[RC] Trace Tribute AKA The Cavalry Rides Again - Paul
Holy Cow,
I just got in (Sunday night 7:40 pm), and can't
believe nobody has posted about the Trace Tribute Ride...
First: The weather forecast for Friday was
for terrible severe storms, winds, and flooding of Biblical
proportions. Then for Saturday it was to be sunny and in the mid 60's.. One
thing about who ever was pulling weather forecasting duty for those days was
when they were wrong, they were consistently wrong. Friday was light rain
and drizzle.. Saturday was overcast and darned cool. So there were no terrified
Endurance riders looking for a hole to crawl into to avoid
tornadoes.
Second: As for pulling our rigs in, that was mostly
to keep from really rutting up the field of our hosts, the Marlow's. He had
a John Deere large 4 wheel drive tractor and just slowly walked everybody in.
Except me. I drove my Chevy Avalanche in with no problems. All in all
there were no problems.. Most made it out Sunday
morning unassisted.
Third: The mud... Ok the trail wasn't nearly
as dusty as Tevis in August. There were some boggy places. There were soft
places. But they were for very short 50 -200 feet stretches. After that you
could move right along. I forget the exact numbers but believe it was 23
out 26 of the 50's completed and 22 out of 25 of the 30 mile riders
completed. If the trail was really that bad there would have been more pulls. In
the weird world section: My buddy Ron Chapman proved that there is always
a rock with your name out there. At about 3 miles into the ride, his horse found
that rock. It put a hole through the sole of his foot. He'll be ok, but imagine
finding a rock like that on a very muddy ride.
Fourth: Ride Management, Vets and
Volunteers were GREAT!!!. Well marked trail. Great follow-up tracking riders on
trail. All in all a wonderful experience. My only thought is that this trail is
beautiful now with all the creeks and views, but in 3-4 weeks when the leaves
are all on the trees it would be incredible.
Oh Yeah, Fifth: RM Angie Fura got interested
in the concept of Cavalry and decided to offer it at this ride. She thought that
modern day Endurance Riders might not overwhelmingly respond, but she would try
it. There were 7 or 8 Cavalry entries in the 50. Steve and Karen Cummings
who tied for first rode Cavalry, and did Kristen ??? Who also top
tenned.
There were 8-9 Cavalry Riders in the 30. The
response was great. Everybody who did it enjoyed it and learned from the
experience. Angie came up with some great awards for Cavalry
completions. It was fun!!!
I am sure I am forgetting something, but I'm
pooped.
