Swanton Pacific 75/50 - July 2001

The Swanton Pacific 75/100 and Ride and Tie took place this weekend and went off very well.  The
weather was favorable,  the scenery beautiful, and everyone had fun.  The ride is a
change from last years with a 75 being offered and an FEI portion as well.  The head vet
was Roger Bruce assisted by Nancy Elliot, Jeannie Waldron from the East Coast and 2
local vets.  I was happy because although I have been covering the ride for the internet
since 1998 - this was the first time I actually got to do the ride.

First the statistics:

About 38 QSER members either rode, officiated, crewed, vetted, or volunteered - a really
big turnout from a club of our size.

Volunteering: Rick Gomez, Vivian Beebe, Jan Jeffers

Crewing: Hilliore Bachmann, Bob Suhr, Maryben, Mike Bernsten, Peggy Bullock, Pat McKendry,
Bing Voight, Jennifer Kurtzhall, Kathy Mayeda

Officiating/Vet: Nancy Elliot, Becky Hart

Attending/more?: Judith Ogus, Skip Lightfoot

My apologies for anyone I missed.

Riding and Placing:

75 Miles - 51 starting and 37 finishing

Dennis Rinde - first running most of the way and BC
Robert Oram - 11th
Mike Maul - 13th
Kirsten Bernsten - 14th
Steve Lenheim - 15th
Julie Suhr - 22nd
Nancy Twight/Stephany Ashley 34/35th
Jeff Luternauer - 37th
*****Pulled
Stephanie Beebe
Ken Cook
David Walker

100 Miles - 22 starting and 15 finishing

Heather Bergantz and Red - first AERC, FEI, and BC
Dom Freeman - 5th
Lori Oleson - 9th
Becky Glaser - 11th
Gertrud Walker - 12th
Kathy Webster - 13th
Val Weizer - 14th
Brian Reeves - 15th - Brian and Val finished with 7 minutes to spare
***********Pulled
Robert Ribley - for an exit CRI of 60/60 in the FEI

3 Ride and Tie teams started and 2 finished - both from Virginia.

The R&T started at 5 AM followed by the 75/100 starting at 5:30.  The 75
had until 11:30 PM to finish.  There were published cutoff times for all the
vet stops. Riders came from as far away as Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

I originally wrote some of the following for my internet coverage of earlier
Swanton Pacific rides but it still applies.

********************************************
The 100 mile SP started in 1983 and grew out of the earlier Castle Rock
50 and Big Creek 70 - with Barbara and Lud McCrary taking over the rides back
in 1975.

The ride is a tough one with almost 12,000 feet of ups and downs
over the course. The  ride is held in a beautiful area near the Pacific ocean in
the Santa Crux mountains between Santa Cruz and Half-moon Bay, CA -
south of San Francisco.  The area has steep cliffs dropping to
the beaches, mountains  next to the ocean going up 2400 feet,
redwoods 12 feet in diameter, - with great trails to ride.  There
are wild pigs and deer in the forest.  The fog rolls in off the
ocean at night and is still there to greet you in the morning.
It's neat - beautiful country to see and to ride.

At the finish line, it was beautiful to see the glowsticks
on the breastcollars come drifting on to the the finish line
with a steady clip-clop of hooves out of the darkness.  Usually
in pairs with the occasional single rider - saying "I got lost
in the dark".  To see the runners just keep on coming - and
saying to myself - "I don't see how they run for 50 miles..."
****************************************

Barbara provided the following background on the rides history:

Logging, lumber, and forest products have been a part of the industry of the
Swanton area since well back into the 1800's, and trains played an
important part in that industry. In mapping out our ride in its first year,
1983,
we found we were passing through three areas with railroading history: the
Pescadero Creek watershed, where Santa Cruz Lumber Co. used locomotives to
haul huge logs into their sawmill at Waterman Gap; the Little Creek
watershed, where San Vicente Lumber Company's logging shay struggled up
ten-percent grades; and the Swanton valley, where the Ocean Shore
Railroad terminated its track northbound from Santa Cruz.

The name Swanton Pacific comes from a railroad built by our late neighbor
Al Smith, using a 84-year-old steam engine on a narrow-gauge track laid
along part of the old Ocean Shore route. All but the Swanton Pacific have
long since passed into history   The 100 mile SP started in 1983 and grew
out of the earlier Castle Rock 50 and Big Creek 70 - with  Barbara
and Lud McCrary taking over the management of Castle Rock in about 1975.
****************************

We had a wide variation of environments on this ride - more than you see in
many.  It went from the deep redwood forest on single tracks with lots of
switchbacks to logging roads to pavement through houses to chalk ridges
to hard brilliant white roads in the sun to areas near the ocean to rocky
paths cut directly through the brush.  There were "killer" hills - especially
the one to the airport check for everyone.  There were wasps in one spot - a  number
of riders or horses got at least one sting. The humidity was higher than
most of our California rides because of the ocean.  And the hills just keep coming -
one after another - you never seem to be done with the climbs. This is good
preparation for Tevis.

The Friday and Sunday meals were excellent and in a beautiful setting.  The kids
kept climbing up on the stump of the huge redwood overlooking our eating/awards/camping
area. Dogs were allowed in some areas. Hot showers were a very nice plus.

The 75s did most of the same trail as the 100s but avoided the last killer hill
after the Swanton check. Barbara and Lud keep changing the trails in response to what the
weather did and to make conditions better by adding bridges in key spots.

Some observations from the ride:

Riders help each other - one rider was dumped right at the start in the stream
and his horse took off with the front runners.  Riders stopped to tie his horse
- he hiked up and finished the ride.

A junior rider came all the way from Houston to do this ride but an accident in
the trailer made it impossible for her horse to vet in. She made an
appeal at the ride meeting for an additional horse but unfortunately none was
available.  She still contributed by crewing.

One of the local families got out and had a refreshment stop set up for the
riders and horses.  They had hotdogs, lots of oreos, things for the horses.
Riders and horses can have funny appetites - the guy at the stop said the
last rider cleaned me out on hotdogs.  Another rider was heard to say - my
horse cleaned out all the oreos...

The competition to finish first - Heather and Suzy Kelley were about 30 minutes behind the
leader at Cascade Ranch in the 100.  At Sawmill - they were only running 10 minutes
behind.  Between Swanton and the finish  - they passed the leader and finished 1-2.
Sometimes even a big lead is not enough against determined competitors...

There was a really dedicated group of volunteers, crew, and vets waiting for everyone
to come in.  There was a fire going with everyone sitting around it waiting for
the last riders to come in.  If we didn't have people like this - we would not have
rides.

The volunteers come in all sizes - at the airstrip we had some really young ones
who were running back and forth getting drinks for the riders - telling you where
the hay for your horse was - they may grow up to become endurance riders.

Crews help everyone.  I saw a number of cases where a crew might not make it
to the next stop in time for their rider but someone there was always willing to help.

You ride with someone you never met before this ride and share a lot.  Your horses bond -
you wait for each other going out of the checks if your times are not the same
- sometimes they lead and pull - sometimes you do.  You find out how they feel about getting
close to the big "50" - how ride and tie was in the 70s - how their goals have changed
over the years...  You say - see you at the next ride when you leave the next day. You
have a new friend. You end up saying "you are as old as you feel"...

Taking a shower in a "fairy ring" of redwoods is a unique feeling.  You finish the ride -
go to the showers - and you are deep in the center of a grove of small redwoods with the
light getting less as the sun goes down. All only 25 miles as the crow flies from Silicon valley.

The routine the next morning is people walking their horses - saying "how did you do"
- congratulations on your finish or that's too bad but there's a next time - and just
talking.  Socializing is an important part of the ride for a number of people.  Normally
that's why I like 50s better than 100s but here - people stay around the next day when it is a long ride.

We rode through the redwoods and wondered where the logging happened.  There was lots of finished
lumber at the sawmill but we never figured out where it came from.  Perhaps that's the way
harvesting timber is supposed to happen.

Barbara and Lud - thanks for putting such a great ride and allowing us to see a part of the country
so near where people live but still so different.

Mike