My Liberty Run-Part 1

[EquesB@aol.com]

My Liberty Run story, when I put it on paper it sure doesn't sound exciting 
but it was a great weekend. 

I had sent my horse up on Thursday with my in-laws Joe & JoAnn Baker, my 
husband & I got up early on Friday and left, only to have to turn around 4 
miles out to go back for the dogs medicine!   We arrived at Ft. Gordon 
Military base around 12:30 to find camp half full, Jeez, doesn't anybody 
work?  When we stopped in Augusta  to get ice we noticed how absolutely 
wonderful the weather felt, cool and breezy.  Life is good.  Luckily we were 
able to squeeze in next to the Big Bakers rig, JoAnn and I share VC goodies, 
mix electrolytes together etc. and my husband Stephen crews for both of us.   
  I kind of take the Angie route when it comes to keeping myself busy on 
check-in day, I like to be left alone to get things ready. Stephen, Joe & 
JoAnn took a nap. 
Registration was quick and painless.   The vet-in wasn't scheduled to start 
until later afternoon, 4:OOPM (?) so the line was really long in the 
beginning.   We fed the horses and decided to go to dinner at the restaurant 
located at the ride camp.  The whole camp is on the edge of a lake, located 
on a military base that is quite large with lots of woods where the trails 
are.  The site is very pleasant, although I was told that on Thursday night 
the base was having big-gun target practice at a range down the road a ways, 
so sleep was a little unnerving for some people. 
 
Before dinner I was pretty antsy.  I just bought a new trailer and had spent 
the previous week loading it up with items I may need, but I had so much 
extra room, I figured that I had to of forget something, something in 
addition to whatever I usually forget! After dinner I felt a little more 
relaxed because the restaurant serves bottled beer with theses really cold 
mugs from the freezer. You should try this Angie! 

By the time we finished dinner, the vet line was just right, only one horse 
in line in front of us.  Montana vetted through just fine, as did Nepenthe, 
JoAnns horse.  The ride meeting was very good, Vicki was cautioning everyone 
to please keep pets on a leash as the Range Patrol had already been through 
once or twice. Hopefully she didn't get any fines.  Also everyone was 
reminded to take their manure with them, this is pretty hard as she gave us 
theses great big bags, but if one were to fill a bag it would be too heavy 
too carry. Anyone have an answer for this problem?  It was ok to bag it and 
leave it if you didn't have room for it in your trailer but how was Vicki 
going to pick it up? 

The morning of the ride was beautiful, even in the dark. I got up at 5:am to 
feed, when I opened the trailer door, JoAnns dog hopped out and promptly took 
off, I fed the horses and looked around thinking he probably just went off a 
little ways. Wrong! Now what, do I softly call the dogs name, wake JoAnn , 
freaked out that her dog is loose or do I just hope he will come back, yeah 
right!  I walked around camp a little bit and of course he was helping 
himself to someone's garbage!  He likes to do his part in cleaning up 
America!  

50 milers were scheduled to start at 7:30 am. I warmed up Montana for about 
35 minutes, I'm taking my time with this horse, so I had planned to ride him 
rather easy, this ride has a history of being fast and I didn't want to get 
caught up in the wave of front runners.  When we started I sure didn't have 
to worry about getting caught up with front runners because they took off 
pretty fast. There had to be at least 20 or more people in front of us as we 
headed on down the road.  A few more passed us, but I had "Planned my ride" 
and I was determined to "Ride my plan".  Although the trail was mostly forest 
road it was still great to be on a new trail, different trail.  We are just 
coming back from a summer lay-off Liberty Run 1 on Memorial Day was our last 
ride, so this felt really good.  I don't know much about peaking an athlete 
for a performance but Montana was feeling great, he was ready to go but not 
too crazy.  At least not too crazy until the first VC, I got Dr. Dwight 
Hooten for my check. He is a great ride vet, I think he is very thorough and 
doesn't hold back with his comments.  Unfortunately, my loony horse decided 
he needed to keep track of Nepenthe, so he was dancing around.  Yeah, yeah I 
know this has been discussed numerous times so lets not beat it to death, as 
I told Dr. Hooten He doesn't give a Hoot about that other horse or any others 
99% of the time" Hooten said; "I beg your pardon. "  Do you think they will 
appreciate his humor in Dubai? 

JoAnn and I left out for the second loop together, this loop is around a long 
series of lakes and ponds, some connected by earthen dams. Very pretty, flat, 
and good footing.  We did the ten mile loop in 64 minutes. a ten mile loop we 
did in 66 minutes, At the furthest end of the loop Vicki had volunteers 
camped there so they could take your number, also a water stop. Next water 
was a creek with running water, you must  remember to stay to the left 
because the Army put down some sort of large flat blocks laid with 4" gaps 
between each, so that they could drive tanks or big trucks through the water 
without sinking.   We finished the loop in 66 minutes which is 4 minutes 
faster than what I had planned. Your starting to think I am an engineer, huh? 
 I really can't plan anything this well but when you think about it all 
summer, and during those hot, humid training rides in August, it all seems 
rational. 
 
Our second loop VC had an E-ticket line, geez don't these people have jobs or 
something? <VBG>  Yes the 100 milers came to the front of the line, Vicki was 
allowing it, what else was she to do?  They had a lot farther to go, this 
really ticked off some people.  Vicki offered to hold their horses while they 
went for food and water for themselves but no one took her up on her offer.  
It was just frustrating to wait in line for 30 minutes and have 10 people 
jump in line ahead of you, but as Teddy has mentioned Vicki intends on 
changing that next year and that sure isn't enough to keep me away!  I was 2 
minutes overtime by the time I got out and it took me another 6 minutes to 
get out of camp, Nancy Gooch gave me the time as I left. It still did not 
bother me , I was having such a good time, I guess I was on cloud 9. 

Part 2 next. 

Jackie Baker


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