Mariposa “Run for the Gold” ride

June 25^th, 2005

 

I just love going to a ride that I have not done before, especially a ride like this one.  For those of you not in California, I have a little geography lesson for you.   Yosemite Park is in Mariposa County, and is about 40 miles from this ride as the blue-footed booby flies.  I don’t think you will find much more spectacular scenery in the entire country than Yosemite, so it follows that this ride should be pretty neat.  It has a reputation for being a rather tough trail, so I was looking forward to checking it out.  It would be the second ever ride for my new horse, Don.  Four weeks ago he and I did the long day one at the Wild West Ride that also qualified as a pretty good workout.  He just blew through that one and looked perfect all day; I could not be much happier with his performance so far.  (Except for the one, tiny, little flying lesson he gave me, but that’s another story)

 

The drive up to base camp at about 4000 feet did not disappoint- just look at this place!  Beautiful Sierra Nevada mountain forest all around as far as you can see.  The base camp is located at a place called the “Circle 9” ranch that used to be a huge apple farm, and is now a working ranch.  (What a location!) The camp itself is a big, level meadow that was an oat hay field until the day before the ride.  The horses just bend down and chow.  Pretty handy!  The meadow is surrounded by giant trees that let you know you are in the mountains.  Ponderosa  pines, maybe?  The ride provides a “bring your own meat” (to cook) BBQ on Friday night that led into the ride meeting.  Ride Manager Bill Parker led the group in a little stand up comedy routine with some funny stories, but then got down to business.  There was a pretty large turnout for the event this year- about 85 started the 50 and another 20 or so in the 25.   Saturday morning was cool and very calm, especially at the 6 am start time.   The ride starts out of the meadow and jumps right onto a soft, shaded, rolling jeep road through the trees.  There’s a nice, big, clear blue pond over on the right side of the trail you can see through the trees.  (It would qualify as a lake in Nevada)  I was walking along leading my horse, nice and relaxed, while the LD riders, who started only 15 minutes after us, came by.  They were all very polite and passed nicely.  This perfect road ended in a mile or so and dumped us onto a hard mountain fire road that began climbing up the mountain.  It was trottable, so we trotted along until we came to the trot by vet check at 4 miles.  They wanted you to dismount and trot in hand, so we did, but as Judy trotted her big, long legged, lanky Appy down the slope, he tripped and went crashing down to his knees, right in front of the vets.  The rocky road really cut up his knees, and he was very sore.  Poor Judy was done after only 4 miles!  And I lost my buddy horse!   Don took his first drink here, but was a little confused as we left the check without Color- they called to each other until they were out of earshot distance.  I was on my own now for the next 46 miles, so on we went.  The trail continued for a couple of miles on a new jeep road that had pretty good footing, but rolled up and down without much level ground.   We climbed up a little hill and looked down at the downhill- it was one of those long, steep, soft, rocky things they have in these Sierra Mountains.  I hopped off and bulldogged my way down, trying not to fall down myself, thinking how similar this hill was to those SOB’s in the Virginia City 100.  The nasty hill was pretty short, but the down hill was long, so I walked and jogged down the fire roads on foot for a couple of miles.  The roads finally leveled out, so I hopped back up and we started trotting along.  The scenery was fantastic.  It was hard not to stare out off the trail at some of the views- you could see across valleys and other mountain ranges.  Boy, it looks steep out there!  There were lots of sheer faces, like in Yosemite.  The roads kept rolling along, up and down, with the footing ranging from good to rocky at times.  I was glad I put pads on his front feet.  One thing I noticed was how much water there was out here- the ride had water placed just about every 4 miles all day- outstanding!  Don was drinking very well at most of the stops.  I realized how beautiful the weather was, mid 70s maybe, very nice.  This ride would be pretty tough if it were 95 degrees.   

 

The trail stuck to the fire roads for a couple of miles, but then turned down a neat single track trail through the forest that was fun to trot on for a bit, but turned steep, so we walked on down to another fire road.  Off to the left was another great view, but this valley was full of smoke from the controlled burns the forest service has been doing here.  Part of the burn had come right to the edge of the road, and smoke was coming right over the side.  The horses didn’t care, though, so on we went through the smoky area.  We now just trot along on some good fire roads, rolling up and down through the mountains.  We came up to a clearing ahead-my horse took a look and started snorting- is it a bear?  A Mountain Lion? A fire?  No, a water trough, but I can’t blame him for being alarmed- this was a water trough like I have never seen.  It was a bright orange and yellow inflatable water trough, if you can believe that, and was about twenty feet by twenty feet in size.  It looked just like one of those inflatable Johnny-Jumper balloon play houses that kids get to bounce around in at parties, except it had no walls, and was full of water!  Probably a thousand gallons.   The horses crept up to it, very suspicious, until they started drinking.  The trail continued on along the forest roads for the next few miles, until we reached an area with some ranches, where we found the first vet check.  It was supposed to be a 15 minute hold, but there were a ton of horses and only 2 vets, so we got an extra half hour of eating and rest.  No problem for me!   Jamie Fend was here- she elected to pull Smokey after he was a little off.  She’s entered in Tevis and was taking no chances.  Once clear of the vet check, we took off on more rolling gravel roads, these a little more traveled than the ones earlier.  Kind of hard packed, but not too bad with some softer dirt at the edges.  I got off and ran down a long, windy road, with Don trotting along beside me. After a while we got routed onto an amazing road that followed a creek for a mile or more.  It was totally shaded and very straight with perfect footing, but slightly downhill.  Whoopie!  I was riding with a few other horses that were going really fast along here, so what the heck!  We alternated between a fast trot and a canter- really fun!  I finally backed off, not wanting to go that fast, but it was sure neat.   I met up with Robin Everet at a creek crossing and spent the next few miles riding along with her.  We rode through an old gold mine area called the Sweetwater Mine, which had a lot of old, broken down equipment that included what looked like a wooden Conestoga wagon, 20 feet long, with a half dozen generators on it.  Bizarre, to say the least.  Once clear of the history museum, the trail met back up with the intersection where the trot by was that claimed Judy, so we just followed the route the four miles back to camp for our hour hold.   That loop wasn’t bad at all, but if only there were more single track!

 

Don breezed through the vet looking very nice, and was eating happily. After lunch I set out on the second loop near the end of the pack.  I was alone again, and started trotting out that same nice road, my horse very happy to be going and quite forward.  Past the nice pond again, but this time we hung a right and went the other direction on a hard gravel road.  We turned off in a few hundred yards on a very tight, very green single track trail that wound through the trees.   All right!  We just trucked through there until it ended way too soon.  The whole ride could be on trails like that as far as I’m concerned.  After exiting the trail between several rusty 55 gallon drums, (?) we popped out of the woods, crossed a paved road, and then turned down a residential dirt road with lots of houses around.  A right turn in a mile or so deposited us on a nice trail that led down a long way along yet another stream.  There were some trail marking problems here earlier in the ride, but it had been fixed, since it looked like a ribbon exhibit when I came through.  I hopped off and walked down the trail for a while, just enjoying the afternoon, walking along the creek in the shade, just me and my happy horse.  Don looks up and his ears go forward- there’s a horse cantering towards us.  It’s the leader on her way back to the finish, about 4 miles back behind me.   Thirty seconds later here comes Dennis Tracy in hot pursuit.  Don’s a little confused- shouldn’t we follow those horses?   No, forward we go.  We go on a while and then turn off the road onto a nice forest trail when third place comes blasting by.  Now we get treated to a really pretty single track trail that winds all over the place through some really dense forest, thick with greenery.  In some spots you could barely see the ground, the greenery was so thick.  Boy, this is neat.  Except when the horses come at us from ahead.  It took some creative maneuvering to let the top ten pass safely.  I’m climbing up the single track to a road, where I see a top ten rider waiting for me to get up off the trail before heading down.  There’s a considerate rider.  No surprise- it turns out to be Michelle Roush.  We then head up onto a nice, rolling, shaded fire road with lots of giant puddles in the middle of the road.  The footing is again nice, and we trot the mostly uphill road.  We round a bend and find the heliport where there is yet another water trough, and a group of people taking numbers.  Teresa Cross filled my water bottle up for me before we start up the long climb up to 5 corners.   This is an ugly, rocky, and pretty steep road exposed to the sun that we just walk up for a couple of miles.   Don is happy to just chug up the hill at his nice, fast walk.  We pass a few riders at our nice walk before we reach the top, where we turn left and start down.  You know that old saying, what goes up, must go down?  Somebody wrote that saying in the Sierra Nevada.   I hop off and we jog down the long grade on more roads.  After reaching the bottom of this hill, way, way, down the canyon, we turn right on another nice forest road that is actually rolling and somewhat level.  This road is fun- we are bopping along and pass a few slower horses along the way.  I round a corner to find a creek crossing where I run into Gary and Laura Fend.  I joined up with them and continued on down the nice trotting road, Don leading the way, just forward and calm.  Oh so nice!   I came to a stream crossing with a very steep bank with a straight lip of about a foot high that the horse had to step down.  Don wasn’t too sure, so he stepped down into the creek with his front feet, with his hinds on the top.  He’s standing there, with his front feet in the creek, at an angle that seems like 90 degrees, and if I had been leaning forward, I would have slipped right off the front and gone swimming.  I urged him forward, and he stepped down with a splash.  Good boy! 

 

After another mile or two we reached the 40 vet check at the creek- nice location!  Water everywhere, shade, just a pretty place to be.  Don is at 52 for the P&R, and his CRI was 48/44.  I’ll take it!  We let the three horses eat for the 15 minute hold, then continue up to the last big climb.  Up, down, up, down, yep- we had to go up again.  This road was in much better shape, and parts of it could be trotted up, but it was another long haul to the top.  Once at the summit, we headed back down to 5 corners and back down that nasty, rocky road again.  We just got off and walked back down to the heliport and more water.  Once mounted again, it was back through that wonderful single track the way we came.  The three of us trotted most of the way back, and we really flew down that last wonderful stint of trail that I wanted to do all day long.  Past the nice pond for the last time, and we find ourselves back in camp at the finish.  Over too soon!  I was very pleased with how Don looked- his CRI was something like 52/44, he was eating like a fiend, and his trot out looked like he had at the start.  Jo the vet said very nice, lots of horse left here.  Big smiles!  Happy Rider!  100 Mile horse?  I sure hope so!  

 

I felt pretty bad for poor Color; luckily his knees were looking better after some ice, but he was still quite sore.  Dennis Tracy caught that first place horse to take the win.  I’m pretty sure Michelle Roush got BC.  The ride gave the finishers a choice of a belt buckle or two wine glasses as their awards.  And get this- they don’t call this ride the Mariposa “Run for the gold” for nothing!  The top ten award?  GOLD!  Yes, gold.  They give the riders a little vial of actual gold mined from the rivers up there, although probably not enough to buy a new truck with.   That’s about the coolest ride award I’ve seen to date.   I believe there were 69 finishers out of 85 starters on the 50.  I know we had superb weather conditions- it may have been a different story in the real heat.  I sure had a great time, and it certainly won’t be my last time here. 

 

Nick Warhol

Hayward, Ca