I spent the day in Auburn
yesterday at the WSTF office. Went up to work on the database with Lindy Young
who designed it a couple of years ago. Mike Pickett called me while we were at
lunch as he and Bill Pieper, Tom Christoph, Greg went up to meet the Forest
Service for a face to face meeting. Besides the fact that it was absolutely
horrendous in Auburn,
they said you could multiply that many times over up at Robinson Flat. Besides
the dense amount of smoke in the air, ash was falling everywhere and it was
just choking. No way can I see that it would have cleared out in 11 days, even
if there were no fires burning. We’d had a communications meeting on
Monday at the office and at that point, the air was actually better in Auburn than it was
yesterday and they were really hoping, that they’d be able to pull it
off. Obviously, it’s expensive and they will lose money this year. They
had just put in their deposit on the fairgrounds the day before. I hope they
get that back as it was a chunk of money.
I stayed all afternoon and helped Joanne call all the
riders, along with Chuck Mathers and Kathy Perry. Left lots of messages. Talked
to about a quarter of the ones I called. Talk about devastation. Such a
commitment it is to get ready for this ride. But most offered before I could
say it, that it was indeed, in the best interest of the horses and commended
the organization for making the decision.
Sorry I wasn’t able to put up a note yesterday. I
couldn’t get on the wireless router at the office, but was able to use
Joanne’s computer long enough to log into mine and change the web page.
Having remote access is a pretty cool thing.
I was going to take next year off doing the webcast but with
no one in place to train, apparently, I’m it again next year.
