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By this time I was having shooting pains on the outside
of my right leg, from knee to heel.  I'm not sure what that
was all about, but it gave me a bit of a hobble.  Blue vetted
through fine and Pete had food ready for both of us.  Once
Blue had finished his bran mash, Pete took him out to graze
for 20 minutes while I got to sit with the dog and eat.   Man, 
having a crew is being really spoiled!

Just as we headed out of this check, I was reminded again
that the Signal Peak climb (2500 ft in 2.5 miles) was just 
ahead and would be an excellent place to tail up.  Also, to
take it easy since after the climb up the peak and back 
down, the trail flattened out and got easier.  OK.  

                           *  *  *  *  *
I guess this is a good time to insert a little information.
The week before this ride, my Dr. put me on a low carb diet 
plan for a couple reasons.  Changing my way of eating (cutting 
out a ton of sugar and other simple carbohydrates per day) 
just before an endurance ride probably wasn't the best planning
in hindsight.  Also, knowing I'd need some carbs in my body for 
the day of the ride, I'd gone back off of the diet the night before... 
and eaten a bagel for breakfast and the donut at the first check.
                          *  *  *  *  *

We headed out of camp and along a single track trail that
quickly led through a gate and into an open field of wonderful
grass.  Can you tell grass is a delicacy here in NM?  Atleast
it is where we live.  The trail almost immediately headed
left and up Signal Peak.  I thought I'd just "make sure" we
were on the trial up before getting off to tail, but it was 
obvious very quickly that the trail was going up and not 
coming back down for a long time.  I did get off and tail
at a walk.  Neither of us were in shape to try to rush this
climb, but especially *me*.  I guess I made it about 100 ft
before two things happened.  First, damn!, I had to find a
bush and fast.  I guess burning that glycogen out of the
muscle groups also drops quite a bit of water back into
your system.  No wonder Atkins can cause dramatic
initial weight loss.  It's the water.  The second thing that
happened was lunch came back up.  OK, you didn't really
need to know that, now did you?  I lay on my back along a
bank off the trail trying to get back into control while Blue
was trompling around me in circles trying to figure out
why the heck we were not heading up the trail?  I think
it took me about 5 more minutes to get it back together.
I realized that I was not going to do either of us any favors
by trying to tail.  I had to be able to ride.  So I got back on
and let Blue walk my butt up the rest of that hill.  

I also figured that the nausea was from my sudden change
in diet so I did force myself to eat a bit of this and that out
of my pack.  It did stay down and it did help... some cashews,
a bit of beef jerky, Gu, and lots of water.  About 1/2 way up
we met two hikers with a golden retriever or two (I honestly
can't remember if they had just the one dog or two!  What is
up with that?).  They asked how long it would take us to ride
55 miles.  I told them it would take us a lot longer than the
front runners!  A few more switchbacks up the trail and we
started into fields of wild flowers!  Purple, yellow, red, orange,
all different varieties.  There were carpets of flowers under 
the pines and patches of different types of grasses.  Blue got
to graze on the way up, I got to enjoy the flowers!

Fortunately, the lighting was striking one ridge over.  Oh
yeah, we were supposed to be back down off of Signal Peak
*before* the afternoon monsoon hit.  No worries.  The
lighting was over there, and it wasn't raining on us quite
yet.  Besides, after the hotest July on record, I wasn't a bit
worried about the rain.  At the top we were caught by two
riders who let their horses drink and then kept moving.
When I gave my number to the volunteer at the water tank
he said that my new friend Maribel was just a couple minutes
ahead.  She didn't want to linger on top of the hill with the
approaching storm.  That made sense to me, but what about
the volunteer stuck right up there in his truck until the rest
of the riders came through?  I figured if he wasn't worried 
(the lightning *was* striking one ridge over) then I had time
to let Blue graze a few minutes and electrolyte him again.

We headed down the road after about 10 minutes and then
the trail picked up the Continental Divide trail heading
along and then down the ridge.  I guess we were about a
mile past the top when the rain started.  Big heavy drops
of rain... a typical squall.  The trail instantly turned muddy
as the rain pinged off my helmet.  Blue didn't want to head
into it, he wanted to turn his butt to the onslaught and wait
it out.  Nope, we are heading down buddy.  You are a good
endurance horse and this is what endurance horses do...
they walk straight into a wall of rain.  Only rain doesn't
bounce and this was bouncing...  It was hailing on us!  
Isn't that great?  Where else can you go to do a true 
endurance ride with lightning and hail?

Continued...

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