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Big Basin, May 24-26, 2008On Sunday, we redid last year's "I Hate Rachel" ride, in reverse. We rode up Clark Connection to Westridge Trail to Chalk Road to Canyon Road to Gazos Creek Road toward the park headquarters. Here are some big trees on Gazos Creek Road (or little plastic toy horses near normal size trees, whichever you prefer):Glamour Shot, May 2008Bear!Tevis trail fun ride, May 10, 2008Noam and I have recently been dabbling in the sport of endurance. You ride over a course of 25, 50, 75, or 100 miles (25 miles only for me, please), and a vet checks your horse periodically during the ride and at the end. The first horse that finishes the ride that is fit to continue is the winner. It is a good way to spend a Saturday morning, the people are nice, and you get to see some pretty country on the trail. The grand daddy of all endurance rides is also one of the longest running modern endurance rides, the Western States 100 Miles One Day Trail Ride, more commonly known as the Tevis Cup. Competitors have 24 hours, 5 AM to 5 AM, to complete the 100 miles. The Tevis Cup trail runs from near Squaw Valley ski area by Lake Tahoe, to the town of Auburn, near Sacramento. This ride has it all: 17,000 feet of elevation gain, 22,000 feet of elevation loss, treacherous mountain passes, narrow trails on the edge of deep canyons, blazing hot weather, swift water crossings, choking dust, the troublingly-named "No Hands" and "Swinging" bridges, and a spot ridden in the dark known to riders as "the black hole of Calcutta." Sounds like fun, eh? The closest we are likely to come is riding in the Tevis trail fun ride, a fundraiser for the 100 mile race, where we rode six miles out and back from Foresthill to Michigan Bluff, through beautiful Volcano canyon. Here is Volcano creek:Guest Blogger, coming soon!Point Reyes National Park, April 26-27, 2008The drive to Point Reyes with the horse trailer is easy, but really annoying. About two-thirds is hideously potholed and patched. We found Stewart Horse Camp, parked, and were headed out on the trail by about 11 AM on Saturday. We rode the Olema Valley Trail to the Bolema Trail to the Lake Ranch Trail, along the Coast Trail to the Ocean Lake Loop Trail to Wildcat Camp, where we played on the beach. From Wildcat, we rode up the Stewart Trail then down the Greenpicker Trail back to camp. Here is Noam somewhere on the Bolema or Lake Ranch Trails:Bay Meadows Race Track, April 13, 2008Though Bay Meadows has been in "it's closing, no it isn't, now it is again, now it isn't" mode for years, it looks like this is finally it. The track must be resurfaced after 2008 with an artificial surface that is safer for the horses, and there is no interest in spending the money to do so. Noam and I went to the Indian Hills Ranch day at the races to watch racing there one last time. The barn tour was fun. I think being a racehorse is a pretty stressful job. There was a lot of weird, frustrated horse behavior in that barn:Shine and Shine Only Limited Distance Endurance Ride, Grant Park, April 12, 2008Lukka is such a great horse, it is hard to stay off of her. She isn't afraid of anything, she never misbehaves under saddle, and she never does intimidating things like leap in the air and twist sideways so you go flying, like some horses we know who shall remain nameless (Juliet). In fact, she is so lacking in the normal crap you have to put up with to ride horses, we think she might actually be a robot. The only problem: like many microchips and other items of high technology like robots, Lukka has a heat problem. Her fur is creepy thick, even in the summer. (Hannah and I went to Iceland in July and I nearly froze to death, so I understand why.) Noam decided to give a 25 mile limited distance ride a shot, so we clipped the fur off of Lukka's belly, sides, and the underside of her neck in preparation. It was not enough. Long story short: it was unseasonably warm, and we nearly killed her. There were two loops, the first 13 miles, and the second about 11 miles. The first loop we rode from 7 until about 10:30, so it was still fairly cool. Noam and Lukka on the first loop:Ride from Del Valle to Sunol, April 6, 2008From the barn where we board Juliet and Lukka, you can ride through Ed Levin Park to Monument Peak, from Monument Peak to Mission Peak through the Mission Peak Regional Preserve, from Mission Peak into Sunol Regional Wilderness, through the Ohlone Wilderness, then to Del Valle Regional Park. I don't know how far it is, but it is at least 30 miles. Joann and I rode the section from Ed Levin to Sunol last year. I have been talking for years about riding the 19 mile stretch from Sunol to Del Valle. We finally got organized enough to do it, I talked a friend into meeting us at Del Valle and driving the empty horse trailer back to Sunol. What a great ride. From the horse camp at Del Valle, you enter the Ohlone Wilderness, climb up and over a first ridge, cross a stream, then climb up a single-track trail with switchbacks to the highest ridge on the trail. Here are Noam and Jeanne cruising through a valley between the two ridges:Hiking at Henry Coe State Park with Nicole, March 29, 2008Yay! Nicole was in San Francisco for a conference and stopped by for a visit. The governator has proposed closing several state parks due to budget shortfalls, and Henry Coe is on the list. We went hiking there, in case it really does get closed. From the Hunting Hollow entrance, we hiked up the Lyman Willson Ridge Trail, across on the Bowl Trail, then down the Middle Steer Ridge Trail. Holy wildflowers! There were dozens of different kinds. The park was absolutely carpeted with them.Sonny discovers he is not retired, Harvey Bear park, March 21, 2008Maureen graciously let me borrow her trailer to take Sonny to the vet for some shots, then for a ride. Sonny can be a pain to catch, so smart kid that I am, I went out and caught him (bribed him with treats) BEFORE I started clunking around and hitching up the trailer, so he wouldn't have a chance to put two and two together and decide not to be caught. I tied him to the trailer as I got my stuff ready to go, and I could see his expression change as he watched me and figured out what was going on. Those of you who are thinking "he's a horse, how much righteous indignation could he possible experience?" obviously do not know Sonny very well. He grunted and moaned and did his "only an evil person would ride such a poor, suffering old soul as me" routine, but after I shouted "you are NOT retired! Get it through your head!" at him many times, he became resigned and we had a fine ride.Shine and Shine Only Limited Distance Endurance ride, Quicksilver park, March 15, 2008Noam and I have ridden a lot of scary trails in a lot of cool places, and as far as I can tell, have lived to tell the tales. In spite of that, I would not call Juliet "a good trail horse." What, then, is "a good trail horse" you ask? Remember that scene in The Man From Snowy River where they are chasing the brumbies and the bad guy Curly rides up next to Jim and pulls Jim's horse's bridle over its ears? Jim pulls up the horse, who stands still while Jim fixes the bridle, as hundreds of horses go thundering by at a full gallop. THAT is a good trail horse.So, how to make Juliet into a good trail horse? Take her to 25 mile limited distance endurance ride, alone. Horses will come and go all day and she will eventually just get over it and not be upset, right? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Actually, in the end, it went pretty well. I arrived on Friday, parked the trailer, then reasoned if I was too chicken to get on and ride alone up the trail on Friday afternoon, what chance did I have on Saturday morning for the actual ride? I saddled up and headed out. On the trail I met Janet, a tiny, pretty lady on a tiny, pretty gray Arab mare, and we agreed to ride together Saturday. Saturday, Janet and I had hoped to start near the back of the pack of 25-milers, so we could have a nice quiet start. We accidentally started near the middle of the pack, so in the first 20 minutes of the ride, probably 18 horses went roaring past us, including one bearing a white-faced rider at a dead gallop. Harmony and Juliet wanted to GO! to catch up with these horses. At one point, Ms. "getting-up-in-the-morning-is-so-hard" Juliet was galloping sideways as I tried (eventually successfully) to disengage her back to the trot. The course was two identical 12ish-mile loops, with a vet check back in camp between the first and second loops. After about an hour on the first loop, Harmony and Juliet eventually settled to a nice ground covering trot. Janet and I agreed that the first 2 miles felt like about 20, and the first 20 minutes felt like about 2 hours. As we started the second loop, Harmony was tired, but I was surprised to find I had a lot of horse left. After walking up the first big hill, Harmony found some energy, and we settled into a nice trot. It hailed(!) for a few minutes. As we turned back toward camp on the second loop, one of Harmony's easy boots broke, so with Janet's encouragement Juliet and I trotted off and left her to walk the rest of the ride. We quickly left Janet and Harmony behind and were by ourselves, trotting down the trail. I heard nothing but her muffled hoof beats on the damp trail. Trees passed on the left, a reservoir on the right. I flexed my wrist to ask Juliet to stretch her neck down, then I felt her powerful hindquarters nearly launching me out of the saddle as her back lifted and her hindquarters came under her and pushed us down the trail. Her ears, her mind, her entire body yielded to thousands of years of genetic hard-wiring that told her FORWARD! It is difficult to describe; I was euphoric. It was an amazing experience. We cruised through the second loop in no time. She eventually DID get used to horses leaving her, so the ride was a success. At the final vet check: Skiing, February/March 2008I still wear the jacket and ski pants from when I was chubby. The pants are pretty funny, if I don't have a belt I can pull them off without unsnapping or unzipping them. Me at Heavenly:Shanghai, February 14-18, 2008We arrived in Shanghai Friday evening and took a cab to the hotel. The hotel's website listed a range of cab fares from the airport that was reasonable, so we knew to get out of the first cab when the guy quoted us a fare that was three times too much. I love the Internet. Saturday morning we took our walking tour of Jewish Shanghai. The tour guide, Dvir, is Israeli and has lived in Shanghai for several years. We started on the Bund, where we sat and watched boats on the river while Dvir told us some history and about some prominent Jewish families in Shanghai. Random passers-by would come up, stand about two inches away, and stare at us, it was pretty funny. Jews immigrated to Shanghai in a couple of waves, the first wave was wealthy Iraqi jews who came around the turn of the last century. The second wave was a few thousand refugees who got transit permits from a Shanghainese diplomat in Vienna in the mid-late 1930s. This is the ghetto where those refugees lived, known then as "Little Vienna:"New York, January 26-27, 2008Noam's mom was in New York putting on an exhibit at the UN, so we flew to New York for the weekend. The weather at home was bad enough that our red-eye flight Friday night was canceled, but we managed to race to the airport in time to catch an afternoon flight. Saturday morning we went to the New Museum of contemporary art in Soho. According to the website, the new building is the "first art museum ever constructed from the ground up in downtown Manhattan." The new building just opened December 1, 2007. I particularly liked the rainbow-colored bubble letters on the front of the building that say "hell, yes," which you can see from blocks away as you approach. The view from the patio on the top floor:Sedona, January 16, 2008Mom, who was in Phoenix for work, and I met Kitty and Randy in Sedona, where they stopped on a road trip celebrating Kitty's 60th birthday. Noam rented a Prius for me to drive to Sedona, and I fell in love. I met everyone at the Verde Canyon railroad depot in Clarkdale. The train ride through the canyon was cool: per the website, it took us by "towering red rock pinnacles and clean, green waters, past Indian ruins, through a 680-foot man-made tunnel, over old-fashioned trestles and under clear azure skies." It was the perfect thing to do with Randy, who, as a geologist, either knew or convincingly made up interesting things about the rocks we were looking at. He gamely rode with me through the tunnel on the outdoor car they called the "gondola" even though, as he predicted, the stink of diesel near the end was pretty choking. Here is the train going past a fault between two types of rocks:Pebble Beach, January 1, 2008We left Rancho Oso a bit before 8 and drove to Pebble Beach to meet some friends. There are miles and miles of beautiful trails there, many that run behind huge houses and through neighborhoods. The route of the paths lent a slightly voyeuristic feel to part of the ride, which I greatly enjoyed. We eventually go to an overlook with a view of the Pacific ocean: |
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Copyright © 2008 Rachel and Noam |