Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

The Trace Tribute Endurance ride was a week and a half ago. The weather did not cooperate too well and we got a lot of rain the days before the ride.

For those that don't know, I don't ride the Trace Tribute ride. I'm the Trail Designer. Which basically means I lay out the trail, make sure it's all marked and safe and unmark the trail after the ride (along with several volunteers).

Debra, Camille, and I rode Wednesday, putting putting up trail marker ribbons on about half of the first loop. I loaned out Serts, my non-endurance horse, to Angie, the TT ride manager to put out ribbons on 1/4 of the trail. And Roger finished marking the first loop with his horse.

Then Thursday it was raining. Eva de Paulis and I marked 1/2 of the blue and all of the pink loop while Doug and Judy marked the other 1/2 of the blue trail. Daniel and Roger went out marking all the pavement crossings (we have about 18) so riders would know when they were approaching pavement.

Friday, Daniel and I went out in the morning to put stakes up to direct riders in and out of the woods along the first and last loops. In the afternoon, Roger, Daniel and David went out to mark the road loop for the 75s.

I was treated to a chiropractic visit for my horse, then I immediately had to go help track down a misplaced rider who was surprised we were worried about her when we found her. So all was well.

After I returned from that, Roger, Angie and I headed to the northernmost portion of our trail to check on the creek crossing. It was high, but passable. After much discussion, we decided to let the ride continue across it as planned.

After the ride meeting and my trails talk (during which I quaked like a 5th grader giving her first speech in class), Daniel and I left for home to rest over the Sabbath.

Saturday evening found us back at base camp looking for all the news. Most of it was good. We had a good completion rate and the turtle rider was just coming in when we arrived.

I spent the evening helping with awards and talking to the riders to find out how the ride went and what was good and bad about the trails and the markings. After a debriefing session with Angie and David, Daniel and I finally went to bed around midnight.

Sunday morning, I was up early. I saddled up and headed out to pull ribbons. The plan was to keep going north until I either found no more ribbons or reached the vet check. A couple miles shy of the vet check, I was stopped by Eva and Roger in their truck. They told me I was done. They would ride up from Roger's to the mid-point of the blue loop. Doug and Judy would take it from there north. What a great group!! Daniel and David pulled the ribbons off the unused road loop and the stakes out of the ground. Angie hung out at base camp until that was finished. After the work was done, Angie, David, Daniel and I headed to Puckett's for a well-earned dinner, complete with ice cream cones! Back at Angie and David's, we loaded up to head back home when Roger and Doug both arrived. We hung around and talked for awhile, going over the events of the ride and how to do it better.

I was pleased with the trails. Despite the rain and 50 horses going over it in the span of a few hours, the trails were in pretty good shape. The going was slow in some spots, but as long as I was watchful, we were able to make pretty decent time pulling ribbons.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

April
Nashville, TN
-- 
"It doesn't matter how slowly you go - as long as you don't stop!" - Confucius