California Dreamin’

 Yesterday was the annual pinnacle-of-American-endurance events, the Tevis Cup - a 100-mi ride which traverses the Sierra Nevada Mtns, going point-to-point from Lake Tahoe to Auburn, CA. An occasion for nostalgia, as the primary reason I joined SparkPeople in 2010 was an attempt to shape up & drop a few pounds to give Baraquinator a fair shake at completion! 

My ex cruised through the Tevis on dear ol’ Wynkhy in 1997; while we had hoped to do it together, my QH mare Shawna was starting to have intermittent lameness issues, so I wound up flying out to crew for him. We joked that he was probably the only rider with his own personal veterinarian! (Since it is a point-to-point ride, riders must have at the very least, a driver to take their rig from Tahoe back to the Auburn fairgrounds. Most riders have a 2 or 3 man crew, although there is a “Cavalry” award for the few riders who make it without a crew, packing everything they need on their horse)

I submitted my own entry in Y2K, accepting the generous offer of a friend to haul me to CA since Ex had taken our big horse trailer in the aftermath of our divorce (‘99). Unfortunately, my gallant lil’ Ahab stepped off the trailer lame - I leased a mule from the Ribleys, but only made it to Deadwood (55 mi) before being pulled for being overtime. Somehow it’s never lined up for me to return - of course it’s a huge investment of time, effort, horsepower, and M-O-N-E-Y to haul to CA for a 1-d event. I must accept that the window of opportunity for me has closed, but I can still cheer on my friends…

Yesterday, Jonni, Devon, Todd, Gayle, Julie, and Lancette were on my “favorites” list. The Ride has been limited to 250 entries - while it used to be that you needed to apply early, over recent years (past decade?) the quota is never filled. Take that as an indicator of tough economic times, for sure. Typically there is about a 50% completion rate - and sure enough, Devon, Todd & Julie didn’t make it, Gayle & Jonni did well, and Lancette was the turtle. However, this year we had a lower-than-average completion rate of 40% - 54 out of 137 starters. Temperatures were higher than average for California - for us Texans it was just “summertime”. 

I got in a short ride yesterday with my friends - I took Baraq since he’s been giving me the Sad Eyes for being left behind for NM. While I had hoped to make it a “twofer” - riding Silas this morning, I got up to unexpected rain. No points nor mileage to strive towards, so I’ve stayed in to make breakfast & play on social media! 

And once again, my iPad won’t attach photos, WTH??!!??

So I will pull a few photos off of FB - 

Cougar Rock is a short, steep rocky outcrop which can provide a beautiful photo op - there is also a bypass for those who don't want to risk such a challenge relatively early-on in the Ride (approx 22 mi in). I chose to do the bypass during my attempt, since I was riding a rented mule (literally, ha ha!) and didn't want to end up on the blooper reel...