Flatwoods 50, 1998

 

 

 

Saturday, July 5th! Bears reported overrunning Northern California

endurance ride campground! Thousands flee as bears destroy.......

Hold on- I'm getting ahead of myself here. This past weekend we ventured a

long way up north to attend the Flatwoods fifty for the first time. It was

located about 2 hours north east of Redding which makes it a 7 hour drive

from the bay area. Long, hot trailer ride through the valley, but at least

there are some nice rest stops along the way on highway five. We arrived on

Friday afternoon and set up camp in a nice big field with lots of shade

trees. I brought Shatta along for his sixth fifty this year, but Warpaint

is still in the shop. Judy took him to Davis last week and found he has no

tendon or ligament damage (thank goodness), but he has either an injury to a

splint, or, heaven forbid, a very unlikely tumor in his leg. We will have a

better idea in a few days, but hopefully the huge swelling will go down.

Another 2-3 months off. Sure gets old......

Judy rode one of Donna Snyder Smith's mustangs named Falcon, who trailered up

with his buddy Mustang Hawk ridden by Pam Loftus, who might be one of the

smallest featherweights around, but still bounces with the best of them.

(more on that later, also) Hawk was pulled at his last ride a couple of

months ago for a lameness, so this was a nice slow ride to make sure he was

ok. Pam and Hawk won a fifty this year, so this is no lolygagging little

range pony- this guy can jam! Other netters- Dom was there on the little

brown Fadjurs, Kirsten Bernsten (got the name this time, K!) was there, Julie

and Bob Suhr were in attendance, and I think that's about it. 48 started the

50, 10 started the 25.

 

The ride started at 6 am for a 25 mile loop back to camp. After a short run up a

wide dirt road and a stint along side a paved road the course went into 20 of

the nicest miles I have seen in a while. Perfect moist footing, no dust,

wide roads through the forest. The last part of the loop got rocky for a few

downhill miles, but the course was marked well (no ribbon, by the way. It

was marked only with lime on the ground, and it worked great). The roads

were mostly level- safe and fun at any speed. Judy was having a blast, since

Falcon is a whole bunch more controllable than her nutty Appy. She was

sort of sick early in the ride, but felt better as the day progressed. I

was walking along on Shatta next to Pam while she was giving the speedy Hawk

some bending lessons when he decided that was enough of that, by golly. He

was a bad boy and bucked her right off! She did a perfect slow motion flip

way up in the air over the horse and onto the ground. Ouch! She landed on

her side and only received a huge bruise for her flight. She gave Hawk a

quick "lesson" in bucking after she got up- that was the first time he has

ever done that since Pam has been riding him. And much to my delight she was

wearing her helmet. You never can tell.

 

Lunch was at 25 miles- we rested up and went back out for a 15 mile loop,

which would come back to camp once again. Up a nice single track trail, up a

slight climb, more neat roads- then it started getting rocky. Not Death

Valley or Las Vegas rocky, but still much more than the first loop. We

walked most of the rocky sections, and came up to the climb. It was a two

mile uphill, but was nothing like I am used to expecting when someone says

there is a BIG climb coming. The top of Mt Diablo is a big climb- this one

was not terribly steep, but very constant. I got off and led Shatta all the

way up for conditioning purposes (Me, certainly not him!) I'm going to Tevis

in 2 weeks, so the high altitude climb was nice. We reached the summit and

began the 2 or 3 mile trot down the other side- nice easy descent, with some

rocks. The trail joined back up with the first loop and went down the same

few rocky downhill miles. It was sure cool to come around a corner and see

Mt Shasta right there, all covered with snow! I did not want to walk all the

way back down the hill with Judy and Pam, so I hopped off and jogged along

side Shatta all the way from the top to the camp. I trotted right into the

check to see how he would recover. A drink of water, to the P&R- 56. Cool!

 We vetted, and went to the truck for a 30 minute hold. Judy and Pam came in

about 10 minutes or so after I did, but Falcon took a few minutes to come

down. By the time they got their P&Rs I was ready to go, but I stuck around

an extra 40 minutes with them while Shatta ate. He is getting so much better

at eating during the rides! Off we went near the end of the pack on the

short 10 mile third loop. Back up the same trail, but this time we turned

left at the steep climb and headed back down. I was walking along on Shatta

in front when I came around a corner and saw what I thought was a goat on the

road. It turned and looked at me- it was a bear! It stood up on its hind

feet, roared, and charged us! We ran for our lives! AAIEEEEEE!!!!!!!

 

Not really, but it sounded good. The bear was indeed large, but it saw us,

turned and started jogging down the road. Shatta just looked at it the way

he looks at cows. I called Pam and Judy- they saw it run down the road about

a hundred feet from us and turn a corner. That’s when we saw the 2 bear cubs

go flying up a tree! Ever seen bears go up a tree? Man, they were fast!

Swoosh! they were up, then they turned and blazed down the tree. Great-

here we are with road separating up from mom bear and 2 cubs. We waited a

while until the cubs split into the forest, then cautiously crept down the

road. All clear- we left the area very excited. That was my first bear

spotted in the wild, and 2 cubs to boot! What a neat development.

 

Back down the loop to the finish- more rocks, but not terrible. We made it

in late in the day and vetted in. Uh-oh. Shatta was a little off at the

trot! NO! I got a completion, but there was indeed a little something

there. I was bumming about it until I found a small rock wedged between his

foot and his sneaker shoe. It looks like he just got a little foot sore- I

sure hope. He looked a ton better that evening, and even more so the next

day. Whew! I'm going to give him some time off before his next ride just to

be safe- he has done 8 rides this year, so I don’t want to push it. I had a

lot of fun on this ride on him - zero spooks, but a couple of "serious looks"

at stuff. That's Shatta- he wont spook at a helicopter landing, or a bear,

but he once jumped ten feet at the sight of a cute little cotton tail bunny

in the bushes.

 

Cool news! Kirstin won the ride! She said she was just having a perfect day

all day. She started out quick, but just kept going her pace with a strong

horse. Congratulations! How cool. Jazon Wonders snuck in for second place,

and got BC. Dom finished in the top ten, fifth, or sixth I think.

 

There was a neat pot luck after the ride- what a fun way to end the day. I

like these smaller rides a lot- it was fun to see good friends (like Scott

and Beth Wockenheim, I bet I spelled that wrong) Long drive home- Shatta

drank twice on the way home at the rest stops. I love it.

 

See everyone at Tevis!

 

Nick Warhol

 

Hayward, Ca.

 

 

Shatta Who saw the bear and didn't spook.

 

Rowan Who's going to Silver Lake this weekend while Shatta rests!