Aarene had Jim and Madeline to crew for us, and I had gobs of “gaiters” who had also
volunteered. We would have a lot of support. Aarene and I had agreed that we would not worry
about riding together during the day, as Billy is an uphill horse and Pete a downhill
horse. Whoever would wait for the other for the night riding. And historically Pete and I had
ridden ahead of Aarene and Billy at the 50’s we had both ridden. But I was trying to learn slower
pacing, so I did not want to get too far ahead, nor get too far behind, if that came up. Well, sure
enough, Billy was a toad (his nickname, as in “The Wild Toad Ride”) at the start, so Aarene pulled
back and had me go on. That first leg from ridecamp up to the horse camp is very serpentine.
Some up and then a LOT of down followed by more up. Aarene and I split up just before the down
part, so Pete and I took off down the hill, passing lots of the 75 mile riders that had passed us. We
slowed down on the up part expecting Aarene to ultimately catch up, knowing that since we
were ahead of Aarene, we could go as slow as we needed to. We got to the out vet check about
5 minutes before Aarene and Billy.
Then out the red loop, which the 50’s and 25’s did not get to do. Beautiful country up there. Lots of
up, so Aarene and Billy caught up rather quickly. We rode together at the top of the loop along
the ridgeline. When we got to the down, I took off again down to the vet check. Again, Aarene
came back into the out vet check about 5 minutes later for our first 20 minute hold. We rode out
together along the polkadot leg, part of which we would see several times for the rest of the day
and night. Again we rode together on the relative flat. Aarene and Billy went ahead on the up
parts and we connected again momentarily before Pete and I went on down.
Now there has been a lot of recent logging in this area and one of the old roads the trail is on had
just been heavily graded, which means lots of loose rock under lots of loose dust. We met up with
the 50 milers here, doing the blue loop. Their horses were a couple of hours fresher, so were still
trying to pull the sockets out of their riders arms. I was able to check Pete, but not to the point of
safe passage as the 50 milers got past us. He hit a rock embedded in the ground just below the
dust and went down on both front knees. Luckily he was not hurt.
So it went throughout the day. Aarene and I swapping places when the terrain warranted it,
always coming into the vet checks within minutes of one another. Most of the morning and a bit
of the afternoon; It was just another 50 mile ride, preparing for when the ride REALLY started after
dark. The Orange loop was to be our last loop late into the night. We did most of it the day before,
and did it separately again in the daylight in the earlier part of the ride. It would be a
straightforward last loop, hard to get lost, although also hard to make speed on at night, because
of the elevation changes and the rocks. We would also do the yellow loop in the dark, which we
did in the daylight, some parts, including the last two miles into camp, several times. Life was
good.
I don’t know when I noticed it, but at some point in the late afternoon, it must have been right after
coming off the yellow loop for the first time. Dr. Jen was smiling! I don’t remember seeing her
smile like that before while vetting out my horse. That’s when I knew that this was going to be a
good ride. Pete and I were tracking well, with good hydration, lots of energy all day long and
into the night. His guts sounds were a “B”, but they had been like that all season, so Dr. Jen said
not to worry. His guts sounds in fact improved as the day went on, as did his heart rates. But it was
that smile that caused the angst that I had been trying to ignore for weeks to just disappear. Dr Jen
was happy, which meant that she was confident that Pete and Paul were going to be able to
accomplish the impossible. I started looking forward to the sun setting and getting to ride in the
dark. The excitement that I had up until now NOT felt at this ride was building and continued to
build until the sunfinally went down.
Aarene and I decided to do the last daylight loop together to get our horses working together. I
don’t know if that was a good idea or not. It did slow us both down in retrospect. We could have
independently done that loop in an hour’s less time. Also, Stephanie had asked us to take on a
junior who had done 50 miles of the 75-mile ride when her sponsor got pulled. Stephanie told the
junior that if we took her on her last two loops, which were the same as our last two loops,
Stephanie would give her a completion. Of course, this is five hours later for this junior, and she
would have to do those 25 miles all in the dark, late into the night. But we agreed to take her and
she grabbed the opportunity.
We got into camp after the blue loop at about 9:20 pm just as the light was fading completely.
Aarene and I both needed to change into warmer clothes. Also, Aarene felt we needed to give
the ponies a little extra time on the grass. They were getting awfully hungry at
this point. Our crews were in full action, taking care of us and our horses. Kara Henry trotting Pete
out, Sue grabbing extra beet pulp from her rig. I did not see half of what I knew the crew must
have been doing. Alex and Shannon were leading Pete and me around. Somebody got us
more water. Stephanie was there trying to get both Aarene and I to eat more barbequed
chicken. She was keeping it warm for us. Gary brought me two cups of his great coffee.
So finally we are about to do our LAST twenty-five miles, in the dark in two loops with a junior. So
where is this junior? Somebody had to go find the junior.
We finally pulled out of there almost an hour after we had pulsed in, on a half hour hold, but well
fed and ready; pulling a junior that we did not know behind us. We had roughly six and a half
hours to do 25 miles. Piece of cake! Just in LD, only in the dark.
This is where my REAL education began. It’s true; this was Aarene’s first 100, but she had done a
lot of longer riders and in particular a lot of riding in the dark. I had written an article for the
newsletter about the hour and a half that Darlene Anderson led me into camp at the end of
Klickitat. Big F’ing deal! Now was the true test and the true learning experience. Aarene led the
way at the beginning, and at my urging started telling ghost stories. Then she
sang some songs she remembered. I could not remember any. Our breast collar glow sticks
were just bright enough for me to occasionally see the ribbons along the trail. I noticed that in the
second spot, I could see them when Aarene could not. At one point Billy got a bit toady again
and begin spooking at stuff, so Aarene wanted me to lead. Pete was feeling really good. We had
just passed the horsecamp where Pete and Billy got competitive. They even
cantered some. Past the horsecamp there was a section of slightly down trail that we all
remembered, Pete took off at about 9 miles an hour in gait. WOW! Nothing like it! I could not see
a thing! It was all going by too fast. My eyes could see the images, but they were so vague and
came up so fast that my mind could not process them. I just had to try to pay attention that Pete
was not going off trail. Now I could not lead him, because I could not see the trail. At one point I
tried to send him toward a glowstick at a turn, not realizing that the direct line to the glowstick was
NOT on the trail. Pete called me an idiot for that stupid mistake. After that I left him to lead and
choose the pace, and he wanted to go.
It had been a long haul up to the horse camp and we had gone slow, taking two hours. Back
down, about the same distance, took less than an hour. Never the less, we were starting to get a
bit short of time. It was almost 2:30 am when we got back to camp for our last 20
minute hold. I swear I felt like a race car at a pit stop. Alex and Shannon and Jim and Madeline
did their bits, as did Stephanie and Dr. Jen, getting us in and out of that camp as fast as they could
manage. We left camp at 2:42 am, 3 hours and 18 minutes to do 14 miles. Straightforward miles
but slow miles. We continued our singing and story telling.
The only anxious part was when we were on the back side of the loop at the bottom of the hill
going back to the water tanks where the radio operator was waiting for us, when all those liquids,
the tea, the coffee, the sodas, the water were finally collecting in our respective bladders. It was a
straight shot, so whoever had put the glowsticks out ,did not bother to mark this section. No
possible turns, so no biggy. But damn it was long and felt longer (as in more distended). Aarene
got the suspicion that maybe we had accidently got back on the loop back around the keyhole
again. In my best professor voice, I explained very logically and rationally how that was not
possible. Neither one of us was buying it. And Alicia, our junior (remember our junior?) , like most
teenagers on a long trip, was asleep in the backseat. We would occasionally try to get her to talk.
“Alicia, how are you doing back there?” And there would be an audible pause, as she woke up
before saying, “Fine.”
Finally, we got back to the water trough where the radio operator was who could hold our horses
while we each took that much needed but very short potty break. It was now 3:45 am. We had
about five miles to go mostly downhill in one hour and 15 minutes, but with a fair amount of nasty
rock. The radio operator, Dan, said, “You’ll make it,” with less confidence in his voice than we
liked. Still, we almost believed him.
The one thing in our favor was that it would be light soon, light enough perhaps for us to make the
time we needed to make. Down the hill as the trail slowly began to show itself as the clock ticked
on. As we were racing down the hill where ever possible, Aarene asked, "I wonder what the
horses are thinking? We have been out along time and they tend to think in the here and now." It
was then that we heard them "Horses now, trotting forever." And indeed they were with no end in
sight.
We knew we had made it when we hit the junction near the road crossing at 4:30 am. It was then
that we noticed the birds waking up. So, we crossed the open fields making our way back to
ridecamp, the day getting brighter and brighter both metaphorically and in actuality, with the
birds getting louder and louder, and our smiles getting broader and broader.
volunteered. We would have a lot of support. Aarene and I had agreed that we would not worry
about riding together during the day, as Billy is an uphill horse and Pete a downhill
horse. Whoever would wait for the other for the night riding. And historically Pete and I had
ridden ahead of Aarene and Billy at the 50’s we had both ridden. But I was trying to learn slower
pacing, so I did not want to get too far ahead, nor get too far behind, if that came up. Well, sure
enough, Billy was a toad (his nickname, as in “The Wild Toad Ride”) at the start, so Aarene pulled
back and had me go on. That first leg from ridecamp up to the horse camp is very serpentine.
Some up and then a LOT of down followed by more up. Aarene and I split up just before the down
part, so Pete and I took off down the hill, passing lots of the 75 mile riders that had passed us. We
slowed down on the up part expecting Aarene to ultimately catch up, knowing that since we
were ahead of Aarene, we could go as slow as we needed to. We got to the out vet check about
5 minutes before Aarene and Billy.
Then out the red loop, which the 50’s and 25’s did not get to do. Beautiful country up there. Lots of
up, so Aarene and Billy caught up rather quickly. We rode together at the top of the loop along
the ridgeline. When we got to the down, I took off again down to the vet check. Again, Aarene
came back into the out vet check about 5 minutes later for our first 20 minute hold. We rode out
together along the polkadot leg, part of which we would see several times for the rest of the day
and night. Again we rode together on the relative flat. Aarene and Billy went ahead on the up
parts and we connected again momentarily before Pete and I went on down.
Now there has been a lot of recent logging in this area and one of the old roads the trail is on had
just been heavily graded, which means lots of loose rock under lots of loose dust. We met up with
the 50 milers here, doing the blue loop. Their horses were a couple of hours fresher, so were still
trying to pull the sockets out of their riders arms. I was able to check Pete, but not to the point of
safe passage as the 50 milers got past us. He hit a rock embedded in the ground just below the
dust and went down on both front knees. Luckily he was not hurt.
So it went throughout the day. Aarene and I swapping places when the terrain warranted it,
always coming into the vet checks within minutes of one another. Most of the morning and a bit
of the afternoon; It was just another 50 mile ride, preparing for when the ride REALLY started after
dark. The Orange loop was to be our last loop late into the night. We did most of it the day before,
and did it separately again in the daylight in the earlier part of the ride. It would be a
straightforward last loop, hard to get lost, although also hard to make speed on at night, because
of the elevation changes and the rocks. We would also do the yellow loop in the dark, which we
did in the daylight, some parts, including the last two miles into camp, several times. Life was
good.
I don’t know when I noticed it, but at some point in the late afternoon, it must have been right after
coming off the yellow loop for the first time. Dr. Jen was smiling! I don’t remember seeing her
smile like that before while vetting out my horse. That’s when I knew that this was going to be a
good ride. Pete and I were tracking well, with good hydration, lots of energy all day long and
into the night. His guts sounds were a “B”, but they had been like that all season, so Dr. Jen said
not to worry. His guts sounds in fact improved as the day went on, as did his heart rates. But it was
that smile that caused the angst that I had been trying to ignore for weeks to just disappear. Dr Jen
was happy, which meant that she was confident that Pete and Paul were going to be able to
accomplish the impossible. I started looking forward to the sun setting and getting to ride in the
dark. The excitement that I had up until now NOT felt at this ride was building and continued to
build until the sunfinally went down.
Aarene and I decided to do the last daylight loop together to get our horses working together. I
don’t know if that was a good idea or not. It did slow us both down in retrospect. We could have
independently done that loop in an hour’s less time. Also, Stephanie had asked us to take on a
junior who had done 50 miles of the 75-mile ride when her sponsor got pulled. Stephanie told the
junior that if we took her on her last two loops, which were the same as our last two loops,
Stephanie would give her a completion. Of course, this is five hours later for this junior, and she
would have to do those 25 miles all in the dark, late into the night. But we agreed to take her and
she grabbed the opportunity.
We got into camp after the blue loop at about 9:20 pm just as the light was fading completely.
Aarene and I both needed to change into warmer clothes. Also, Aarene felt we needed to give
the ponies a little extra time on the grass. They were getting awfully hungry at
this point. Our crews were in full action, taking care of us and our horses. Kara Henry trotting Pete
out, Sue grabbing extra beet pulp from her rig. I did not see half of what I knew the crew must
have been doing. Alex and Shannon were leading Pete and me around. Somebody got us
more water. Stephanie was there trying to get both Aarene and I to eat more barbequed
chicken. She was keeping it warm for us. Gary brought me two cups of his great coffee.
So finally we are about to do our LAST twenty-five miles, in the dark in two loops with a junior. So
where is this junior? Somebody had to go find the junior.
We finally pulled out of there almost an hour after we had pulsed in, on a half hour hold, but well
fed and ready; pulling a junior that we did not know behind us. We had roughly six and a half
hours to do 25 miles. Piece of cake! Just in LD, only in the dark.
This is where my REAL education began. It’s true; this was Aarene’s first 100, but she had done a
lot of longer riders and in particular a lot of riding in the dark. I had written an article for the
newsletter about the hour and a half that Darlene Anderson led me into camp at the end of
Klickitat. Big F’ing deal! Now was the true test and the true learning experience. Aarene led the
way at the beginning, and at my urging started telling ghost stories. Then she
sang some songs she remembered. I could not remember any. Our breast collar glow sticks
were just bright enough for me to occasionally see the ribbons along the trail. I noticed that in the
second spot, I could see them when Aarene could not. At one point Billy got a bit toady again
and begin spooking at stuff, so Aarene wanted me to lead. Pete was feeling really good. We had
just passed the horsecamp where Pete and Billy got competitive. They even
cantered some. Past the horsecamp there was a section of slightly down trail that we all
remembered, Pete took off at about 9 miles an hour in gait. WOW! Nothing like it! I could not see
a thing! It was all going by too fast. My eyes could see the images, but they were so vague and
came up so fast that my mind could not process them. I just had to try to pay attention that Pete
was not going off trail. Now I could not lead him, because I could not see the trail. At one point I
tried to send him toward a glowstick at a turn, not realizing that the direct line to the glowstick was
NOT on the trail. Pete called me an idiot for that stupid mistake. After that I left him to lead and
choose the pace, and he wanted to go.
It had been a long haul up to the horse camp and we had gone slow, taking two hours. Back
down, about the same distance, took less than an hour. Never the less, we were starting to get a
bit short of time. It was almost 2:30 am when we got back to camp for our last 20
minute hold. I swear I felt like a race car at a pit stop. Alex and Shannon and Jim and Madeline
did their bits, as did Stephanie and Dr. Jen, getting us in and out of that camp as fast as they could
manage. We left camp at 2:42 am, 3 hours and 18 minutes to do 14 miles. Straightforward miles
but slow miles. We continued our singing and story telling.
The only anxious part was when we were on the back side of the loop at the bottom of the hill
going back to the water tanks where the radio operator was waiting for us, when all those liquids,
the tea, the coffee, the sodas, the water were finally collecting in our respective bladders. It was a
straight shot, so whoever had put the glowsticks out ,did not bother to mark this section. No
possible turns, so no biggy. But damn it was long and felt longer (as in more distended). Aarene
got the suspicion that maybe we had accidently got back on the loop back around the keyhole
again. In my best professor voice, I explained very logically and rationally how that was not
possible. Neither one of us was buying it. And Alicia, our junior (remember our junior?) , like most
teenagers on a long trip, was asleep in the backseat. We would occasionally try to get her to talk.
“Alicia, how are you doing back there?” And there would be an audible pause, as she woke up
before saying, “Fine.”
Finally, we got back to the water trough where the radio operator was who could hold our horses
while we each took that much needed but very short potty break. It was now 3:45 am. We had
about five miles to go mostly downhill in one hour and 15 minutes, but with a fair amount of nasty
rock. The radio operator, Dan, said, “You’ll make it,” with less confidence in his voice than we
liked. Still, we almost believed him.
The one thing in our favor was that it would be light soon, light enough perhaps for us to make the
time we needed to make. Down the hill as the trail slowly began to show itself as the clock ticked
on. As we were racing down the hill where ever possible, Aarene asked, "I wonder what the
horses are thinking? We have been out along time and they tend to think in the here and now." It
was then that we heard them "Horses now, trotting forever." And indeed they were with no end in
sight.
We knew we had made it when we hit the junction near the road crossing at 4:30 am. It was then
that we noticed the birds waking up. So, we crossed the open fields making our way back to
ridecamp, the day getting brighter and brighter both metaphorically and in actuality, with the
birds getting louder and louder, and our smiles getting broader and broader.
It was only fitting that Dr. Jen
would vet Pete in at the 2007 Mt.
Adams 100. And only fitting that
she would consult with Dr. Foss
over Pete’s non-symmetric front
tendons. My farrier had noticed a
bit of fluid in Pete’s left foreleg the
previous week. I had not ridden
Pete in a week and a half hoping
that whatever it was, he would
heal. And apparently he had,
because Dr. Mike thought he
looked okay. It was a tense
moment though.
would vet Pete in at the 2007 Mt.
Adams 100. And only fitting that
she would consult with Dr. Foss
over Pete’s non-symmetric front
tendons. My farrier had noticed a
bit of fluid in Pete’s left foreleg the
previous week. I had not ridden
Pete in a week and a half hoping
that whatever it was, he would
heal. And apparently he had,
because Dr. Mike thought he
looked okay. It was a tense
moment though.
Paul and Pete at the 2004 Dunes Ride
