I have just returned from riding my first endurance ride in
Nevada. First let me say that it was well worth the drive from Southern Oregon.
This was the first time the ride has been offered and except
for one fault (at least some of the riders felt this way) it was an exceptional
ride in every way. There could certainly have more water sets. The first water
was at 15 miles. Thank goodness the weather was cool. Ride management was open
to suggestions regarding this and I am certain that next year, this will be
corrected.
The staging area was at a large arena grounds with a couple of
good sized arenas, large round pen, picnic area and gazebo where the awards
ceremony was held (while a sumptuous meal was served). Strangest staging area
and start of ride that I have ever experienced. All of the rides I have ridden
before have started on trail far from residential areas. The arena grounds is
tucked smack dab in the middle of a suburban housing tract. Most of these houses
have some acreage around them and most show signs of owning horses, with corals
and out buildings so the location of the arena grounds is a great facility for
this community. The ride started right down a paved street and then turned onto
a sandy track which led across sagebrush open land into the surrounding
foothills. Although there were over 110 riders on the 50
mile and I think over 40 on the 30, it did not feel frantic or the trails
crowded. In fact, even from the first couple of miles at the start, one saw very
few riders as the terrain helped to separate riders rather quickly.
I had heard it said that this would be a
fairly easy ride and a good one to start off the endurance season but I think
some riders were sorely surprised to find that this was indeed a fairly
challenging ride. Early into the ride, the single tract trail took us on a
fairly long, rather steep climb which found some riders off and walking their
horses while others fairly easily trotted the entire climb. Since our training
and conditioning trails are very similar to this climb, my training buddy and I
found that our horses
were not overly taxed, thank
goodness. The thing that concerned me most was the prevalence of sand on the
trails. It was great footing with barely any rock but trotting in sometimes deep
sand with horses who are not conditioned in the sand caused me to go a lot more
slowly than the topography would have dictated.
Although much of the ride was in open high
desert, and at times one could see riders far in the distance, most of the time,
it was difficult to find where the trail led or if riders were approaching
because of the lay of the land. There were dips and gulleys and short very steep
rises. In fact although short, some of the rises were as steep as anything I
have ridden and were a lot of fun. One aspect of much of the trail that I did
not enjoy was the washboard like dips that often went on for very long
distances. Not easy on the horse's legs and hopefully riders rode with this
recognition. ( think this may have been caused by the abundance of off road
bikes that have made a maze of criss crossed trails throughout this area. In
fact there were many that could be seen in the distance but when they were
encountered, they were really courteous and pulled off the trails and shut off
their motors).
