I went to Strawberry Fields a couple weeks ago and
it was an absolutely beautiful ride ! High mountain meadows , creeks ,
rivers to cross and lots of hills :-) Even ran into a big black bear only
about 1 1/2 miles out of camp on the second loop , since my riding
buddy had been attacked and mauled by a grizzly 2 years ago that was kind of
a scary situation for her . I ended up taking the lead and we did some
really loud talking for about 1/2 mile until we were sure it had left the area .
They had some beaver re-route water after they had marked the trail and so the
ribbons led us straight into a pretty deep bog . Linda Howard and MJ
Jackson and a few others went for a muddy swim at that
crossing :-) as soon as ride management got word about the bog they hurried
to re-route the riders around it as we still had the 25's and CTR's coming along
behind us . We were camped at 8,000 ft and I believe they said the trail went to
over 11,000 ft. it was a gorgeous ride but pretty tough . Since this was only
Ruffy's second 50 miler I decided not to go out the next day as it was the same
trail just a different order on the loops . Ruff did excellent on the ride
finishing it in about 10 1/2 or 11 hours I think . This ride reminded me alot of
the Big Horn 50 Cindy , the country was very much alike . They gave out some
great awards , polo shirts with their ride logo on it and some traveling mugs .
Then we had a fantastic BBQ supper with live music after the ride sat. night ,
you people need to put it on your " To Do" list .
