The Lake Oroville Vista Ride was held Nov. 4 with a number of QSER members making
up the top ten.  Judy Etheridge was in 3rd just 15 seconds ahead of Michele Shaw
at 4th on Robin Hood who took BC. Melissa Ribley was in 8th place, Hugh Vanderford
in 9th, Kirsten Berntsen in 10th, Kathy Mayeda was 18th,  and Mike Maul 22nd.
Robert Ribley, Jeff Luterauer, and Bing Voight were all in the 50 but I don't know
their placings. Bing finished around 4 PM. Riders were still coming in  at the
cutoff time. Placings were difficult to find
out because there was no awards meeting. There were 87 starters in the 50 and
38 or so in the 25.  There were at least 8-10 pulls in the 50 and only 2 in the
25.

This was the second time for the ride - last years being described as
"challenging". At the ride meeting we were told that this years trail was shorter -
and likely in the 44-46 mile range.  For me - it seemed a pretty challenging
50 even now - taking about 7 hours riding time. There was lots of single track
with some nice places where you could weave around the trees as you took it fast.

One killer spot was going from the top of the dam to the bottom - then back
up again. The back up again was not a trail in many places - just ribbons
from point to point.  And much of it just straight up.

The scenery varied between beautiful - the lake and surroundings - to a new home
construction area with the land torn up - burn piles - deep cleated trails
from the bulldozers that were difficult to follow. We spent several hours
in this area with a complex set of trails and markers that crossed often.
There were a very large number of volunteers as spotters in these areas
and were certainly needed.  There seemed to be hundreds of signs - turn
right here and straight ahead here.....

The volunteers were great and very helpful.

Stories from the ride:

Bing decided at the last moment to go - gets in at 1:30 AM - shining his
brights into Mike and Kristen's sleeping area.  No vet shows up at 5 AM
to vet him in - so management gives him a number and says "Good luck:.  Bing is
riding Spot and manages to find his way to Vet check 3 before Vet check 1.
He made up a lot of time to finish where he did.

Judy Etheridge gets lost too in the first part of the ride and comes
out of the lunch check in 9th.  She and Orion make up a lot of time
in the last 12 miles to finish 3rd.  Her time was only 5 minutes off
the winners and she is convinced that the brass ring would have been hers
w/o getting lost...

Michele and Robin Hood were just passed by Judy near the end but came away
with BC and looked great.

An interesting part of the ride that all the fast front runners missed out
on was shared with me late that night by some other riders who came in at the
end.  The third Vet check at the top of the spillway was run by a vet with
his own microbrewery at home.  He had an iced keg of his homebrew in the van
and they talked him into filling their water bottles with it.  It made coming
in at the end well worth it for these gals.

A few of the comments heard during the ride:

We started at 5:45 and could see the lights of the sleeping city off in the
distance with dawn coming.  As we were riding - I heard a voice out the
darkness say - "this is so beautiful that it's worth getting up this early
to see it".

Another rider catching the lake at the right spot to make a perfect reflecting
pool for the mountains.

One late rider caught the sunset coming down the mountain toward the finish -
"Too beautiful to describe" was all she could say.

For me - the ride contained a number of contrasts - the huge dam and spillway -
a tremendous engineering achievement - close to 1000 feet tall. But I was
riding by it on something that tied me to a very different era and view of the
world.  I live in both - really much more in the new than the old  - but I believe
that the old can provide an anchor for the new.

And the other contrast was the forest and the lake compared to the cleared
land for the new "ranchettes".  Perhaps it will look great when finished -
but compared to to the rest of the ride - I still prefer the "way it used to look".
Ride management did say that there would be equestrian trails through it but
keeping these promises can be difficult.

In all - an interesting and different ride - a chance to meet some new and old
friends - and see a new part of the country.  For me - this is my last ride of
the year and I can hope for no rain at Becky's first Shine and Shine Only ride
on Jan. 27.

Mike