The Cuyama Oaks Pioneer ride, March 2006

This ride has been like a little black cloud hovering above my head for the past couple of years. I have always wanted to go do it, but there has always been some darn thing keeping me from attending, be it horse issues, work, or family related. This year all the stars became aligned perfectly- we were able to go give it a try. I have heard from lots of people who come here that it’s a great ride, as are so many of the XP events. Besides- I just love going to rides that I have not done in the past. Where and what is a Cuyama? It’s not a new Japanese motorcycle, but the place is located on highway 166, up in the low mountains of Mid California, between Santa Maria on the coast and Bakersfield in the central valley, about 50 miles from the beach. I never knew this place was here; it is absolutely beautiful with rolling hills, low mountains, and flat meadows just covered with wild flowers of all colors. Endurance rider Jim Mitchell from Bakersfield owns a ranch up here that is the base camp for the ride, located a couple miles up the canyon from the highway on a nice dirt road. Base camp itself was how a sardine would consider his world after being canned- it was packed, packed, and packed with endurance riders from both the southern and northern California regions. The infamous Duck (Dave Nicholson) said this is the biggest XP ride anywhere; there must have been 150 rigs crammed in there. Judy and I drove down from the Bat Area on Friday, about a six hour drive. Thanks goodness Gary and Laura Fend arrived a day earlier and saved us a spot to park. There were lynch mobs circling Gary’s camp with pitchforks and clubs, just drooling over that perfect parking spot for a truck and trailer smack in the middle of camp. We scattered the unruly throng as we whipped the trailer into the prime location and unloaded the ponies. Judy brought Color the young appy, and I had my new horse Don. How long is he a new horse, anyway? I will have had him for 2 years in July. Wow. Time flies when you are having fun, and let me tell you, I’m having fun on him.

The weather has been just wet city this month in California with something like 22 days so far of rain. We kept looking at the weather predictions on Yahoo (I think they just look out the window), but were determined to ride rain or shine. It rained on Thursday night at home, but it was nice and dry as we loaded up and drove down on Friday. It had rained recently at Cuyama, but all that did was make the trails nice and perfect. The Friday night ride meeting was more like Tevis than an XP ride there were so many people there. The bad news was that the rain had actually turned to snow up on them thar mountains, which it has been known to do when it gets cold. This meant we may not be able to do the high loop up on top; Dave was going to have to mix things up on the trails a little to give it a chance to melt before taking a look see.

It was chilly, but not cold as we headed out on the trail on Saturday morning. There were lots of clouds up in the sky, but no rain so far. The day one trail headed out of camp on a nice soft dirt road that wound around a little for a couple of miles before it turned left onto a nice single track that climbed up a little ridge that wound around for a while before heading down to a big, flat meadow. Nice trail! We trotted along side a fence for a mile or so before turning left and entering the big meadow of the main valley. There were wild flowers everywhere- it was just spectacular. We took a nice soft road across the meadow, past two water troughs, before we got to duck under the highway through a tunnel that was just high enough to ride through, but being our cautious selves, we got off and led. More single track took us along the highway to the East- we hung a left and headed for the river crossing. At the ride meeting Dave had made it sound like we had to cross the Amazon or something, but it was just a nice little river about a foot deep and fifty across. It was, however, important to stay on the marked trail, since there was supposedly quicksand out there in that river. Yuck- we stuck to the trail. There was a neat bank on the other side of the river that was straight up for 20 or 30 feet- once we climbed up and out of the river bed, the trail turned right and we trotted along the top of the cliff, being absolutely sure not to turn right. It would have been quite a drop. More single track took us across the short little valley to the foothills, where we stopped for a drink and turned to the left up a little climb to the top of more cool ridges, all on single track. We hopped off and bulldogged down a steep downhill trail that led us to a soft road that we started trotting on, but that’s where we ran into the monster. Right in the middle of the road was an active oil well, doing its pumping thing. We started to cross Ewing 23, but the four horses said “uh-uh.” We did a nice synchronized maneuver where we had four horses bending away from the terrible device, all the way off the road in some cases. The ponies did not like this ugly thing! It was being run by a diesel generator that was droning along, with that giant arm going up and down, squeaking, with the giant round counter weight wheel spinning around, looking for all the world like a giant, oily-black, sooty dragon that smelled really foul. Heck- I’d be scared of the thing! Judy, Laura, and I got our three horses to move by it okay- I was pleased Don went by so well, but he was behind the other two horses. We neglected to notice, however, that poor Gary, on giant Annie, was stuck. She wanted to follow the horses, but did not want to go by the demon, and started to get a little frantic. Gary hopped off and led her on by, which went fine. We were so focused on getting by we left the poor Annie to fight that monster all by herself! Once past the scare of the morning we trotted around some hills to a road with yet another water trough. Once past that we started the big climb up a three mile flat dirt road to the top of a small range of hills. We walked up the whole thing, in fact I got off and led all the way up it to get some exercise for me. That worked! It was steep enough in places to get me puffing pretty well, but the lead all the way back down was much easier. Half way down we came across Ewing 24- uh oh. No worries- this baby was dead and just looked like a strange work of metal sculpture out on the road. A little further down the road we came across Ewing 25, and this one was running, but was being powered by a giant electric motor that made no sound. We were leading by it on foot, so none of the horses really cared. Judy took Color over to look at it closely- I wish I had a video camera. He stood under the giant oil well and watched the spinning counter weight go around and around, his whole head going around in big circles, matching the rotation of the giant wheel. It made everyone laugh! We left the last of the oil wells behind as we made our way down from the hills back to the valley, where we turned right along the fence line and trotted a couple of miles to the spot where we went back across the river and under the highway to the vet check. Boy, it was crowded in there. There were just too many horses for the available space, and wouldn’t you know it, it began to rain lightly. Judy and I found a spot under a tree that kept us mostly dry while we waited our hour. The food at these rides is sure good- Hot dogs, tuna or egg salad sandwiches for everyone. Chips, drinks, candy, all the good stuff. We left the hold and began the long trot up a beautiful canyon that was a half mile wide and full of flowers. It was a genuine cow trail, complete with cows. Dave had told us at the ride meeting we had to be sure we did not disturb any cows at all if we wanted to come back. In fact his words were: “Don’t even LOOK like you are chasing cows.” So here we are, walking up a beautiful single track trail that is just screaming to be trotted on, following a herd of 12 stupid cows that are walking up the trail in front of us. If we walked any faster than they were, (not hard to do!) they would start trotting up the trail. If we tried to pass them, the stupid things would trot. And of course they had to stay right on the cow trail. What to do? We followed the dumb beeves for twenty minutes or so, until we finally had enough and went way wide around them in the field, going cross country to cut them off. It worked! We left the cows in our wake as we trotted up the neat canyon. The trail got a little more technical as we neared the hills, and provided a few neat logs to jump over. We crossed a stream and headed left up a steep hill that brought us to a serious ridge trail that wound up and down along the top of a big series of hills. There were some pretty hairy drops off to the sides, but it was all trot through there with breaks to walk up and down the steep stuff. This neat trail ended too soon; we dropped down off the ridge and were suddenly back at camp, but had to turn right and head away on another loop, much to the disappointment of some of the horses. We rode along a road for a while, then turned back towards camp on a great trail that wound back and forth in the trees. We boogied along this superb trail all the way back to camp and the finish line, arriving around 5:00 or so. The horses all looked great, but Color’s pulse was hanging a little too high after an hour, so Judy elected to give him the next day off. He has been doing this exact thing a few times now; she is determined to figure out what’s going on. We had a nice dinner at our camp, and after walking the horses several times, we went of to bed.

Day two came with no rain, but still cloudy in the morning. Gary and Laura’s daughter Jamie was riding Smoky today, and would be going faster than Gary and I planned to, so it was just him and me today. We headed out from camp on another trail that went straight up the valley to the base of the mountains. We were moving along a little faster today and passed several horses. A barking dog was protecting a water trough from the horses at a ranch house; its owner was on the porch and kept telling me to throw something at it. I flipped a rock at the growling cur, and voila, it worked. We were left to continue in peace. We turned around and trotted down a long, straight road that eventually took us back near camp and onto the really neat ridge again, this time in the opposite direction than day one. We caught up to John Parke on his little wonder horse Remington; poor John had to put up with a string of lawyer jokes at his expense from a bunch of riders in the group. (What’s the difference between a dead skunk on a highway and a dead lawyer on the same road? The skid marks that lead up to the skunk.) His response was classic, and can’t be reproduced here! He’s a good sport. The neat ridge trail got a little crowded at times, since it is all single file, (unless you have a parachute!) but we all made it down onto a road that headed back down the valley. We went down a hill and turned right at a water trough. (tons of water on this ride) We took off up a cow trail that wound its way all the way back up the long valley to the hills. It was so much fun, just trotting along the trail, swooping around turns, zooming down and up gullies, and playing slalom skier once we hit the trees. We really jammed up this trail; it was the highlight of the ride for me so far. We ended up back on top of a ridge and took a steep down hill to yet another neat canyon trail that eventually wound its way back to camp. We got to have lunch in camp on this day- much better than yesterday. The weather had turned absolutely beautiful with full sun, 55 degrees and no clouds. Let’s get back out there! We left camp and somehow found ourselves back up that cool ridge again, but this time we crossed over it. We had to negotiate some really rocky stream beds, but compared to the desert this was a freeway. Down a nice road and lookie here! We are at the top of the cow meadow again, this time heading down. Once clear of the little jumps and streams on top, we started the big trot all the way down the meadow, with no cows to worry about today. Don and I led the whole thing at a nice trot, just loving every minute of it. We must have trotted for thirty minutes- it was wonderful. We ended back up at that crowded vet check that was now just a hay stop. Gary and I spent about twenty minutes here taking a break, letting the ponies eat. We finally got going again and rode under the highway and back across the river. We turned right and unlike the big mountain road of day 1, we got to trot down a dead straight road, right down the valley floor for five miles or so. The footing was perfect, and was actually grass for the last half. We stopped a couple of times to let the horses eat some grass, if for no other reason it looked so nice. We reached the end of the valley and crossed the river again, headed back under the highway, and began the trek back up the valley. We turned at the water and went backwards on the day one trail all the way up the long meadow and over the small ridge trail. We made it in to the finish at about 3pm with our horses looking great. Another yummy camp dinner and more horse walking got us ready for bed, at 8:00 no less.

Monday morning came with nice weather again, looking even better than the day before. After quick jaunt up the mountain, Dave determined that the ride could not go up the big climb due to ice on the roads, so he had to once again get creative on the trail routing. Judy was riding again, as were Laura and Jamie. I took Don’s blanket off and noticed a little spot of sweat on his flanks. I didn’t think much of it, sine he has done this in the past, but when I started to brush it, he was sensitive to the touch there. Uh oh, not good. I don’t know what this is, but he’s not going today, that’s for sure. Judy, Laura, and Jamie took off, leaving Gary and me in camp. Bummer, but that’s okay. The sweat went away in a short while, and I asked Dave about it. This “second sweat” happens to some horses and does not seem to be a problem, but it’s weird to have the spot be sensitive to touch. He suggested it could be a cramp, he might have tweaked himself while rolling, or possibly electrolyte imbalance. The sensitivity went away by the next morning; I’m certainly going to pay attention to this one, and will probably draw blood before and after his next ride and do a comparison. The girls had a good ride while Gary and I guarded camp all day. They reported the trail was great, and Judy was really pleased with how Color had been feeling- strong, happy, and forward. He looked great at the end- pulse down, eating, all the right stuff. But unfortunately it happened again- after 30 minutes or so he got uncomfortable again, showing signs of mild colic. Darn it! And just like last time- after 45 minutes, he snaps out of it and begins eating like crazy- pulse and respiration back down, no problems. It’s off to Davis for this horse to get scoped and x-rays.

We had our third fun camp dinner as we watched rig after rig pull out. Do they know something we don’t? Jim Mitchell told us rain was coming tonight, but we should be fine getting out. Just remember your mud driving techniques. We put the waterproof blankets on the boys and headed off to bed in the nice cozy camper. (I replaced the roof on my camper this winter- no more leaks and falling through the roof!) It did rain, all night, in fact. Not really hard, but very constant. We got up at 6:00am, loaded up, and pulled out onto the road. Gary and I were the first two rigs to head down the road; there were probably 30 or so left in camp. No problem for the first mile, and we whizzed right through the big dip Jim was concerned about. Gary was going along the road and came to a section that sloped to the left a bit. I watched from behind as his trailer started to slide to the left, towards the berm on the edge of the road. Oh boy. The truck struggled to keep going forward without sliding down into the little ditch. He was dragging the trailer through the muddy ditch, and just as his truck started to head over towards the ditch he made it past the slope section and pulled the trailer back up on the road. I stopped- oh great! Now I have to try this. Let’s see- 4X4 engaged, get up a good head of steam, head up higher on the road, and go for it! We drove onto the slope and the whole rig- truck, camper and trailer, just slid down to the left into the little ditch. Gary’s skid marks had sent us sliding down. I just gunned it, hoping we had enough momentum to pull through. The rear wheels were buried in the muck, spinning their hearts out. Mud was flying everywhere, from the front wheels as well as the dualies out back. The truck was sinking fast in the rear, and with just seconds to spare before getting stuck on the axles, the truck made it to the level part of the road and out of the ditch. My heart was going pretty good after that! We barely made it. If the slope section in the road was 50 feet longer, if it was not slightly downhill, if we were going 5 MPH slower, if I had not had 4X4, no way would we have gotten out. I looked back at the hole I had dug- I felt sorry for who was coming next. I still don’t know if anyone got stuck, but there were a few of those 18,000 pound trailers back there. My truck looked like it had been part of a mud experiment, but the nice five hour drive home through the pouring rain cleaned it up nicely. This is California, and it’s supposed to be spring!

Two more great rides on my little beast, and now he’s 15 for 15 and still going strong. Our first 100 is coming up this summer- don’t know which yet, but I know he can do it with ease. Did I say I was having fun on this guy? Uh huh! We will get Color figured out as soon as possible- Judy reports he’s getting much better as he gets more experience. I’d highly recommend the Cuyama Oaks ride as a must do, but I better say it was terrible, so there may be less people there next time. I think there may be a different limit on the next one. (I’ll enter early)

Nick Warhol

Hayward, Ca.