2010 Eastern High Sierra Classic 50 Ride Photos & Report – My 500th Ride Completion!

This year was the 25th anniversary of one of the most popular rides in the West region.  This ride is very popular for good reason too – it’s in incredibly beautiful country (the Sierra’s) plus it’s got a lot of fun technical trails.  The 50 mile ride consists of two loops.  The first one is slightly over 20 miles and has the technical terrain on it that includes a lot of boulders, narrow singletrack trail and creek crossings through large boulders and deadfall.  This year was drier than most so the water crossings and mud were pretty safe.

The second loop is 30 miles and is also the LD trail.  There are three vet checks on the 50, and one on the LD.  The 50′s start at 6 a.m. and have 12 hours while the 30′s started at 8 and had 7:15 to complete.

The 50′s had over 100 entries (and the LD’s around 30′ish).  We started out in a controlled start at a walk that took us across the highway crossing then up and over a small hill.  Once we got down to a two track trail on the other side we were able to start trotting.  Soon after that we turned right and headed up the first good climb of the day.  This is always a fun trail to ride because your horse has to pay attention to the turns and the rocks.  It gets steeper as you go as well.

I was riding Chief and he loves these kinds of trails.  My main goal was to get him in his own space without having a train of horses in front, or behind.  He does best when he can be in his own space, either alone or with another horse behind him.  He can walk pretty fast when he wants to, making it hard to keep him behind other horses on that kind of a trail.

Due to the difficulty of the trail there is a vet check pretty early on the ride – 6 miles.  We drop down a steep switchback with lots of boulders to step or hop over and around.  Then a pulse down to 60 with a vet check and trot out.  After I did that I moved off to the side of the trail and let Chief grab a couple of bites of grass and pee.  Now we had a mile or so to go down the road around one of the Twin Lakes before heading up on the Cattle Canyon loop (more steep climbing).

It didn’t take long until we were able to manage to get into our own space.  I ended up riding with Gary.  I pulled over once to let a couple of horses go by and then realized that it was a lot more than a couple of horses – they all got in front and then of course, slowed to a really slow walk.  I had to keep stopping Chief but not for long, once they got through the rock boulder section they took off trotting and I used the opportunity to take a restroom break (for me and Chief).  Then we crossed a nice creek  crossing and found ourselves in a nice sweet spot – just myself and Gary.

I always love the rushing sound of Horsetail falls as we ride past them.  The roar of the water sometimes causes the horses some concern, but not much more than a side look.  Chief had ridden this part of the trail last Saturday when we marked it.  I saw that from the falls down the rest of the mountain all of our ribbons had been pulled.  I saw one ribbon on that entire section of trail – the rest were gone.  Fortunately it is a singletrack going downhill so it’s easy to figure out where to go even without the ribbons.

When we had marked the trail some sections had been a bit washed out.  It was good to see that after a few horses had gone over it that those areas looked a lot better – some flatness to them now.  Much of this loop is on singletrack trail and we maintained our not spot all the way down — not too close to anybody in front and there was nobody right behind us pushing us either.  That was nice.

We made it into camp about 10:30.  It took us 4 1/2 hours to do just a little over 20 miles.  I pulled Chief’s tack then we went over to get our pulse checked and then vetted through.  Time for lunch and a one hour hold!  While Chief dug in to his hay and mash I enjoyed a nice break and took the time to rehydrate myself and eat.  The hour went by fairly quickly and before I knew it we were on our way out again.  We had a 30 mile loop ahead of us, with one more vet check that had a 1/2 hour hold.

Now for the really exciting part – on the way out on this loop Tony had put up a banner.  How romantic!  Sue was riding behind me and I can only imagine her surprise and elation at seeing this!!  I’m pretty sure she was speechless after seeing this, especially knowing that everybody else on the ride saw it too!

We trotted all the way out until the trail started to climb then started to walk and alternate trotting.  Chief was feeling pretty good.  We had a good long climb ahead of us.  It didn’t seem so bad we walked a lot of it but also did some trotting wherever it leveled out for a bit.  We were in the tall pines and aspens so had some shade.  It was hot!

I was wearing my Cool Medics vest and never felt warm though I could tell that the heat and climb were causing Chief to heat up.  All I had to do was put my hand on his neck!  Every so often I put a squirt of water from my water bottle on him.  We’d get an occasional light breeze which helped.  I made good use of my sponge on a few occasions in the creeks and kept Chief cooled down as  much as possible.

We made it into the Buckeye vet check for the first time through (no check till 2nd time through) at around 2 p.m.  From here we went out and did another 10+ mile or so loop and then came back for the vet check.  They had hay here for the horses plus water, drinks and candy for us.

This upper Buckeye loop was nice.  It goes through large meadows, pines and aspen trees.  We are at high elevation so are surrounded by towering mountains and incredible scenery.  Nevermind the clean, crisp air!  There are several creek crossings so the horses have plenty of chances to drink as well as eat.  The cattle this year were way up at the farthest point – probably trying to escape the heat.

Once we crossed the water crossing at the farthest point we had another section of narrow technical trail that went through boulders and some mud.  A narrow spot with drops here and there to keep it interesting.

Criteria all day was 60 pulse.  They had two vets at Buckeye so the lines weren’t bad – I let Chief eat (not a problem, lol) until I saw an opening and then went and vetted.  We came into the check with a 58 pulse on first check without cooling Chief down first.  After that I did sponge him a bit and then let him eat.  He enjoyed the mash I had for him as well as the hay that was provided.  He also was happy to eat the green grass.  Chief’s recoveries have been the best they ever have been this year.  It’s interesting to me anyway, since I haven’t really changed anything other than to add a supplement.  It seems to have helped Bo’s recoveries too.

It’s always nice to see the same volunteers at this ride year after year.  Carly runs the Buckeye check and does a great job of it.  Jackie Beaupre was also there taking pulses.

We headed out for the last few miles back to camp.  I had a couple of people pass me.  One was a front runner that had apparently done the upper Buckeye loop twice (oops).

I wasn’t in any hurry to get in, knowing that I had plenty of time.  Chief was starting to bounce off the walls the closer to camp we got so I did more walking rather than argue with him over our speed at a trot though we did a fair amount of moving out as well.  That worked out well and we still finished at about 4:30.  I’m never in a hurry on this ride because it is so enjoyable and fun to ride.  Chief came through without a scratch, yay!

I pulled tack immediately and vetted right through  with Susan McCartney – everything looked good and we got our completion.  The only thing I left on Chief was his strap on Renegades – they had stayed on 100% all day and  had done a remarkable job for us considering the trail we had been over.  I was surprised to see so many riders there with Renegades on.  I had not even considered gluing boots on for this ride – it’s just one day and definitely wouldn’t have been worth the effort.  Not when the strap on Renegades worked so well.  I used them on this ride last year too.  From the moment I got to this ride I was constantly being asked about boots from other riders – there is definitely a lot of interest.  I don’t think I’ve been asked about boots so much at a ride before!

I was happy to vet out with good scores, this was Chief’s first ride since he reached 10,000 miles in June and this was also my 500th ride completion.  It was kind of cool that it was this ride that I got to reach that milestone since this was my first endurance ride 16 years ago.

The dinner they served was to die for!  They had everything and it was delicious!  Various salads, fruit, corn on the cob, potatos, beans, tri-tip, bread, brownies and ice cream, two kinds of cobbler…it was one of the best ride dinners I’ve ever had.  Come to think of it, this was also one of the best rides I’ve ever had – all in all a fantastic experience.  I can’t wait to do this ride again!

I’m not sure what the official results are – I think I finished around 47th.  There were over 100 on the 50 and around 15 pulls, a mix of metabolics – some horses didn’t recover.  Others came up a little off or fell on the rocks.  First was Kim Mileo and BC went to Michele Roush.  My friend Jackie Floyd finished the 30 miler on James Dean – their first ride in a few years.

Congratulations are also in order to Sue and Tony!!

Enjoy the ride photos!