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Re: [RC] Tevis-Headlamps - Joe LongOn Sun, 11 Jul 2004 20:19:23 GMT, Ridecamp Guest <guest-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Please Reply to: Bill Taylor wjt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== I'm a guest-lurker-shy person who needs Powdermilk Buscuits to do what has to be done. I also have not done the Tevis but am on my way from Ohio to give it my best. Julie Suhr is the reason I'm headed that way and when she calls for comments I feel the need to oblige. I've visited the trail, run some of it and look forward to the adventure. I'm relatively new to endurance and my AERC number only goes back to 1994. I'm a "mature" guy with several former lives. The Army gave me the opportunity to experiment with various light filters, all designed and manufactured for our safety by the lowest bidder. Red ones do allow human eyesight to revert to night vision faster but aren't useful at any distance. I preferred the green filters for reading maps in helicopters and messages like " If anything happens to you, can I have your stuff?" When the helicopter dropped us off and it behooved us to get really quiet and really small it was amazing how much we could see in the dark when hi! ghly motivated. It's a whole new world at night. When guiding hunters in a roadless wilderness in Montana, I learned from old timers to trust horses and mules to follow the trail at night. I lead accomplished executives who weren't afraid of leveraged buyouts but were reduced to whimpering at the prospect of riding in the dark on a narrow trail with a bottomless canyon off their stirrup. I often had to relieve them of their expensive flashights to keep them from trying to "help" their horse find the trail. If they were afraid of getting brushed,I had them put their hand on their head with elbow forward so the branches would slide over their forearm and not hit them in the face. I don't know the exact recovery period, but light of any color does disorient horses for some time. Horses have a sense of trail and self preservation that should keep them from stepping off into the void if we don't drive them there. They also do what we ask in spite of their better judgement. I've tried! to prepare my midwestern steed for the dark after Foresthill by allowing him to pick his trail in daylight or dark and not guiding every step. As long as he's headed in the right direction and between the trees I stay out of his way. We know from experience that horses pick up signals from us. If we brace, they worry. If we relax, they relax. I'm eager to learn from folks with experience. When Julie Suhr and Hal Hall advise us to embrace the dark, I'm inclined to give them creedance. My ride packet says "No matter what lies ahead for you on your 100 mile trek over the Sierra, riding by the full moon is truly a spiritual journey-one that you will remember forever." Please don't mess with my spiritual journey! The last 100 mile ride Kahlil and I rode together, we were first out (by one minute) of the last vet check, with eight miles to go. I knew the horse one minute behind us was a fast sprinter, so our only chance to finish first was to not get caught on the trail. So, I went out with no glowbars attached anywhere, and proceeded to canter down a deep-woods trail with NO LIGHTS AT ALL. I didn't want the rider behind to catch sight of me. We had been over that same trail before, earlier in the ride, in daylight. I did sort of hunker down and kept an arm up in front of my face, in case of errant branches, as I couldn't see anything at all most of the way. I knew Kahlil could see where he was going, and would follow the trail that he knew lead back to camp. It worked. We finished first and got B.C. I also remember once following Darolyn Butler in a pre-dawn start, with neither of using any lights. I could sometimes barely see the gray blob that was her white helmet. At one point we crossed a dry creek, and it felt like Kahlil just dropped out from under me, then came back up again! I never saw it coming, but we made it just fine. The point is to trust your horse, if you don't mess up his night vision HE can see quite well, thank you. -- Joe Long jlong@xxxxxxxx http://www.rnbw.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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