Click here for picture slide show.Click here for picture slide show.
I was supposed to attend the Lake Oroville ride on this particular weekend, but work got in the way. I really had wanted to go but I figured I'd been lucky this year so told myself to "live with it." My magazine deadline was Thursday and here it was, Friday night, and I was still picking up the pieces. The phone rang. It was Karen Chaton, sitting in ride camp at the three-day Smokey Killen ride, just outside of Silver Springs, NV saying, "You can still make it over here for Sunday's ride!" Hmmm .... very tempting. After all, it was only a 4-hour drive, no more than last weekend's ride with James at Lake Sonoma.
Saturday came and I was still working. But I'd decided as soon as I made the Fed-Ex drop, I was loading Tank and going to Nevada. The weather was clear and there was no chance of me getting stuck on the pass so why the heck not? I arrived in camp about 4:30 and Karen and Nina (who was riding Weaver) weren't back yet. It was dark by the time they got back as it was the 55-mile day. They both did great and Weaver looked GOOD! It was my first introduction to the WeaverCam.
Karen and Les Carr had been riding together and they invited me to
ride along on Sunday. So the three of us moseyed down the trail together, never
in a hurry and mindful of the zillions of rocks on the trail. Couldn't really
go too fast with all those rocks, although some people managed to pull out the
usual stops and go for it. I'm always amazed at how fast some people can go
over terrain like that. I just don't have it in me.
The weather was nice all morning , bright and sunny and t-shirt weather after the initial chill wore off. The afternoon, however, turned a little on the dark side and we all packed our raingear, expecting the worst. However, it never did rain. We finished up our ride at 4:15 or 4:30, I think, got our completion award, a blue ribbon. Previous days were red and white. Very patriotic. :) I had never met Cliff and Kathy Lewis before, but had been told about Kathy's gastric bypass surgery. Congratulations, Kathy, on the loss of a couple of Paris Hiltons! One person told me they'd walked up to her and asked if she's seen Kathy Lewis, only to be told they were talking to her. Wow!
Boy, did people split out of camp! I'm used to being left behind with a dozen trailers but it was me, me and me. Ok, so there were two other trailers besides mine. If I'd lived closer, I might have taken off but I'm just really a firm believe in being able to keep an eye on my horse. I suppose if I got one of those trailer video setups I would do it, but it still scares me to think my horse might be colicking back there and I don't know it. But I know the majority of people don't stick around these days and are quite comfortable with it and I'm probably just being paranoid. After all, I'm still a newbie at this.
I woke up pretty early in the morning to find rain drops coming down and black clouds over the pass. Time to get outta there. But my luck held and it was even sunny up at Donner Pass. As always, thanks to the Ride Management for taking the responsibility on in putting on a ride. And thanks to The Pit Stop bar for letting us park in your backyard!
Next stop: (no, really ...) Desert Gold.
:) Jackie and Tank