Horse is Fine, Rider is Not Quite

Saturday September 21 2013

I asked my surgeon the most important question ever: "So, how soon afterward the surgery can I RIDE?"

"Two weeks," he said. "Don't do anything strenuous before that."

So I started riding again, 2 weeks and 1 day afterwards. Short rides - 6-8 miles a day. The first day back was a little sketchy… I felt a little faint at times (although I blamed that on the heat, which is usually totally legit), and I had to take a long nap afterwards. I rode a little bit every day for a week; and then we came to City of Rocks to start setting up for the AERC National Championship 50 and 100 mile rides - setting up camp, marking trail on foot and horseback. Nothing longer than a 12 mile ride, or 10 mile hike (downhill), but it all felt good. I wasn't up for running a marathon, but I was ready to ride more.

And then I rode the AERCNC 50 miler on Bodie.

Or, well, part of it.

The first 17 miles to the first vet check was great. It was a cool morning, and Bodie and I had a great time, trotting over the Boise-Kelton Stage route and Salt Lake Cut-Off through Emigrant Canyon, and over the California Trail through the valley of City of Rocks National Reserve, and on to the vet check at Elephant Rock.

And then I sat down while Bruce and Nance crewed my horse. 

And then it hit me. I was tired.

The longer I sat, the more tired I got. "How far is it to the next vet check?" 23 miles? 23 slower miles, a lot of climbing? 

And then I was exhausted.

A heart doctor/runner/endurance rider did a study where he found that riding a 50 mile endurance ride is the equivalent stress on your heart as running a marathon. I wasn't up for a marathon.

I'm an endurance rider. I've been tired, sore, scared and hurting while riding, but I've never quit an endurance ride, unless it was for the horse. I quit this one. Gave myself a metabolic pull. I had overestimated my super hero powers - I wasn't up to doing a marathon yet. (Besides, if I'd fallen off my horse out on that 23 mile loop, I wouldn't have been doing him any favors.)

I felt bad about wimping out, but when I revealed to Dr Mike the vet about my recent surgery, and said "But the surgeon cleared me to ride after 2 weeks!", he said "But did you tell him what kind of riding you do?"

Dr Matt the vet said, "This isn't your average trail riding…"

Oh, yea. If you ride endurance you don't really think about it, but 50 miles is a whole 'nother ball game compared to short trail rides.

That made the quitting a little easier to stomach, although it's disappointing to discover I'm not as immortal as I thought I was. (I mean - a little surgery - come on!)

Well, anyway, it was a nice training ride for both of us. The horse is fine. The trail kicked the rider's butt. I just need a little more time before I'm up to doing a marathon.

City of Rocks: Salt Lake Cutoff/Emigrant Trail

Friday June 15 2012

I made a fun video of Friday's 20-mile ride at City of Rocks, on the historic Salt Lake Cutoff trail up Emigrant Canyon, onto the California Trail through City of Rocks National Reserve.

[video here]


(or link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jieI0UMnB7A

You can see more of my photos and stories from City of Rocks, (especially scenic on Jose in the fall!) and info on the upcoming endurance ride at
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2011CityofRocks/

City of Rocks: The Emigrant Trail

Friday June 15 2012

We followed the Emigrant Trail into City of Rocks, in the footsteps of over a quarter of a million people in the mid-1800's. This trail will be part of the 4-day City of Rocks Pioneer Trails Endurance Ride in July. Here are a few photos from today's 20 mile loop that we did.

an old stage stop on the Emigrant Trail, with the famous Twin Sisters peaks in City of Rocks in the background

Judy and Steph on the Emigrant Trail

Jose and me! Coming up the Emigrant Trail

Jose and me! Twin Sisters in the background

Jose and me! Circle Creek valley

Jose and me, Judy and Malaysia, at Camp Rock. Emigrants used to camp around this rock in the central part of the park (it wasn't a park then, but a very popular stopping point) and park a wagon or two in this cubbyhole of this granite monster

Many more photos and stories (and videos to come!), and plenty of info on next month's ride, if you're planning to come! at:

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2011CityofRocks/

City of Rocks: New Trails

Tuesday October 25 2011

Goldseekers. Hunters. Trappers. Wanderers. Adventurers. Flee-ers. Seekers. Hundreds of thousands of pioneers emigrated westward along the California Trail in the early and mid-1800's. The northern branch of the California Trail passes through the old lands of the Shoshone and Bannock Indians, through what is now southern Idaho, and the City of Rocks National Reserve.

Between 1843 and 1882, an estimated quarter million emigrants travelled through the City of Rocks on this trail en route to the West. In 1852 alone, some 52,000 people passed through.


City of Rocks was a landmark for the emigrants, one that inspired wonder and romantic awe, and a form of relief in their long journey from the East:

 Sallie Hester -  August 3, 1849
"Passed some beautiful scenery, high cliffs of rocks resembling old ruins or dilapidated buildings."

Dr. John Hudson Wayman - July 12, 1852: "This City is walled in on every side with towering granite mountains, some peaks shooting athwart the sky like towering domes. While hundreds of piles, peaks, steeples and domes, of all shapes possible in the distance looking like an old dilapidated City"

The Twin Sisters - 2 side-by-side granite spires, one of which is 2.5 billion years old, the other 25 million years old - have been significant throughout recorded human history. The peaks may have had important spiritual significance for the Native Americans. They were a significant landmark for the pioneers travelling the California Trail. Not named "Twin Sisters" by white people until 1848, there were 88 descriptions in 86 pioneer journals comment on them, including Steeple Rocks, Twin Mounds, Twin Buttes, Twin Pyramids at Gate, Two Dome Mountain, and Castle Rocks.


The old California Trail snakes through the Circle Creek valley, surrounded by the unique granite formations that give City of Rocks its name. Emigrant Canyon, through which runs the old Salt Lake Alternate Emigrant Trail and the old Boise-Kelton Stage Route, spills into City of Rocks with a view of the Twin Sisters where it meets the California Trail. Heath Canyon climbs up and over a gentle pass that also drops down to the California Trail and a view of the Twin Sisters (see my stories of our rides over these other trails here).

Perhaps the pioneers also used this new route we rode on Saturday. Maybe they travelled up the valley of Junction Creek, and turned off and camped at Sparks Spring and watered their animals like we did.


Perhaps they picnicked and rested at this giant granite pinnacle like we did.


Maybe they crested this unnamed pass and were amazed at the Twin Sisters that rose into view and guided them like a beacon as they descended to the Salt Lake Alternate trail, as they did for us.


Maybe our awe matched their own.

[slide show here]

City of Rocks

Sunday July 24 2011

All it took was one glance at the City of Rocks National Reserve, south of Burley, Idaho, for Steph to become consumed with the idea putting on an endurance ride there.

Shoshone-Bannock Indians lived here before the pioneers' wagon trains blazed trails through the area beginning in 1843. The area was an important landmark for emigrants traveling the California Trail and the Salt Lake Alternate Trail, which pass through the south end of the park; if you know where to look, you can still see names and initials of emigrants written in axle grease on some of the boulders.

The park's name came from the description of James Wilkins, an emigrant passing through in 1849, who was impressed enough by the beauty of the landscape to write about it: "We encamped at the city of the rocks, a noted place from the granite rocks rising abruptly out of the ground. They are in a romantic valley clustered together, which gives them the appearance of a city." There are stories of a stage coach robbery from 120 years ago and buried loot under Treasure Rock. The area was established as a National Reserve in 1988.


The unique geological jumble of spires, pinacles, and monoliths is made up of granite as young as 28 million years old, and as old as 2.5 billion years. The rock forms make the City of Rocks one of the premier climbing destinations in the US. The hiking and bird watching is not bad either. Maybe endurance riding will gain a hoof-hold here too.

Steph quickly snapped up maps of the Reserve, the nearby accessible Castle Rocks State Park (all equestrian-friendly, with even a couple of equestrian camping slots in a campground), of the surrounding BLM and Forest Service lands. By mid-morning next day she'd surveyed the region on Google Earth (and became really obsessed - Google Earth will get you every time!), talked to the BLM guy, who didn't have much info to share on the area, and to the Forest Service Recreation manager, who happens to be an old acquaintance from my Forest Service trail work days, and who is meeting us there next week to show us around the FS mountain roads/trails. He didn't know offhand of some ranch that would volunteer for our basecamp, but he did know a lady with Missouri Foxtrotters who rides up there all the time. Steph also contacted endurance rider John Parke, who has relatives around there and who has wondered about an endurance ride in the area. I wonder if the in-laws would want 20-50 endurance riders camped in their front yards for a week?


Elevation in the 14,000-acre National Reserve is between 5,720' and 8,861'; trails go from the Reserve right on up into the Albion Mountains (part of the Sawtooth National Forest) where reportedly there's a Skyline Ridge trail in the mountains that's 26 miles. (Do that both directions and you've got a 50 mile ride for one day!)

This is how endurance rides get started: somebody loves some particular area and wants to share it with other riders.

I can't promise Steph won't have us belaying our horses down the pinnacles or our trailers up and down the ravines of Granite Pass like they did with the emigrant wagons, but she'll probably come up with some fine scenic trails.

If we can find enough good ones, you might want to mark your calendar for July 2012.