FROM: Laura Beeman, California NPEA
PST
Report from the Trail (Kyburz Dump to Wire Gate)
Knowing we would be riding in daylight this year allowed my riding partner Sheree Harrington and me to choose a more technical portion of the XP Trail through El Dorado National Forest. We were assigned the 4.2 mile stretch from Kyburz Dump to Wire Gate and allotted 65 minutes to complete this fairly advanced stretch of mountain terrain.
After a great BBQ dinner of tri-tip and chicken with all the fixings, prepared by Donnie “Cookie” Harrington, we were tacked up and ready for the ride.
The mochilla was running about 30 minutes early and the rider before us (Dave Peters on his quarter horse, Rowdy) made good time on his portion of the trail from Eagle Rock down to Sheree and I at Kyburz. This year my horse, Grady carried the mochilla as Sheree had carried it last year. The exchange was extremely quick – about 2 minutes and we headed into the hills.
The trail had several bridges and culverts and was fairly steep with lots of ups and downs. We had really struggled to get the trail cleared this year in advance of our ride and Sheree took a pretty nasty fall when a tree rolled over us about 2 weeks earlier. But it is always our practice to do our ride several times before the big night and that really paid off for us this year.
There is one spot in the trail that’s nearly impassable. It’s on the side of the hill and very steep, a large bolder is on the downhill side and a large tree root on the uphill side with about 18 inches between them. We determined the best way to handle this was to dismount, have each rider go through first and then urge the horses to follow after us. It was tight but we were able to make it through.
We arrived at Wire Gate in 45 minutes, shaving about 20 minutes off the time and I think we surprised the next rider that we came in so quickly. We also made a pretty fast exchange at Wire Gate and then loosened the cinches and hand-walked our horses back to Donnie waiting out on Highway 50 with our trailer.
Another year and another great ride. GO PONY!