Eagle's Nest Ride (long)

["Drin & Jim Becker" <rainbow@montana.com>]

The 1999 Eagle's Nest ride again was a great success , Good trail ,
although harder than years before , excellent meals and fantastic ride
vet's, volunteer's and management . I left my place here in Polaris , Mt.
on friday morning and headed out to pick up friend Ann Sheridan in Butte to
go to the ride . Met Ann and her 5 year old Bezatal bred filly Ghazal who
was going to do her first 25 mile ride  while I was going to be doing the
50 there . We then headed on and pulled into base camp which is a huge
dryland meadow with plenty of room for all sizes of rigs and corrals where
we met up with the rest of our coharts , Anne Kennedy & Louie Rod both from
Bozeman and then Ellen Snoeyenbos from Gardiner , Dale Pauli from Kalispell
and Sandy & Whitney Bollinger from over by Missoula . We all got camp set
up , vetted in , ate the delicious meal that the eagle nest crew provides
for the riders and then called it a night as we would be starting at 5:30
a.m. to try and beat the heat a little . 4 a.m. came early as we all
saddled up and got ready to hit the trail . Anne Kennedy and her mare
Dyskrete would be riding with myself and Bo today , the ride started in the
early dawn and away we all went , there were 12 riders ahead of Anne and I
and our buddies were also behind us. Dyskrete and Bo travell well together
and we stayed pretty much in site of the 12 front runners for about 8 miles
, this is when Anne turns to me and say's "you know our turn should be
coming up here pretty soon that heads us back into camp on this 15 mile
loop " Well the word's were no sooner out of her mouth when we drop off of 
this small ridge and lo and behold there at a dirt road is our intersection
. The tall stake and pie plate had been knocked over by cows but there was
a small surveyors stake with arrows pointing directions  to the loops . The
15 mile loop headed off to the right and the 25 mile loop which we were to
do next headed off to the left . Anne and I headed off to the right at a
good trot and went about a mile or so when I told Anne " Are you sure this
is the way ? There are absolutely no horses tracks ahead of us ! Well Anne
was almost sure we were right and so was I but we thought we had better go
back now while we were only out a mile and double check the signs before we
got any further ! So back we go to double check ourselves , we get back to
where we can see the intersection and here come Dale Pauli on his new
prospect Akiem and Linda Voight on her curly horse Curley ! We then decide
that we all did make the right turn and all the front runner's had turned
the wrong way , well now I must tell you that us four riders are pretty
much middle of the pack riders and can't believe our good fortune's , so we
decide to make tracks and get some time on the front runners before they
discover what they had done and turn around and come back the right way !
So we go for a few more miles and come to a gate with a person writing down
numbers as you go through , and sure enough we are the first 50's he has
seen . So we tell him what has happened and he get's on the radio to try
and track them down and we head back towards camp , we are all laughing say
this is a first "WE are leading the race and are going to be the first ones
into the first vet check "! Well we know our glory is limited and are
taking advantage of it before we get passed by the 12  wayward riders .  We
make it into the first check with no sign of the others and vet on through
, then here comes Paul Lohenen another friend on his mare that he has
raised himself , we tell Paul what has happened and do our our hold times
and head out again for the 25 mile loop . Everone is still wondering " what
in the world happened to the front runners ".
Linda , I , Anne and Dale still not believing our good fortune decide to
take advantage , so we are not wasting any time here on the trail , we
again come to the intersection and get ready to turn to the left this time
when Dale say's " Wait a minute guy's , I think we should all take a moment
and bow our heads in a momenet of silience to the endurance gods !" So we
all pull up to a stop in front of the stake ,  bow our heads , pause a
moment and then smile and take off ! We get out to the only out check on
the ride and vet through , are doing our hold when here comes 3 of the lost
front runners , they tell us that they were all just booking through the
intersection , missed it and really did not realize it until they were
almost done with the 25 mile loop , by then it was to late to go back so
they talked to management and were told they could get completions only ,
which most of them were very glad to hear , at least they would get mileage
credit . By this time , Paul has made up some time so there are now 5 in
our little group . We finally get to the last loop which is a 10 mile loop
with quite alot of steep climbing and start discussing our finish order ,
now this is where the saying " Payback is a bitch " comes into play ! At
the Ashland , Mt. ride earlier this year Linda and Curley had let me and Bo
finish ahead of them , for like 18th place ! AARRGGHHH!!! Now I am not even
smart enough to keep my mouth shut and not remind her that I owed her !! So
no matter how we came in I WOULD be behind the Curley horse ! Well , Dale
and Paul were very gentlemenly like and said that they would take the 4th
and 5th spots . Of course it might have been us three women's glares and
veiled threats and us reminding them that we also knew what their truck and
trailers looked like that kept them back there in line ! Now Anne was
another story , I won't even get into what that discussion was like !! So
the 5 of us finished the race with smiles ear to ear still not believing
our good fortunes and  ended the ride with a small water fight at the horse
tank before we vetted through for the last time of the day . Besides the 5
of us , it was also enjoyable to find out that the rest of our group had
also went the right way so they too would get placings ! And then to top
the day off at the award's Paul ends up winning best condition with his
home raised mare ! So this was just more icing on the cake for us . So
anyone there in the area who has not done the eagle's nest ride at Columbus
, all I can say is that you are missing out on a great trail , food and fun
time ! Put it on your list for next year ! And to my 4 riding partners ,
Dale , Paul , Anne and Linda ..Thanks for a great time !

                                  Drin & Bo
                                  Mtn. region



































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