Yesterday my friend, who's been helping me keep The Rebel Prince fit
whilst I've been wasting away with pneumonia took a little backcountry
jaunt. If anybody remembers the general area of the '93 Nation Ride 'n Tie
Championships and the Ranchita (Arroyo Grande, Ca.) Ride sponsered by Ca.
Sports in Morgan Hill a couple of years ago, that's the site. BTW, it took
a lot more out of me then I expected. I'm glad I didn't sign up for Fire
Mountain next week, because I'm just not yet recovered enough to ride 50
miles. <sigh>) Gosh, Pneumonia takes a lot more out of a person then I
ever expected. I've trained here many times in the past, but things have
changed in the last two years.
We started out about 4 miles outside of The Los Padres National Forest
boundries and take the fire road that leads to Pozo, California. About 16
miles or so one way. Funny I've done the ride to Pozo about a dozen times
or so. In the past before Ranchita Estates got control of the area in
total it was a mellow area, now there's no parking signs on either side
of the road from the county owned land at Lake Lopez all the way to the
National Forest land. Dozens of signs forbidding hunting, shooting,
parking, fishing or general tresspassing. All duely noted by many bullet
and shotgun shell holes.
The morning was mellow. Motorbikes and vehicles encountered all stopped
and were friendly. At the point where the road is divided to a watering
spot uphill and the 4 miles to Pozo point we naturally watered the
horses. We'd had a good trot session out and when Rebel and Cylpso
decided they wanted to race up the hill for about the last two miles to
the waterhole we just let them wail. It was fun. The Rebel Prince hadn't
been there for a couple of years, but got very confused and kept trying
to look the direction of Pozo when we turned back at this spot. Gosh,
horses just never forget the trail do they?
By now I'm tried, my back hurts as I forgot to wear a back brace (remember
two prior back surgeries ouch!) It's later. I guess the football games
were over by now and the adleminded masses were loose on the wilds.
Suddenly cars are flying down the back road. We really have to listen or
risk being run over. People don't even acknowledge we're alive. One old
bastard, after I moved The Rebel Prince off the road actually had the
nerve to yellout his window, "get outta the way!" This of course, was
greeted with my response in most vulgar terms, indeed.
Still I'd had a fun time though I'm fading fast, dizzy and in pain. The
Rebel Prince just loves to get out on the trails, get his head and go.
Especially now that he's recovered from the injuries that kept him in a
paddock doing nothing for years. (literally) So when we get back to our
truck and trailer there's a brand new Jeep Cherokee parked 100 yards up
the road which is now county vehicle code jurisdiction. They're playing a
Doobie Brothers tape from 25 years ago loudly. (Let's do the time warp again)
That was annoying the horses enough, but as I'm under The Rebel Prince
applying his wraps for the trip home the bastards start blasting off a
shotgun in the general direction of a fawn. YES READ FAWN.
It naturally spooked my already kind of hyped up Arab (not too hard to do
anyway.) I'm almost stepped on. I decide to blow it off. I go to apply
the next wrap and they do it again, but this time about 4 or 5 blasts.
I'm not a happy camper at this point and start to go for the .38 I carry
in my pack shoud the worst happen and a horse need to be destroyed in a
place where vet assistance isn't readily available. That notion didn't
last long as I figured what good would blasting off even more caps into
the air do. But I did take off toward the morons and gave them a piece of
my mind. I gave them a profanely based tirade about how if they managed
to wait for 5 minutes I'd be out from under the horse loaded and gone.
They didn't say a word, but I did realize how stupid it is to confront
people holding guns on you in a state of anger. <sigh>
Shooting within 50 feet of a publicly maintained road is illegal.
Shooting at wildlife, especially a yearling dear, is illegal. Being them
should be. So anyway the second we loaded both horses the jerks let go
with a barrage of every piece of ammo they had in their clips
(apparantly.) We went to the ranger station, about 5 miles up the road
and called the sheriff. They voice on the other end of the line doubted
they would get there in time to find the morons.
Here's the point. A couple of years ago there were outstanding back
trails available to the public out there. Anybody who rode the ride 'n
tie or the ranchita ride knows that. As the trails shrink to new
developement our only options left seem to be riding the fire roads.
There we are at the mercy of the unpoliced masses of idiots. I'm carrying
a phone on the trail from now on and see if that helps. This kind of crap
is becoming more and more commonplace. I still have easy access to Montana
De Oro State Park, where the trails are in good shape and people share.
Still I've logged so much time out there it's fun to get out somewhere
else. Availabilty to somewhere else is becoming more and more scarce, not
to mention the way people behave once out of the shadow of John Law.
********************soapbox off*********************
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Tommy Crockett~Los Osos, California USA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~tomydore@goblin.punk.net~~DAMS028%CALPOLY.BITNET@cmsa.berkeley.edu~