Well, before someone calls me on the carpet for whining, let me say the
Longstreet's Charge ride this weekend in N. GA was fantastic in spite of
less than optimal weather (read: chilly, raining, windy all day) and I had
an absolute ball.
After a short history lesson/rider's meeting from ass't ride manager Angie
McGhee (sp?), we all went to bed glad that tho it was supposed to rain it
looked like we were going to be missed. Did we actually think that the
weather elves would allow that??? Especially since the Witchance ride had
such good weather just two weeks ago in the same region....
I think they managed to hit peak weekend with the leaves or close to it.
Some of the trees were so "loud" they looked as if they had been painted.
By early afternoon a heavy fog settled in so that you couldn't see one
trail marker from the next - and there were lots of trail markers!! I think
you could have ridden this trail by braille it was so well marked!
I was half expecting Dracula to step out into the trail as we wound thru
the deep woods and mist. Course I was praying he didn't cause I was on Tony
(read: chicken-of-the-sea) not Embers and I would have been in the next
county - or rather Tony would have been - *I* would have been left to face
Dracula on my own with nothing but a water bottle and vet card for defense.
There were several scenic overlooks along the way which we were admonished
not to walk up to and look over the edge for obvious reasons (apparently
the unthinkable happened recently and someone on foot did go over the edge
:-<). Even in the fog and rain the overlooks were incredible! This was
truly a ride where you wanted to enjoy the trail. Fortunately hang-gliders
were not hang-gliding Saturday (see above comments) - tho very nice, this
trail really was fraught with dangers for the unsuspecting Arab:->
Vet checks (all in camp) looked like a fashion disaster as horses had every
combination of sheets, blankets, rump rugs, and coolers hanging every which
way - most of us even trotted out under them - the vets made every effort
to allow us to keep working muscles warm which I appreciated. Us riders
were quite the raving beauties, also :->
Besides the ride being well-managed and on a fabulous trail I am also
excited because it was my first ride on Tony (I did the 25) since his
suspensory injury in March!!! And he was every bit as sound as he has been
since being ridden for the last 2 months!!! YEAH!!! There *is* life after
such an injury!
Not only did he come thru perfectly sound in good but slick footing
something happened to his brain during the 4 months he was off because he
actually allowed people to pass him with minimal discussion and we had no
major spooks along the way!!! (Well, stopping dead at the creek cause the
spotter on the other side didn't know to speak and she was standing there
with a bigredponchoflappinginthebreeze doesn't count :->).
Just for the record, I took a shoelace and used it to tie the HRM pouch
(the small velcro one) between the two dees on my Passier - thanks for all
the suggestions. Worked out great.
Camp was a little tight but that is a good thing really - turn-out was good
- close to 90 entries between the 25 and the 50. Don't have the results
(maybe Samm or Dave do??) but I did hear from one of the workers that in
spite of it being perfect cramping weather the pull rate was actually very
low.
Tina (ready for another one in 2 weeks!)
Tony (what a stressful weeeknd - wet rocks and people standing in the woods
and ribbons flapping and trees that had been cut and leaves falling and
lions and tigers, oh my)
Embers (hehehe - I just hate that you had to go to this ride instead of me)
hickst@nichols.com