The Get-R-done ride, Nov 11 2006
A very bizarre ride, indeed.
The first ever Get-R-Done ride was held on November 11th
down in the desert hamlet of Inyokern, Ca, which for the geographically
challenged is located next to
This ride was, in fact, one of the weirdest rides I have
ever done. Not weird in a bad way, on
the contrary. The ride came off without
a hitch that I saw, and was excellent in every way, including ride management, the
ride site, the food, the prizes, the vets and volunteers, the schedules, rider
care, the turn out, the trail marking, port-a-potties, everything, except,
well, maybe the trail itself. Remember,
this is not weird bad, just weird. The
ride was designed with an easy, flat trail on purpose, and for its intended
purpose, the trail was perfect. It’s
just that I have never trotted for a hundred miles straight before. Sure, in Death Valley there are sections of
9, 10, 13 miles or so where you just keep on going on the flats for what seems
like forever, but there are nice mountain ranges to navigate between these long
flat sections. On this ride I started out, turned left, and
trotted for a hundred miles, I kid you not.
It was a very different experience.
Again, not bad, just so different from anything I have done before. Those long sections at
There were three 25 mile loops that were ridden based on which ride you did. Everything was an elevator ride- the Otis Company would have been right at home. People were elevating all over the place, which was just great. Everyone, on all rides, started out on loop 1, and since we on the 100 were starting at the same time as the 75s, I rode out with my buddies Gretchen Montgomery and Merri Melde, who were riding Gretchen’s horses on the 75. We left at 6:00 am and walked out of camp a block or so, crossed the paved road, went fifty feet in the sand, turned left on a road, and trotted a half mile, where we made a turn to the right, then a quick left, and then just go. And go. The road went across the valley for 11 miles, and did actually head up the grade of the valley a little, but you would have never known. The road was a little soft in some places, but not bad. The rocks? This is the desert, right? None. Well, maybe 10 in the first ten miles. We were looking for rocks, and kept making jokes when we found one. There were a few little twisty turns towards the end of the road to keep things interesting (?), but the road just went straight out for 10 miles to a water stop and a dead end at the top of the valley. Dead end as in the only way to climb out of here is via helicopter. We had a drink, turned around, and, well, we trotted back. We did get to take a different road, an old raised railroad bed that had great footing, but it was like trotting on a laser beam back down the valley. You know the type- you can see the road go out in front of you forever, and no matter how long you trot, you never seem to make any headway. We got to enjoy a vet check at 15 miles, but once through that it was trot straight back down the road to the base camp at 25 miles. The LD riders were done, although some elevated on up to the 50. It took us about two and a half hours to do loop one; it took me about 25 minutes on the motorcycle the day before when I rode it again after marking it. It really was that fast!
We enjoyed an hour hold after 25 miles, which also seemed a little strange, but turned out to be nice. The wind was picking up a bit as we headed out on the blue loop, our second 25 miles. We walked back out of camp, just like at the start, crossed the road, and this time after our 50 feet of sand we turned right and trotted a while, where we made a little left, then another right, and then just go. And go. And go. This road went across the valley the other direction, along a fence that had a definite military look to it. It was a little softer in sections, but was just at straight as the laser beam railroad bed road. The problem here was the wind- it was blowing across the trail, and this road went through the outskirts of town, where there was a lot of blowing trash. Lots of horses were spooking at all kinds of things, mine included. Merri enjoyed a rodeo on Spice when she passed a giant hunk of sheet metal that the wind just picked up and flopped over as she passed. I don’t know how she stayed on. My horse was jumping at stuff as well. The road? It just kept going on, and on, and on, straight as an arrow. We just kept trotting along, wishing there were some hills to climb, or even go down. Nope- the course so far was like a dry lake bed. Some horses were losing interest in the ride at this point, but not mine. He just kept on trotting, and trotting, as happy as can be. I was not bored in here, though, since I was battling the wind-charged spook monsters that were blowing all over the place. After probably eight or more miles of this we came to a water stop, where Merri’s horse peed a little too dark for our taste, so she wisely elected to quit and walk back up to where she could catch a trailer back to camp. Gretchen hung back with Merri, so I made the right hand turn and started trotting again, this time back towards camp. You can see where camp is, but it is way, way, way up that road. That flat road. With sand. And things to spook at. I started to amuse myself with mind games. Trot on this diagonal for 50 steps, switch for 43, switch back after my age, then add a hundred to that and switch back. I started counting the telephone poles as we went by, but that was too slow. I started talking to the ravens, like Merri always does. But what ho! A water stop, and we got to make a turn to the left! After a drink, I happily crossed the paved road and began heading towards the mountains on guess what? A nice flat road, but at least it passed some houses to look at. We did climb a few feet as we approached Highway 395, where there were nice, big, inviting mountains lurking over there, not a mile away. I could see the roads heading up into the canyons. How about one nice climb, please? Nope- turn right and parallel the highway heading north on a nice, flat, straight road. There were a couple of dips to trot up and down, but it was more trotting. I was trotting along, counting the cars on the highway- how many American, how many foreign, the ratio of trucks to cars, you needed something to do! Hey! Someone to talk to! Kim Fuess caught up to me here and we chatted a bit while we were trotting. We trotted a few miles to a turn, where we turned right and trotted back towards camp.
Now we are done with 50 miles, and we get another hour hold in camp. The wind was blowing, but nothing serious. (Yet!) Merri was back in camp already, and Spice was doing fine, so Don had a buddy to share a trailer with while he ate. Two loops down, now we get to go out and do the red loop. The good news was that I had helped mark trail the day before, and had done the last two/thirds of the red loop, so I knew the trail, and it was, guess what, more trotting on roads. I had not been on the first 8 miles of the red loop yet, since it was on property that motorcycles can’t go on. The good news was that the first 8 miles was really fun- it was all single track trails in the desert that wound all over the place. It was of course more trotting, but the trail was pretty sandy. Kim and I just hopped off the trail and trotted through the desert along the trail, weaving in and out of all the bushes where the footing was much better. This little section was really fun, and even though we trotted the whole thing, it was a nice break from the roads. We took turns leading; we were weaving back and forth, turning, and hopping bushes. I really enjoyed this little hour of fun. The fun ended, however, and we were routed back onto the roads. We continued up north alongside highway 395 to the Shell station and Subway sandwich shop. We passed on dinner, as I had forgotten to bring my Visa or any cash, and they don’t serve lobster anyway. (That’s what I was in the mood for) Kim’s husband was at the station with food for the horses- that was really nice of him. We took a little break while they ate, while Kim’s husband told of us the police shooting that just taken place nearby. Wonderful! We then hopped back up and trotted off down the road. We went a half mile than hung a left back on that laser beam raised railroad trail and just kept trotting, and trotting, and trotting. It was nice to have someone to talk to while trotting. Here’s a diversion! We get to go into the desert for a hundred yards to avoid a washout on the road. Its amazing the things that can get you excited in times like this. Eventually another left turn on a road took us back to the road along the highway, where we turned left and kept trotting. Enough- we had to do come cantering, which was pretty fun, and made that section go by nice and quick. Another left turn into the desert, and then back on roads that took us along a paved frontage road for a bit. We passed the scene of the shooting- there were cop cars everywhere. We went past the Subway shop with no lobster, and stopped for another break for the horses. I let Kim go on ahead since her horse was really telling her he wanted to blitz back to camp. I hung around a bit letting Don eat when Gretchen showed up on her way out on the red loop I had just done. “How’s the trail?” “Flat!” “Any rocks?” “No!” That was the common denominator all day. I finally headed back towards camp by myself and rode on in to the vet check. The wind had just started to pick up; it was about 5:15 pm and the sun was setting. A quick and perfect vet check and back to the truck for my third hour hold of the day. One each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Perfect! Just as I got to the truck with my horse, the desert decided we needed a reminder about who is in charge out here and turned on the wind. Boy, it got windy! Stuff was blowing everywhere, but you could not see anything from the blowing sand. Yuck! And of course now it’s getting cold, and it’s dark. Double yuck! The out timers were bundled up like Eskimos as I prepared to head back out. Some people sitting in a car asked me if I was really going back out there. “Of course,” I shouted over the howling wind. “Only one more loop to go!”
I left base camp all alone in the dark and led Don down the road to the start of the pink loop, which we had to repeat for our last 25 miles. The wind kept blowing me over into him as we walked together. I hopped up on his back in the dark and thought to myself: “Here’s the test of a horse.” I gave him the tiny little squeeze of my thigh muscle and he hops right into his nice steady trot through the sand. He just took off at his nice trot, heading back up that crazy, long, flat, straight, soft sand road for 11 miles. I discovered it is much more enjoyable at night, since you can’t see the laser beam effect of the road that goes on forever. I just trotted on through the night, thinking maybe I could hook up a little portable DVD player on the pommel here, and enjoy a nice movie while I do this. That Ipod was looking pretty good at this point. On and on and on and on we went, until we got to the water half way up the road. He drank a lot, and what the heck, I led him out back up the road on foot for a while. Boy, it felt nice to walk for a change. I led him along for about fifteen minutes, looking at the incredible stars. I got to witness a comet or shooting star that flamed on by; it was so bright it lit up the desert. That was one of the neatest things I have seen in a while! I hopped back up and asked him to go- he hops back into that machine like trot. Oh, I like this horse. We finally reach the end of the canyon and the water stop. The spotter crawls out of his truck to get my number in the cold wind. Ya gotta love ride volunteers! We turned around and headed back down the valley on the laser beam road, but rather than being dark, I found the headlights of the cars on the highway just horrible! They were in a position to just drill into your eyes for almost a half hour. I did a little cantering to get away from that section since it was so hard to see anything. We got to the vet check at mile 90 and zipped through; they had removed the 20 minute hold due to the cold and windy conditions. It was about 9:30 or so; I was ready to leave when they got the cell phone call that John Park was going to elevate from the 75 to the 100. Oh NO! These guys would be out here for a while longer. I left the check and was trotting along pretty quickly when Don starts calling out. We caught two horses and swooped on by them, Don on a mission to get home. We trotted on in to the end of the trail; I hopped off and led him up the road to the finish. We walked in and vetted out in 11th place, and it was only ten o’clock. Don looked fabulous for the vets; Mike Tomlinson commented that he looked very nice. Back to the truck for the food! Color and Wabi were there and gave Don a huge and very loud welcome back.
Jeremy Reynolds won the 100 going likity-split, Becky Hart took third and BC on her horse Al. Gretchen finished the 75 on Rafique in fifth place and first lightweight- she was pretty happy about that. Judy and Sally finished the 50 just fine, but like so many other riders, Judy was pretty amazed at how that trail affected them. You would think a flat ride would be fun and easy, but it does present a whole different challenge to the horse and rider. Having a very forward horse that is willing to go anytime, anyplace, anywhere really makes a difference. I told people the next day, sure, I had fun and enjoyed it, because I love riding my horse, and he breezed through it. But I also admitted the trail was not very exciting, and it was so very different from a normal ride. Fred got his head vet wish- there were no treatments except for a mild colic, but in that case they suspect the horse had some issues going into the ride, and were watching it carefully. The whole event was a real success, and special thanks need to go to Tammy and her gang for the incredible job they did to make it happen. The next one will be in April. Want an easy first 25, 50, 75, or 100? This is the place to come. Want that FEI COC? Drop on by next April. Just be prepared for the trail- it was different.
Nick Warhol