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Re: [RC] Trail Judges - Tracy Cann - heidiWe were riding down an open pipeline, the trail turned right into the woods. You rode another mile or so and came out on pipeline again. I never knew till the day of the ride that where you came out was just about 150 yards farther than where you turned right. During the ride I just happened to be approaching the turn as a horse emerged back on the pipeline ahead and had I not already seen the turn I would have automatically followed that horse ahead. That's where this rider had taken a short cut...unintentionally. We had a similar spot on a new ride last year. The trail ran one direction on a loop, and then ran it backward later in the ride. Coming from the "wrong" direction, one was on a nice grassy track, and the turn back into the woods was not well-marked. About a quarter of a mile on down the nice grassy track, one came upon the trail again, cutting off about 2 miles of the actual trail. A bunch of us blew by the turn, and fortunately, when we came upon the spot where the trail rejoined the grassy track, there was a neat and obvious row of ribbons marching down the hill to rejoin it. So we knew we had goofed, and backtracked to where we had missed the turn. I have no idea if anyone else blew by that and perhaps didn't notice the ribbons coming in--if they did, at least it didn't impact any placings in such a way that anyone noticed. I do know that several mentioned doing exactly what we did, and going back to correct their error. (And in fact, when we reached the turn, we met another group of riders just coming up to it, that had they been a bit further ahead and NOT missed the turn, would have completely and legally passed us without our seeing them, since WE were off course!) Unfortunately, the ride is not being held this year (too bad, it was a nice one), but that's the sort of thing that management can easily fix the next time around in terms of marking. And if the need arises, a spotter COULD be placed there as well, if there was any suspicion of intential wrongdoing. Heidi ============================================================ REAL endurance is dressing for 20 degrees in the AM and by noon its 85 degrees! ~ Heidi Sowards ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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