Lake Oroville Vista

Karen Chaton

This ride was definitely an endurance ride, in every sense. This rider was in for a big surprise anyhow. ;^) I went there expecting a nice easy ride with all the vet checks back in camp. I was planning on using this ride solely as a conditioning ride for Rocky, in preparation for Silver State at Thanksgiving. His last ride was Outlaw Trail, and I knew he'd be a handful at this ride (aren't they always after a multiday?).

Basecamp was next to Lake Oroville and the reservoirs around it. We had a nice view. Camp was flat and gravelly with plenty of room, though we did get packed in fairly tight. They had quite a turnout for a first time ride. (over 100) It took us 5 hours to get there between stopping for gas, air pressure in the tires and the horse, and food for us :). Checked in, then vetted and looked over the map. Hmmm....looks like this is one 50 mile loop out of camp. Well, looks like Dave gets to disconnect and crew afterall (he was looking forward to hiking with the dogs and wanted his title to be solely 'driver' on this ride - no such luck) haha.

Quickly became nervous at the ride meeting when it was announced that our horses pulses must be 60 at the trot by , (quick, run fast and you can get his pulse as I trot by.....hurry....) then the vet announced we must pull all tack at the other vet checks, including bridles. I quickly envisioned 100 horses running around loose at an away check without any tack or bridles on. I think they were just nervous, being a first time ride with new vets and all. They had changed our start time to 6 a.m., but then found out they couldn't because 6:30 had been published in EN, so in spite of the time change and having riders finish in the dark, they changed it back to 6:30 a.m. Darn! (they did put glo-bars up for the late finishers)

I had been concerned about the length of Rocky's coat. Most of it is an inch long or more - he's really furry. I clipped his neck to help him cool out faster. I knew it was going to be humid when I woke up and the outside of his blanket was soaking wet (underneath was dry). It really felt humid too, for what I'm used to. I hate humidity. Bleah! I made sure and electrolyted him well throughout the ride.

So we started at 6:30, and the 25's started at 7:00. We began down a flat, gravel road. We were doing pretty good for a ways. Rocky was strong and wanting to go, but not pulling or fighting. Then, another rider galloped past us at high speed and suddenly......a Demon possessed my horse....and we were suddenly off in hot pursuit. Grrrrrrr!!! I tried slowing him down, which caused him to argue and darn near ran us thru a tree branch, which we narrowly missed because he almost fell on his face. Got him back under control and lucky we turned off onto a single track trail shortly and began going up and down hills. Being that the trail was narrow with switchbacks and somewhat technical each horse goes at a different rate so we weren't really getting to go - getting stuck constantly which wasn't going over well with my Demon. ;^) We zipped along over the hills and made our way down towards the dam, where we thought the vet check was down on the pavement, but it was just the ride photographer. (he took really great photos, btw) I was really glad to have easyboots on Rocky, and had lent another one (or two) :) to another rider and stopped while she put it on (her horse lost a shoe). We finally made it to the trot by and the water. Continued on, we had lots of pavement to go up and highways to cross. They had lots of volunteers to help with the road crossings which was nice. We passed a couple more water stops and eventually wound our way into the first vet check at 20 miles. This was a half an hour hold. The vet check was the same for the half hour hold and then later for the hour hold, at 35 miles. It was a horse camp so very nice - had flush toilets, hitchin' posts and pic-nic tables....plus water! I went right in with Rocky at 64. :( Darn, I knew his recoveries would be affected by his long coat, not to mention the difficulty of the trail combined with the humidity. I let him drink and sponged his neck and he went right down to 60. (criteria was 60) Went right over to the vet and got that over with then headed over to our truck where Dave had our stuff all set up. What a good crew person :). He filled up my water bottles for me while I e-lyted Rocky and mixed up a mash and some carrots for him. He was mostly interested in hay at this point.

Our half hour went by fast, and I headed back out for another 15 mile loop. This one was a series of circles, in figure eights. We did fairly well on them I think. I'm sure we went thru all the spotter checkpoints and gave our numbers everywhere we should have. I think some riders (ahemmmmm) didn't follow the trail correctly, but that's for RM to figure out.

We were doing some good climbs. Rocky's specialty :). Sometimes a horse in front of us would quit going up, and we'd just motor on by. I was keeping him slowed down. The Demon in him wanted to go full out on all the downhill, so I got off and walked him down some of the longer steeper sections, which caused me to get really dirty. When you are wet everything sticks to you. This time I walked him into the vet check at 35 miles and he P&R'd right away at 60. Then we went to vet. I told the vet I had been slowing down some with him because he was so hot. (I took approximately 2 1/2 hours to do the first 20 miles, and 2 1/2 hours to do the next 15) She said it really showed and that the horse looked great. He definitely was warm to the touch, so I kept sponging him and in no time he was cool and felt normal. Still though, none of the horses dried out all day. At least it was warm enough that they didn't get chilled from being wet with super heavy coats.

I was keeping a close eye on Rocky, paying extra attention because it seemed that there were a lot of horses having problems. Rocky was peeing, eating and drinking well. My HRM is on the blitz and keeps giving me double and half readings so it was basically worthless. Whenever it did give a reading, it would stay stuck on that reading for the next half hour so I stopped paying attention to it. We left right on time and left for our last 15 miles back to the basecamp. It was 1 p.m. So 6 1/2 hours down and 15 miles to go! We had one more vet check to go thru, with no hold, 4 miles from the finish.

Luckily I left the check at the same time another rider did and we had each other to help figure out the trail. Soon, two other riders came towards us from the other direction. They told us we were going the wrong way. Nuh uh. (can't be, I was pretty sure.....I had been looking at the map and knew better) We asked them what they had just done, and they said "we just did the loop and we're on our way back". Huh? I looked at the map, and there was no such loop. We continued on and they roamed all around, totally lost and couldn't find the trail. (that's cuz they were just on it, going the wrong way--I have No Idea how they did that!) We soon came upon some spotters and confirmed that we were indeed on the right trail, and going on it in the right direction. Whenever we told the spotters about a problem, they went and fixed it right away, so hopefully that helped the riders behind us.

The 2 lost riders eventually caught back up to us, just about the time we popped out onto a highway (162 I think). Well, shoot here we all were out on the highway and no trail markers, no arrows and no idea which way to go. I looked at the map but couldn't really tell where we were to know which direction to go in. We looked up the road and saw some guy sitting by a truck way up a ways, so we went that way. Luckily, we spotted a ribbon and found the trail. I think they were supposed to have had a spotter there, but they were changing shifts when we went thru. By this time, the Demon has been exorcised and I had my Rocky back. Unfortunately, he was putting his energy into spooking tactics. Lucky for me we were on narrow single track trail with drop offs, so he could only spook in place , and I just had to laugh at him. If he was really stupid, I'd smack my rommel on his water scoop on the saddle (makes a loud, scary sound!) and that'd straighten him up, at least for the moment.

We managed to do very well the rest of the way, into the vet check. I had to sponge Rocky down really well and finally got him to drop into the 50's. His recoveries were definitely not as good as they normally are. He vetted thru fine, still with good attitude and bright and alert. There was no hold but I let him eat a few bites of hay and then we continued on, I walked him on foot and carried hay for him to eat when we left. We now had 2 miles to go to the finish line, then 2 more miles back to camp. Rocky wanted to walk, and I let him. A faster group went by us, and the girl who had been following us left to go on with them. Her horse wouldn't go on it's own (too tired), but she just didn't know any better. I'm lucky with Rocky he has figured out that if he needs to slow down, then he's gonna slow down and he won't try and keep up with other horses. We came across the finish line just behind a group of 4 or 5 others and then all walked into camp. I'd really wiped myself out getting off and doing hillwork and not being used to the humidity it really affected me. Actually, I just hadn't drank enough for being out there for 9 1/2 hours...and the smoke from the fires was giving me an awful headache. I was sooooo glad to be finished! I pulled Rocky's tack right away and went over to vet him. He vetted thru just fine and still had a great attitude :). We let him have a couple of hours to rest before heading back home. He was drinking really well so I didn't think it was necessary to spend the night, though I probably would have with a less experienced horse. Or if he had looked like some of the others -- saw a lot of overly tired looking horses. Or well, maybe they were just feigning being tired and I have no clue. So if I see somebody that I think is going beyond their horses limits, should I tell them? I'm not always sure, afraid that the person might think I'm an arrogant SOB and just get pissed off. On the other hand, how do you tell them that nicely?

All in all, we had a great time. The food was excellent and all the help they had was really great. They overall did a super job for their first time, and I'm sure next year will be even better. Awards were t-shirts and I even got one in my size!!!! wahooooo :))))) I still don't know placings or anything, they couldn't tell us at the finish line or later that night so I guess I can say "I completed" and that's all that counts :).

Pictures can be found at: http://members.xoom.com/ridephotos/oroville/oroville.html and
http://members.xoom.com/ridephotos/oroville/oroville2.html

Copyright 1999, Karen Chaton
http://members.xoom.com/ridephotos/

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