The Lake Sonoma 50, 2002
Absolutely beautiful, and Judy’s a hero!
Picture yourself here. The golden, rolling, oak tree infested hills of the wine country in Northern California, in October, in the sunshine, cool 70 Degree weather, not a cloud in the sky, a beautiful, clean lake, and a 50 mile ride of which 40 miles is all very nicely groomed and shaded single track trails. If the rest of the country is not jealous yet, it should be. I hate to say it, but Northern California is really blessed when it comes to endurance riding, especially this time of year. The Lake Sonoma ride has been going on for about 10 years, I think, run by long time Northern California Endurance riders Ruth and Ron Waltenspiel. They missed this year’s ride, since they were in China for some reason. The ride was very capably managed by Jennifer Niehaus and her husband Jon. Jennifer comes from good stock- her parents are Dennis and Joyce Sousa; these two are way up there on the list of great endurance people. Rather than ride, they helped work the event in every capacity there is. The ride is held in the rolling hills next to Lake Sonoma, about 70 miles or so North of San Francisco. One major downside of California? We need to quit tracking distance in miles and switch to hours. Three hours to drive about 90 miles? Come on! It took forever to wade through the traffic up highway 101, but we eventually arrived at the camp on Friday afternoon with plenty of daylight left. I have ridden in the Lake Sonoma area, and have done the Hashknife 50 miler up her, but had not been able to do this ride before, due mostly to it being canceled in the past by rain. Poor Gary and Laura Fend were hosting a party back home on Friday night, called “The we can’t go to the Lake Sonoma Ride” party. Most of the horses in their group pasture are sick and very un-rideable. We were thinking about you guys.
I was happy, since once again I was mounted on Warpaint the wonder Appaloosa. He’s getting old, this one, but still full of fire. Judy would ride Wabi the well-trained on what would be his fourth 50 miler. She rides him in a string halter with great results. Try that with Warpaint! You would get to wherever HE was going in a big hurry for certain. Sally Abe brought her new horse Phathom for his 6th fifty this year- he’s turning into a really nice horse, but he’s on the competitive side, which can be a neat thing too. She sure loves him! We got setup in the small camp and shared trailer space with Tevis winner Judy Reens and her husband Dennis Tracy. No Benji this ride, Judy was riding Streak, half brother to our own Wabi. Napa area Vet extraordinaire Jamie Kerr was there, riding on the horse that had fallen off the Tevis trail a few months ago. Jamie was showing everyone all the little healed scars; the horse looked really fit. I took Warpaint out for a walk to loosen him up for the vet in- he’s been looking kind of clunky lately, but today he looked fine. Sally, Judy and I went out for a ride down near the lake, where Sally learned the hard way about Manzanita bushes. I learned long ago, from my motorcycle racing days, that these are not mortal bushes. No sir, they are 4110 Chrome Molly steel bushes. When you hit them, you give, they don’t. She brushed under a branch and about got taken off the back of her horse! We returned to camp to have dinner and attend the ride meeting. This ride has a twist- it goes one way, around the huge lake, and then the riders get shuttled via trailer from the finish to the base camp, only a few miles away. Head Vet Roger Hanes gave a little history lesson about the area at the end of the meeting when someone asked him- he was born and raised around here.
The ride started at a very civilized 7:15 am, the weather was cool enough to wear a jacket as we headed out down some fire roads that led down hill. There were somewhere around 75 horses, making lots of traffic early on. Warpaint was doing his hurry up thing, but he’s controllable. Phathom, on the other hand, wanted to get up and get going. He was certain he should be leading this thing, rather than be back here in the middle of the pack trying to cruise. We rode along the roads in traffic for a while, trying to keep a moderate pace going. Judy Reens joined up with us, and a moment later, Lari Shea comes cantering backwards on the trail, shouting, ”Rider Down, Rider Down!” Uh oh. We came across the rider, he had fallen off hard and was sitting on the side of the trail. Other riders had stopped and were staying with him until help came. He had broken some ribs, and it turned out even punctured a lung slightly. Ouch! He was talking, saying, “Oh, I’m okay, but I’m sure done.” We continued on down the trail on very strong horses, until we came to a long, pretty steep climb. Some people like to think that climbs like this will slow down, or calm down horses. You should have seen Phathom! He wanted to sprint up, and the Appy wasn’t far behind him. We jigged all the way up, and at the top we sent Sally on ahead. Her horse was just too strong, so she decided to let him out a bit. See ya! Just wait until this horse gets some miles under his saddle! Judy R and I rode adown the backside of the hill until we hit the first single track trail. I’m a long time, hard core, self confessed single track trail fanatic anyway, and on Warpaint, there’s nothing better. We flew along in the trees, zipping in and out, powering up the hills, swooping the turns, just having a merry old time. Poor Streak had to really work to keep up with the War Pony. We passed several horses in the many “turnouts” that were along the trail. The course wound up right at the foot of base camp, but we had to go on by and head down towards the lake. We had the leaders come by on their way back up, Judy’s husband Dennis was up in the top 6 or 7 somewhere, looking good. We got to the bottom, made the turnaround, and headed back up. No sign of my Judy yet, so into camp for the first vet check at 13 miles.
I had my only real delay of the day here, when I went to get checked in. They were using the pulse box technique, where you present your horse when it is recovered, then get your in-time. That works great for Warpaint, since he always takes a few minutes longer to come down than those Arabs. I took him over to the truck to cool him down, we spent his normal 5-8 minutes or so for him to get to 56/60. I then led him back to the pulse box, except that it wasn’t a pulse box, it was a single file line of horses waiting to get into the pulse box. Hmmmm. It took a couple of minutes to process each horse, there were a bunch of horses in the line, I spent an extra 20 minutes in line before I was able to get timed in. Warpaint didn’t mind, he was eating the whole time, and his pulse was 48 by the time he finally got up there. I heard there was another accident in the vet check, apparently a woman was kicked very hard in the leg by a horse in the vet area and was hurt badly. There was a thirty-minute hold at the first check, and since Sally and Judy R had gotten right in the vet line, they left me in camp, all alone! We headed out right on our minute and continued down the road, towards the start of the real single-track trails. A few minutes later we turned right onto a great trail that ran through the trees, right along the edge of the lake. For the next 45 minutes we just trucked down this trail. No other horses, just me and Mister Spots, who was in his perfect cruise-missile mode. He just trots, and trots, not stopping or slowing for anything. It’s the best! We’d pass people here and there, since he won’t tolerate being behind another horse, but boy, he makes tracks.
After a while we caught up to Judy R, but moved on by. The single track just kept going and going. We crossed a nice stream and climbed up a short road, then another dive into the trees, and more trail. Someone did their work out here- the trees were trimmed, no rocks, really nice. A long downhill led us down into the lunch stop, held in a spot next to a nice stream that was perfect for cooling them down. Sally had been in for about 30 minutes already when we showed up. Warpaint pulsed down fine and started his eating binge. The weather was perfect, lunch was tasty, and the horses got a nice hour break. I heard that there had been yet another accident, someone had fallen off and had broken a collarbone and was on the way to the hospital. Sally left on time, she was really moving up through the pack, and was loving every minute of it. Warpaint and I left lunch by ourselves and took off on even more single track trails. Dennis had said that the last section of the ride had the nicest trails. He was right! The last couple of hours went by way too fast. It was just nonstop trotting on really nice trails through the trees and forests. We were going on a long loop around the lake, you could see the fisherman, boats, and water-skiers out there doing their thing. We were a little surprised at this huge Park Service helicopter that was buzzing all over the place; at one point it came down to a few hundred feet above our heads. The trail was under the canopy of trees, there was nowhere for him to land, what in the heck was he looking for? I would find out later.
We passed a few horses along this nice, long, section, and at the last water stop, about 2 miles from the finish, we caught up to Jamie Kerr and a woman he had been riding with. I rode along behind them on the nice trail, we chatted while trotting along. We knew the finish was coming up; Jamie was leading our trio along the nice trail. We climbed up a little rise, and over to the left, through the trees, we could see the parking area where the finish line was. We trotted along, towards the paved road crossing, where there was a slight turn uphill to the right. Whoops- Jamie missed the turn, the woman he was with followed him. He stopped and turned around in about five seconds, only to see Warpaint and I make the quick turn uphill and move ahead of him. Got him! I smiled and sort of laughed- we made the pass and Warpaint hurried to the finish line, about a hundred yards later. Sorry about that, Jamie, we just happened to be in the right place at the right time! The appy and I ended up in 18th, I think, rather than 20th, at the expense of poor Jamie. There was lots of water and treats for the horses at the finish, and there were trailers waiting to take us the five minutes back to camp. That worked out really well. What a great ride! I felt like going out and doing the last 30 miles again, it was so neat. Sally had ended up in 11th place on Phathom, by just slowly moving up through the pack. Like I’ve said about him before: just wait until she actually tries to go someplace on that horse in a hurry. Dennis Tracy won the ride in sort of the same manner- he worked his way up all day and left lunch if first. We put the horses up, I took a shower, had snacks and a couple of beers, and waited for Judy. We had heard some wild stories about a tree being down on the trail, causing some riders to be delayed, but no one really knew what was up.
We waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Where in the heck were Judy and Wabi? I finished at two pm, it was after 5 when we heard word about what had happened out there on the trail before lunch. Judy, Teresa, the Beneditti’s, Jazon Wonders, and others were involved in a horse and rider rescue that stalled the ride for a couple of hours. Here’s what happened in Judy’s own words:
Initial warning and good news: The girl and the horse were both OK as of Saturday evening after the ride.
I was riding with Sarah Eaton and Jenny, a junior she was sponsoring (I don't know her last name). We had ridden together in the morning and I had asked them if I could go out with them at lunch so that Wabi (and I ) could have some company on the afternoon loop. We were trucking along nicely with Jenny in the front when we came to a spot with a small amount of water crossing the trail. It was single-track trail above the lake on a steep hillside and the water came down in a place where the trail was in a 'V' that went down to a ravine. As we came to the water, Jenny's horse stopped and didn't want to go across. He didn't seem upset about the water, just a little hesitant, so Sarah had Jenny back up and she went across the water first. Jenny's horse seemed OK with following Sarah's horse. The problem occurred when Jenny's horse followed Sarah's horse a little too soon and decided to jump over the small bit of water. He really didn't give any warning that he would do it, he had only hesitated slightly at first and then not at all when following Sarah's horse. When he jumped the water, Sarah's horse was in his way and he scrambled straight up the embankment with Jenny clinging to his back. He fell backwards and Jenny "rode him to the ground" as Tony Benedetti would later say. Wabi and I just watched the whole thing happen in what seemed like slow motion. As Jenny and her horse crashed backwards to the ground, they slid down the narrow ravine that was full of loose dirt and tree branches. They were stuck with the horse laying downhill on his back and Jenny still underneath him. Jenny did a great job of not totally freaking out while stuck under a horse -- what an amazing 14 year old she is!
Sarah and I jumped off our horses and tried to get Jenny out from under her horse, but they were entangled in the branches. We were trying to help Jenny but couldn't move the horse. I had let Wabi go and although he stood there for a few moments, when Jenny's horse was thrashing around (with her underneath), he decided it was time to leave. He was the least of my worries, but it turns out that he had a small role in helping. He alerted the next group of riders coming down the trail that something was amiss. The riders (Tony and Terry Benedetti and Teresa Cross) came across Wabi traveling backwards towards them on the trail and knew something was up. Teresa later told me it was like Timmy and Lassie, where Wabi was being Lassie going to get help because Timmy was down in the well. Wabi turned around when he saw them and went back towards me. Tony had already returned someone's loose horse earlier that morning, so since he was the designated "catcher of loose horses" he jumped off his horse to catch Wabi.
I was relieved to hear his voice as Tony came down the trail and asked if something was up. I told him we definitely needed help. When he saw the situation, he asked "where's the rider?" and I said "she's under the horse, you have to help us get her out". I recall him saying something along the lines of "Oh my god, I have no <expletive deleted> idea what to do" as he was assessing the situation. Of course, he had immediately jumped into action and was down next to Jenny trying to disengage her from the horse. Shortly after Tony arrived, either we flipped the horse over or he did it himself (can't remember) and Jenny was free! Sarah took her back down the trail to a place where there was space to sit and tie Sarah's horse while we tried to figure out what to do.
When Tony didn't immediately return from going after the loose horse (Wabi), Terri came down the trail to see what was up. The horse was stuck downhill on his side with one of his feet stuck on metal pole in the ravine. We moved his back leg off the piece of metal but then he was stuck further down in a cave-like section of the ravine and had his head turned backwards, impeding his breathing. Terri decided that this might be a situation for Teresa (or "Super Teresa" as I'll call her in the future). Between Teresa, Tony, Jazon Wonders and Terri, they got the horse out of the terrible position he was in and down to a place in the ravine where he could stand. Teresa stayed with him the whole time and Tony kept them company.
In the meantime, Lettie Smeding had gone with Sarah's cell phone to call 911 and get help. All the riders behind us had been stuck waiting while we got Jenny out and got the horse out of his initial predicament. Some of them, like Gail Hought, her riding partner, and Jazon's riding partner, had been holding people's horses so that they could help with the rescue. After the horse was in a place where he could stand quietly, the riders that had been held up were able to get by. Everyone was very helpful.
Jenny was very shook up but miraculously, it seemed that she did not have any serious injuries. As we waited for the 911 response she got better and better. After seeing the horse lying on top of her I was thrilled that she was looking so good.
After a while we heard a siren and a boat with firemen and park folks came to help, hiking up the steep hill from the lake with all their gear. There was even a helicopter circling that caused me great concern because by that time I was holding Tony, Terri, and Teresa's horses and we had Wabi and Sarah's horse both tied to trees. I really didn't want to find out if they were all "helicopter broke". Jenny was feeling better and stated that she definitely did not want to go in the helicopter, so Jenny and Sarah went down to the boat with the rescue folks. By that time one of the drag riders (I don't know her name) and Jennifer Niehaus the ride manager had ridden out to the scene. The rescuers were working on the trail to get the horse turned around and out. After a while I heard a commotion and then Jennifer was leading the horse that had gotten in trouble down the trail. He was out! Jennifer and the drag rider took both Sarah's and Jenny's horses back to camp. Terri, Tony, Teresa, and myself all jumped on our horses who had been standing tied or held for the approximately 2 1/2 hours that the whole event was going on. After extracting a promise from Jennifer to have the lunch folks wait for us, we headed off without further incident. The rest of the ride was great! We had a blast.
We finished at about 6:00pm and when we got back to camp we were thrilled to see Jenny walking around, sore but without serious injury. I understand that the horse was also OK. It was a scary experience that we were all exceptionally lucky to have such a good outcome.
Quite an adventure, to say the least. Sarah Eaton got up at the awards meeting and thanked everyone who had helped her daughter. I think anyone at the ride would have done the same thing for any rider. Jim Kirk’s (what a name) 20 year old horse won BC, that was pretty neat. Aside from a few people injuries, and one huge scare, the ride was a lot of fun. If you like single track, don’t miss this one.
Nick Warhol
Hayward, Ca.