You can find the scoop on the weekend (the results are under Events/2010/ZumbroBottomBoogie), but here’s the real poop!!
Rick Nelson and Jack Shea arrived mid-afternoon on Friday and set up their respective camps. We, on the other hand, arrived in a light rain around 7:15 pm. Because of the rain and because we didn’t know our way around the campground, we pulled in and parked at the first opening we saw, which was right across from the pavilion. Needless to say, we found ourselves in “Ride Central”. Who needs an alarm clock when the riders (“15 Minutes!!!”) started leaving (“10 Minutes!!!”) at 5:00 am (“5 Minutes!!!”). Arrrrrrggghhhhh. The good news is, we didn’t have to move the cart after dropping it for vet checks, and our water and hay and munchies were exceptionally convenient!
Friday nights light rain turned into a crazy thunderstorm. Fortunately the wind wasn’t extreme, but there certainly was a lot of rain!! During the rider’s meeting, Barry Saylor, ride manager said that the ground was exceptionally sandy, so even with all the rain, trails would be OK in the morning. The rain stopped during the night, and things dried out quite well by mid morning.
Drivers headed out at 10 am. The 20 mile course was a 10 mile “purple” trail, a vet check and 50 minute hold, and a 10 mile “white” trail. The 10 mile course was the “white” trail.
Rick and we decided to go for the 20 mile course, while Jack opted for the 10 mile trek. We left first, as Rick wanted to have tracks to follow and a front door after he caught up! The “purple” trail headed out of camp and immediately went up and over a major hill. The trail surface was crushed rock/gravel and plenty wide, so, great footing, but very steep. There were probably about 2 miles of mountain climbing. We then crossed the big bridge over the Zumbro River and headed out on the “River Trail”, which was the other end of the stick! Flat, narrow, muddy, twisty, a very difficult trail! Somewhere in the muck, we missed a turn, and took about a 1 mile side trip until we decided to turn around. Guess what? In the process, Rick noticed, and made the turn and we got to follow HIS tracks! After approximately 2 miles of River Trail, there was a final mile of gravel forest road to the point where we turned around and retraced our steps back to camp! By this time, the temperature was in the low 80’s and it was getting mighty humid! When we got back to camp, Rick had already finished his P&R and was holding for a recheck. So much for being his front door!! We passed our P&R and our boys got a little break. In the meantime, Rick’s Buddy didn’t cool down enough and we had to make the rest of the trip alone!
Before we headed out again, Jack returned to camp. He told us that the “white” trail was a wonderful shaded railroad bed (so, very flat!), which then crossed the big bridge, then followed a minimal maintenance forest road. After experiencing the “purple” trail, “white” was sounding pretty good.
He was absolutely correct! It was truly a relaxing and wonderful trail! Again, it was an “out and back” trail. When we returned to the river, our wonderful drive screeched to a halt. The gates at the bridge were closed and locked!! The gate on the far side of the river was actually about 100’ back from the bridge. With about ½” to spare on either side, Tim was able to drive through the walkthrough for the first gate. Before getting out on the bridge, I got off and trotted across to see if we’d be able to do the same thing on the other side! There would be no way to back the horses for that distance if we drove over to find out!! In fact, I found that the gate on that side had a narrow, slanted metal walk-through, wide enough to ride 1 horse through, only. Yes, the gates were firmly locked! And it was too high to try to lift or finagle the carriage over (IF we were to try unhitching and leading the horses through… which we did NOT!)! Oh, and I forgot to mention one important detail—there is no cell phone service anywhere in the Zumbro River valley!! Or in camp!! I didn’t even bring my phone, and Tim’s had roamed and searched for towers all day….. so the battery was cooked by then!! Several riders came by and we begged them to take a message back to Barry to save us!! Tim and I seem to have a knack for getting ourselves into predicaments, and we’re good at sitting back and looking at the bright side! ;o) Let’s see: we were in the shade, there were no bugs, the horses were happy, we had buckets to go down to the river and get (natural!!!) water for them, there were (some) munchies for the horses, and there was 1 beer left in the cooler (plus water and Gatorade). And Rick wasn’t right behind us!! ;o) As the say in the movies, It Could Be Worse!!! Anyhow, 1 hour and 25 minutes later, the man with the key appeared and opened the far gate for us. Back to camp we went, cool, calm, and with a story to tell! As we were walking to the finish line, Barry (RM) was scurrying our way, apologizing over & over!! It was just a timing problem with his crew. The extra 1:25 was removed from our time and we found ourselves inside of the prescribed time window!
Saturday night after dinner and awards, Rick decided that he and we should each carry a passenger on Sunday’s drive “to increase the difficulty level”. OK Rick, you’re ON!!! So two Minnesotans rode along– Sharon with Rick, and Phil with us. We had a very nice visit with Phil, he has ridden horses literally all over the world! So many stories! Anyhow, it rained cats and dogs again Saturday night, so the “white” trail was actually quite a bit different –softer and sandier– on Sunday. But it was still a lovely drive.
In general, yes that “purple” trail was rough, but the campground and the territory is gorgeous. Barry and company were very organized, and the very best to be around! Barry did a tremendous job (with maybe 1 exception) marking trails for all the various groups of riders and drivers. But he also went to the trouble to organize the driving trails so there was barely any overlap with the riders. What a wonderful thing!! And without exception, the horses and riders were perfectly fine with us when we DID cross paths.
Hank Hauser, the camp photographer took seemingly millions of photos, check them out!! http://www.picasaweb.google.com/hankshauser click on the Zumbro photo
Kudus to Larry and Jen Allen for being Rick’s enablers and transporting his cart!! However, a warning to MDDA members….. a monster has been created. Rick is having Too Much Fun with this driving stuff! Stay tuned for more abuse from Rick! ;o)
Ruth
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