SNAKES! South Fork Limited 50 mile Endurance and 20 mile Trail ride. Ruth Ca.
We picked Mary up at the rock quarry off Oregon mountain... 4 x 4 steep, okay, not going down, but coming up out of there, I put in 4 x 4 low and just idle out STEEP. You know when you go up Oregon on the way home and it's the turn just as it straightens out and you can almost see the top of the hill? There is a road just before a small cut bank, go DOWN down, down that. Waited about one hour for her. She has no cell phone. Her brother walks to school 2 hours one way, there is no bus stop. Mary was walking from her house, we didn't know how far away it was from the quarry. We saw a man driving up from the quarry and I stopped him and asked if I was in the right place, he said, yes. He said, oh I will drive out to their house and let her know you are here. He said you don't want to go out there, the road is horrible. Here she came back pack in hand. I think she felt like she knew me because of all the letters I wrote her (she has/had cancer and there was a shout out from the Back Country Horsemen that she would like to hear from horse people). She is growing up from the pictures I saw way back, she is 5'10" tall! 15 years old now.. She said they are now worried about her heart. :(((
We arrived in camp about 6 p.m. We parked way in the back, pretty much by ourselves. Then a woman named Laura that we recognized from Redwood BCH (we met her at the Trail trials) and her friend parked near us, but closer to the main area and then another one ended up coming in a living quarters from Marysville (I think) parked across the field from us. They seemed like nice ladies, and they were in our starting group for the trail ride.
When we pulled in and a lady came and said they had seen a rattle snake at that outhouse (ours), and we just killed one in the first one you drive by. (Great) Thanks. We were very careful using the toilet. VERY! We really walked all over and listened and looked for snakes and hoped they would stay away. They did.
We took our horses first thing and vetted in. We were both worried about the horses trotting out with us. You know Zigman, he can walk that fast with me pulling him along, more like work for me, I figured Jupiter would do great and he did not disappoint. They both vetted fine, trotted out and everything, we both got A's as starting scores, from the Vet. Our numbers were 51 & 52. I wish we could have gotten 51- 50.... wouldn't that have been funny? (and fitting!!)
We went back to camp to get it tent set up etc. before dark and the potluck dinner.
We were at the "Hall" for potluck dinner and riders' meeting. They hollered and said to go out back door and in thru the kitchen for dinner and back into the hall to eat. Well about 3-4 went out when someone heard or saw the rattlesnake. It was coiled and ready, there was a fast clearing of people and hollering of need of shovels and or a gun. LOTS of wanting of a shovel. Eventually it was killed. There was a girl about 12-13 had a Flathead shovel and someone handed me a spade shovel... really a spade shovel? NOT going to work and I missed it, course it moved. Someone said something about missing it, which made me mad, so I handed them the shovel and walked off. You try to hit a rattle snake with a little point and no maneuvering room. One lifting the boards and dead wood and really? I walked away. Someone wanted to see the head. I said no it can still bite. Others were saying the same thing. Made for some real excitement that no one needed.
We left the horses tied to the trailer the first night and they made so much noise, it meant no sleep and we kept checking on them. AND Zig whinnied and whinnied. IDIOT!
The next morning the endurance riders were to leave out at 5 am. They were probably all getting ready and at the start line at 4:30. It is O-dark thirty. Well from then on Zig was a nutcase. I could hear the horses hoof beats with riders heading out, so you know he could hear them. They were leaving him! He would rear straight up and leap forward and swing back and forth. When it came time to saddle up, I could not saddle him. The blanket would go on the ground. I walked him down a ways towards to main grounds and let him look around, well that did not help. His brain was not firing on all cylinders or hitting any cylinder. It took Vicki and Laura to hold him. I was finally able to get saddle on and it was still hard. He was lifting me off the ground I could not do anything with him, I was beyond frustrated! Even with Vicki and Laura helping me and it was still hard (Alisa, still want to trade?).
We headed to the start line and we were too early and had to wait a few minutes so rode back to trailer and left our coats. We did not need them. They started groups at 8 a.m. and five minutes apart. Our start time was 8:20 a.m..
We rode back and found that our group was 5 riders. They were all very nice. Jupiter took the lead and off we went. Walking and trotting. We followed our colored ribbons and crossed the river and started up the mountain.... crap it was steep! As we came up on riders, they would pull over and let us go, eventually it was just V & I. Jupe was just knocking them off, Vicki kept trying to tell him it was not a race and he needed to conserve some energy. Our boys powered up the mountain. The first group that pulled over had a horse I spotted in camp. Beautiful thing.... MARE! But you know the saying, pretty is as pretty does. She was a witch. Ears pinned and would bite or kick when you went by. I told the lady, man she is pretty, but would look better if those ears were ahead! We were not hanging around. She said I know. :( Poor lady. Zig finally settled down towards the top when it was finally just the two of us. We just kept going and slowly passing people. They settled down to more normal walking and trotting. Then, I spotted some riders on the ridge and so did Zig. I said, "No, we are staying on the trail." At that point, We were almost to the little turn around loop.
They called it a lollypop loop; there was the stick part where everyone went straight and had to yield to each other and then there was the top, which was the loop. We thought it must be a long loop, so we planned to get off at the top and we would eat our lunch there. They had told us there would be a vet check or check in place, so they would know we had made it that far. Well, when we got there, there wasn't much of a "top" (although it was over 5000 ft elevation). We gave our numbers to the 1/2 way check in people and they took our picture. But even though we brought our lunch, was only around 10:30 or and we had just ate breakfast a few hours before! So onward we went, starting back down the hill.
Zig and I took the lead and off we went, walking FAST! You know he likes down hill. He's a Slalom skier! We again started to pick them off. You know this is NOT a RACE!!! He would not stand still when I needed him to. He would just start backing up, almost over the bank twice! Which was not fair to Jupiter when it came time to drink. Zig drank the well dry when he could.
The Vet checked us in. She said, "Wow, you're our first trail riders in!" We were first place in the 20 mile ride. We vetted the boys in, and their heart rates were great at 60 and trotted out and still going good. We got A scores. Zig's new saddle is working out well. Vet said his back looked good. :)))) YES!!! Good test, this was a tough ride.
They fed us tacos for dinner with cake and pies for dessert. Very good and great idea for feeding a big group in jig time. Then they gave out the awards and then the band played... yes a band with fun music in the middle of nowhere! Just fun. There was one couple that were really great--man they have danced a lot together. Poetry in motion. (boy was he good looking!) We left before dark and took care of the horses and went to bed. The music was still playing. Lights out (Ha) we're light weights.
We were so sleeping good, when Zig let go a huge, come from the belly whinny, that sounded more like a scream. These two ol` (NOT OLD) girls can still move! All was good. We believe it was a concocted story to see if we cared or was paying attention to them. Well it worked. Hearts pounding, but all was good, and they looked like the Cheshire cats. Of course they just went back to eating. When your up you might as well go the the bathroom.... very carefully, watching for snakes. WE NEVER DID ANYTHING WITHOUT WATCHING FOR SNAKES!
We saddled up early the next morning and went for a short ride to the river and back before loading up to head home. Oh and yes I needed help saddling, but it was not near as bad as Saturday. Thank goodness.
Loved the drive over seeing all new country. It was a great weekend.
