The weekend of Nov. 9 started off with rain throughout California
- much needed rain but not what you want for a ride weekend. Los
Angeles had a record 1.84 inches for the day which allowed the
reopening of the national forests for other rides. In the case of
the PS Coso Junction ride - put on by Sue and Mike Benson with
Head Vet Dr. Fred Beasom - it rained Friday and during the night but
the 2 days of the ride were clear but very windy the first and
excellent the second.

Ridecamp is at the Coso Junction rest area 24 miles north of
Ridgecrest on Highway 395 and has an unusual setting for a ridecamp.
There's a small store and a Taco Bell next door for those not wanting
the standard dinner at ridecamp. The camp is at 3300 ft with the trail
reaching 4800 ft above the South Haiwee reservoir. We're in a valley
surrounded by mountains that we can't see because of the rain.  Wind
shakes the trailer throughout the evening and night with starlit skies
alternating with rain and clouds.

Saturday dawns clear overhead but with dark rain on each horizon.
Attendance is down due to riders thinking about rain.  It turns out to
be good riding the first day with 35 starting the 50 and 8 starting the
30 mile LD.  The trails are a combination of single track, jeep trails,
and cross country over desert administrated by the BLM and the Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The weather makes this day of the ride interesting - it's sun, very
windy in spots, quiet in others, and rain out of a sunny sky all mixed
together.  The flat desert is our start - then up into gently rounded
foothills - followed by jumbles of rocks covering the hills - through
saddle areas - by a working pumice quarry and back into basecamp.

It's windy - really windy - at times.  When we are heading into the
wind - it feels like you are climbing a hill even though it's flat.
When the wind is coming from the side - all the horses out in front of me
turn into weathervanes.  All the tails are streaming out parallel to the
ground and indicating the wind direction. The gusts reached 65 mph
according to the weather reports. In one spot - we could hear a noise
approaching like a freight train - then a blast of wind hit - then the
gust raced on by with the noise so localized that you could track it's
progress over the desert as it left us.  In other sheltered spots -
nothing but the sounds of our horses hooves disturbed the silence of
the desert.

The occasional rain came down as little pellets driven hard by the
wind but in a sunny sky.  In some sections of our country - rain
and sun together are called "the devil beating his wife".  A web
lookup says the 'The devil beating his wife', which originated in
Hungary, is actually only one of many proverbs that describe rain
and sunshine happening at the same time. Some of the others include
"foxes are on a marriage parade," "witches are doing their wash,"
and "a tailor is going to hell".  However it's described - the weather
is interesting and different on our ride.

The rain in the distance provides spectacular rainbows stretching
across the foothills to the distant mountains - sometimes with a faint
second one outside the first.  We can see easily across the desert and
the bright jackets of red, yellow, green, and blue on riders ahead form
another rainbow of colors beneath the one arching into the sky.

After the ride in camp - the winds picked up again and went on throughout
the evening.  One of the people at the ride had a Jack Russell puppy in
a pet carrier that the wind picked up and sent tumbling down the parking
lot with the owner in pursuit.  At least it was clear - with deep blue
skies overhead and lighter pale blue where the sky met the snowcapped
peaks in the distance.  At night the half moon sinks toward the mountain
peaks and shines brightly thru a cleft before disappearing - leaving us
with the sharp bright stars of winter.

The second day of the ride took us out across the desert again headed
towards the mountains. We detour around a small lake that 2 days earlier
was a dry lake bed with the trail going straight thru. It was a
beautiful day with no sign of rain or wind.  We crest a sharp climb and
below us are two reservoirs reflecting the snow capped mountains in the
far distance.  It's a absolutely spectacular view out over the valley
with the white covered mountains in the background.

This view has a lot of history in it for the people of southern
California.  We're looking down at the Owens Valley - part of the
plot for the 1974 Academy award winning movie "Chinatown" set in
the 1930's starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston.

The story backdrop for the movie is that in 1906, Los Angeles went
through a scandal known as "The Rape of the Owens Valley." Los
Angeles was essentially built on a desert, and as the city started to
expand in the early years of this century, water was in short supply
Soon enough, a full-fledged drought was in effect. City planners
needed to get water from a source other than Los Angeles and the
closest body of water they found (besides the Pacific Ocean) was the
Owens River, about 250 miles north of the city. Prospectors, politicians
and others decided to buy up the rights to the river, and the land
outside of L.A. (the San Fernando Valley) and create a lush, green
oasis in the valley, meanwhile leaving the city to dry up. They would
later propose a bond to the Los Angeles city council to feed the river
into the city via aqueduct, in turn selling off the irrigated San
Fernando land at enormous profit.  Until the bond was passed, the
prospectors virtually man-made the drought by pumping excess water from
the river out to the ocean, knowing that when the bond passed, they would
make a fortune. Taking the water away to LA  killed the agricultural community
that the Owens valley had then.  Today more than 70% of Los Angeles’
water has passed through the Haiwee reservoir. Once the water leaves
the reservoir it passes through conduit, tunnel and pipe, never seeing
open air and light, all the way to Los Angeles. In the past - and now too -
control of water in the west is power and that was a part of what Chinatown
was about.

None of this goes through our minds as we jog the long winding muddy downhill
into the valley and admire the huge reflection pools for the distant mountains
but it's nice to think about it after we're done and about the history we've
passed by on this ride.  There's an eagle nest somewhere along this downhill
but we just focus on staying upright in the muddy terrain.

Of the 35 starting the first day 50 - 29 complete.  On the second day - 31 of
36 complete the 50. Seven of 8 on the first day and 10 of 11 complete the second
day LD.  The first day 50 is won by Ernie Lohman whose horse also took BC.
The second day is won by Charlene Lewis Stueve with Lisa Belser in second.
A longtime endurance rider says that this would have been her 9,000 mile mark
today but she pulls 16 miles out and hand walks her horse in.  He just doesn't
seem right.  The completion awards are very nice for a first time ride - a
folding chair for the first day and a folding table for the second day with the
ride name and logo as well.

Sue and Mike Benson have put on several rides this year. They put on Fire
Mountain earlier in the year with the first time Coso Junction
closing out the ride year for them. They've put on an excellent ride with well
marked trails, nice volunteers, good vets, and great scenery.

The weather made this a smaller ride than it could have been but hopefully Sue
and Mike will be putting it on next year with Mike still out on the trails during
the ride on his little motorcycle with the license AERC MC.

A very nice first ride for Coso Junction and I'm assured the pre-ride weather will
be better next year.  See you then.

Mike