We had two crew people for our group of 7. One with
the 50’s and one with us. At 90 miles along with our crew Connie
was also our other crew Greg and all 5 of our 50 milers and it was
midnight. What great friends. The 90 mile mark was tough. Coming in
there was so dark like riding into an abyss. Daryl another rider behind
us right before the check made terrible noises, we asked if he were ok, he did
not answer and then we kept calling his name, he finally answered, he said he
was ok, asked if had fallen, he said he did not know, then we asked if he was
one his horse or off of it, he said off of it one the ground! Don’t
know what happened he may have fallen asleep or the horse stumbled and he got
knocked out, but he was ok and completed the ride. My mare had wedged her
foot between two rocks in the first 3 miles of the trail and was a little sore
on her left front. Lynn’s
horse had a sore back and it was after midnight and then our 50 milers said
none of them finished. What!, we said, they said it was a long story but
that all of their horses were fine. Turned out they had time issues, but
that is their story. Luckily our horses prevailed the vet check at 90 and
we were off for the last 10 miles.
The first 7 miles our horses took easily and did it in 40
minutes and then the last 3 miles with our own detour of an extra mile took us
over 2 hours!!!! Got to the finish line could not find our crew and then
Lynn waited for our cards while I walked the mile to the last vet check. Lynn came, we vetted in
and Completed!!! When we walked back up the hill to the camp we saw our
crew and other friends who had parked near the road at the finish but we were
all asleep in the truck! We woke them up to tell them we finished!!
Wow what a ride!!!!! Don’t know if I would do
that trail again but we can’t because the trail is now gone from what I
hear. Next year’s OD will be all new trails at a new location
further south. I want to say thank to the OD ride manger and staff for
putting on the ride and to all of the wonderful vets! Lonnie, Art, Otis,
Doug, Kathie and all of the others were awesome!!!! The really took care
of the one hundred milers and most of them had ridden the ride.
Their belt buckles are beautiful and I about cried when I
saw mine. Solid silver. The icing on the cake for the ride was they
had team competitions. Our team was Stagg, Lynn, myself and Susan
Kain. We all finished with Stagg tying for first and Susan being the
turtle. We were the “One lucky guy “team and we came in
second. They gave us a nice little neck medallion.
Tevis or OD which one is harder? Since I only made it
to 36 miles at Tevis, I won’t comment yet. OD is TOUGH and for
those of you who have ridden Cavalry my hat is off to you!!!!
