Lies, damn lies, and weather forecasts: 25 at Red Rocks

Yesterday, C and I touched base and agreed to meet at Red Rocks (Rides of March ridecamp) at 10 am today. When I woke up it was a very inauspicious 11 degrees out, but by the time I hitched the trailer it was a balmy 27.

Yesterday, the weather forecast had promised "Partly sunny, with a high near 45. East wind between 5 and 10 mph." I convinced myself that "partly sunny" == "mostly sunny," and that 45 is just a bit cooler than 50. This morning, they'd hedged it down to a high of 42. I am not real sure it ever got above freezing, I saw the sun maybe twice, and the wind was bitter! 27* at 10 am at Red Rocks. 30* at 5 pm. Brrrr!

C and I were so unhappy about being there that we didn't even say hi, we just set to work on our horses and didn't say a word til we were headed out to the trail. But once we got moving and talking, the day just flew by. We didn't push the horses too hard; the trail was plenty long and hard on its own.


25 miles in 6:30 total time, 5:49 moving. 4000 feet of elevation gain - we climbed a big mountain! It's Nevada in February, so there was nothing much for the horses to snack on, which I think was their biggest problem in the last half of the ride. There was plenty of water, and as usual, Dixie drank great once she finally started to drink.

Here are some pictures! According to the very small sign, this is a wildlife habitat area. Under the big horizontal thing I could see two concrete pipes, mostly buried but sticking out of the ground. The pipes had openings at the top/end, and the openings were filled with rocks.


What the hell kind of wildlife a) needs that habitat and b) cannot find it in the tens of square miles of uninhabited rocky hills?

Gratuitous Dixie shot.


We rode across the valley and up to the top of that there mountain.


Immense cottonwood. It was easily 6' across at the base. I got distracted and forgot to take more pictures.


Res ispa loquitur.


Merri! Do you see what we saw? There's a HUGE NEST, made of sticks, in that boulder. Looks fairly old, but I think the golden eagles raised at least one batch of babies there.


We climbed the north side of the mountain, and the trail was pretty snowy. Just patches at first, but the drifts were over a foot deep near the peak.


In this cloudy blurry camera-phone photograph, you can (not) see many major landmarks! Peavine ("my" mountain) is in the center-back, Mt. Rose is the tallest peak in the back line, and Slide Mountain is the one with visible ski slopes toward the left. The trailers are behind the dark juniper hills on the right in the middle. My house is behind some hills, off camera to the left.


Anyway, horse stuff: we went slow, but the horses didn't have any problems. I am quite sure that if there'd been a vet check in the middle of the ride, they'd have chowed down and perked right up. As it was, they were pretty hungry and a little tired when we made it back to the trailers - they both dove right into their hay, but neither one had that "tired eye."

Baby needs new shoes! Dixie's starting to wear out the toes of her front Renegades. The holes are pretty teeny right now, so I think they've got at least another 100 miles in them, but I might get replacements at convention.

If she handles the NEDA Washoe ride at least this well, I think I will bump up to the 50 at ROM. I mean, we just did an LD, with no vet check/food break, without the high-energy hoopla of all those other horses, and we pretty much made time.