but all scraped up, and no horse.   We came up on another horse tied up, this one was off the trail and standing quietly.  Thanks to the person who did that!  All of this and we have not even reached the single track yet!   But unfortunately that wasn?t a lot better.  I don?t know if it was the bunching up or what, but there was a solid line of horses on that single track as far as you could see.  It was like freeway stop and go traffic.  The mob kept stopping, not even being able to walk.  I was silently glad I wasn?t on Warpaint, since he is not known to stand still, even for a moment.  We sure had to, though.  Holly would stop, Redman would stop.  Good stuff.   It was a real chore to get past that first couple of miles to the more open roads, it just wasn?t like this last year.   It got much better once we got back onto the single track trail over the little bridges, but it was still bumper to bumper horses all the way to the highway crossing, up through the woods to the squaw bypass trail, and all the way up the mountain until the trail dumped out onto the ski runs half way up the mountain.  Whew!  What a relief to have some room.   I thought we had started ahead of more horses, there had to be half the ride ahead of us.  We took it easy up the Squaw climb, stopping at the water trough for a short break.  I noticed something strange- it was not cold, it wasn?t even cool.  It was warm, here at eight thousand feet, at 6:30 in the morning.  Uh-oh.  Last year I had my jacket zipped up and felt sorry for those who were not dressed right.  This year I?m sweating already, and we just walked up the mountain.  Holly and I led Gloria and Redman up over the top, and then down into the Wilderness, home of many rocks.   We started out fine, and for some reason there were not many horses around us.   Holly picked her way through the rocks very nicely, with me having a twinge every time she slipped or scrambled up or down a rock, which is quite frequently.  We had just stepped down a rock face about a foot high when I hear a shout behind me from Gloria.  Redman has apparently decided he does not need to walk down this, he?s going to leap it.   I didn?t see this one, but Gloria reports he just jumped down the hill, landing in the gnarly rocks.  She was surprised, but otherwise fine.   A few minutes later, I stepped down another drop that was bigger than the first, and looked back to see if Redman was going to?.. Yes, there he goes, with Gloria?s eyes as big as pie plates.  I really wish I had a helmet cam for that one- that film would have made it to one of those TV shows.   He did a spectacular leap down the rocks, just like last time.   That was the last time he did that; Gloria thought the first was an accident, but after the second, she said that?s enough.   It was not the best behavior for that trail, but boy, it sure was neat to see, him being athletic enough to just dance through the rocks.   We made it through the rest of the difficult section with only one other incident, I had to hold Holly back for the first time on the ride when a rider in front of me got hung up in the rocks.  Holly sort of stood up on her back feet and started to turn a bit, but I just pushed her forward and she went on without any further problems.  Gloria said ?Yikes, that was scary.?   That was a strange behavior for Holly, but I found out a little later why she did it, I think.  Her bit had cut the edge of her mouth pretty badly, and when I tugged back on it for the first time I think it hurt her enough for her to pull up.  I took the bit off at Lyon Ridge and rode her in her string halter for the rest of the day.  We stopped there for some water, but moved right on to Cougar Rock, and once again, around it.  Those trails on that ridge can get ugly dusty.  We walked on down into Red Star for the pulse down- Holly was at 48 when we got there.  Redman took a couple of minutes to hit 64, we rode on down the road towards Robinson Flat feeling pretty happy with the ride so far.  Gloria had hoped to stick with me at the start, it worked so well with the two horses we just kept on going.  I was not in any great hurry, we got to Robinson at about 10:30 or so.


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