[RC] The Cougar Prowl story part II - firedancefarms
I am marking trail, and of course I run
out of ribbon, so instead of a loop, it is an up and back. And guess
who I meet? The front runners!! They are an hour ahead of
schedule!! I get back to camp and my head vet tells me she checked her
odometer and Richard's house is only SIX miles. OH NO! Now my 25
milers think they are doing a 20 and a 4 and be done, and they have only done a
12 and a 4! So, I go back up the road 3 1/2 miles, drop off a spotter, and
my poor timing/P/R crew has to tell them they are not done!
Think fast, think fast! The whole
game has now changed! What are you going to do when the 25 milers come
in? A quick trot by and pulse down, and off they go again!
But that isn't the end of the
problems! As I am driving back from taking the spotter, one of the 50
milers, a very long time rider, says "Louise, that 4 mile loop is NOT 4
miles!! It is way long!!" uh oh. I ask the front runner in
camp, and she agrees, and I ask my outtimmer, and she tells me the times are the
same as the six miles on the road! YIKES! That means my trail is six
miles, not four, and times two, the 50s have already gone almost five miles
longer than I had expected!
So here I am on my cell phone trying to
get ahold of Bruce, who is out trying to get a trail available that is not on
fire for the last loop, and of course the cell phone service is spotty.
Nothing more frustrating that those ---- cell phones! It went like this:
"Bruce, the front runners are coming in in 40 minutes, where do I sent
them?" "Send them......NOTHING. "Louise, the trail is _______ you
can't send them _______" nothing. BRUCE! I can't hear you!!
Where are they supposed to go??? nothing...you see, we don't even get the static
anymore, because we are on DIGITAL, which is actually worse, IMO because you
can't even pretend to decipher what they say.
I manage to tell him, that the 17 mile
loop won't work now, because they have already gone 38 miles and no
way can I make them go 17 more, so he needs to cut the trail down. No way,
he says, he is out with the water truck, trying not to let the oil tanks burn
up! No way can he remark the trail before the front runners get
there! But, the 8 mile trail that was originally for the 25 milers is
still there, so we decide to send them on that. Yep, the trail will be a
few miles short instead of a lot of miles long, but I think I do have a bit of
emergency leeway here :). I am talking to Bruce, and the front runners
have 1 minute to go, and he's not sure if he can get them to do the loop or an
out and back! So, off they go, me telling them to do plan A unless you see
Bruce and he sends you back! He did manage to get the loop under control,
but they did have to end up riding by the fire!
So, the ride ends, and I get the winery
to come do a wine tasting for us, and buy some wine for the awards and all ends
well.
It is times like these when you realize
what WONDERFUL friends and help you have! There is no way this ride would
have worked if I had not had outstanding help to manage the ride, as I had to
run off and mark trail and Bruce was fighting the fire. Four of my main
help, Nancy Mitts, Trina Mosshammer, Mary Mosshammer, Jodi Hess-Schlup are ride
managers themselves. My main timer, who is my neighbor, and although is
very into horses, is not an endurance rider, has been my timer twice before, and
Bud Crothers, is PR main extraordinaire. Jessica, Jesse's girlfriend, is a
math wizard, and did my BC sheets without a hitch. She has also been
conned into helping for three rides, so she and Jesse manned the water
checks. Randy Bass helps at every ride, and this was no exception, and he
was our spotter for the 25 milers. John Schwarzer, who day managed CP for
years comes to help and can easily handle the vet area. Mary Mosshammer
grabbed Binky Fabri's truck with water tanks to fill buckets on the road.
I forgot to mention it was very very warm!
And my vets! Becky Brewer and
Jerry Randall have vetted my ride for years and could handle anything at
camp. We had plenty of problems to handle...as we had to change hold times
and vet checks during the ride! It was extremely hard for me to
relinquish control but I knew I had the very best of people to handle the
situation!
And the riders! Wow, what a group
you were! Of the 55 starters, only two decided not to ride! You
know, as a ride manager, if everyone decided to go home, I'd have lost the farm
:)). Everyone had a GREAT attitude and just took all the problems in
stride. Bruce had wanted to call the ride off at 7am, and the riders said
NO WAY! They were ready to go! After all, what is an endurance ride
without a great STORY to tell!!! It's all such a blurr to me, but I do
remember one particular rider, Patti Crawford, coming up to me and saying
"Louise, we are here to have FUN, and that is what we will do, no matter where
you send us!"
But the person whom I want to thank the
most was a quiet man who spoke to the vets in the background at 7am
Saturday morning while Bruce, Jesse, and I were frantically trying to get a
trail. I don't think I got to speak to him but one minute the entire
day. I think he was gone early in the afternoon...the entire day is a
whirlwind..as any RM can tell you. At 7:30 am, he quietly tied up his
horse to the trailer, grabbed his stethoscope, and got in the truck with Dr.
Becky. Dr. Becky dropped him off six miles down the road to man the out of
camp check for the 25 milers. Thank you Jim Baldwin. Words cannot
express my gratitude.
I know there were many others who
helped with this ride, that I don't even know about! There are so many
"quiet helpers" and unsung heroes in this sport. Please, if you know who
they are, and you have other parts to this story, write in and let us
know!
