Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Team 26 - Alaska **

                                  

Several years ago I was griping to my family about how I "never" got to ride. My husband suggested using my GPS to track my miles and see just how much I was getting to ride. Then I started riding with CTR Alaska where I needed the GPSed miles to set trails and timing for the Bald Mountain Butt Buster, an NATRC sanctioned Competitive Trail Ride. I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much I was riding and earned a couple of nice prizes from the APHA Ride America program. It was a blast riding in the Distance Derby in 2012 and I am looking forward to logging the miles in 2013.

My primary ride is a gray paint named DaVooshka. It means little girl in Russian. My backup is The Mare. She is a 26 year old Belgian/QH cross that was retired from an outfitter. She is the closest horse I could find to a 4 wheeler for my very non-horsey husband.

I belong to CTR Alaska, a group that puts on one of the two Competitive Trail Rides in Alaska. I don't compete but am active behind the scenes clearing trail, flagging, timing, safety rider and whatever else needs to be done. In 2013, the Fairbanks group will be hosting Challenge of the North, the most northern NATRC sanctioned ride in America. I am tentatively planning on competing and have invited Tammy Vasa (and anyone else who wants) to come ride with me.

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2012 / 273.64 Miles / 38th Place
2913 / 114.50 Miles / 71st Place

14 comments:

  1. Still waiting on the weather to cooperate so I can ride. It's really a bizarre winter here as we have had temps in the 50s and the snow is rapidly melting. However under all the running water is ice, inches and inches of ice. It makes for treacherous walking much less riding. I will more than make up for lost time as soon as we can get on the trails!

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  2. The weather has mostly cooperated this last week except for the ice. Lots and lots of ice.But I did get a short ride today between patches of ice. The road wasn't too bad until we got to the place where it was ice from side to side. I rode the Mare and ponied Voosh. Finally on the leader board!

    January 27 1.25 miles

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  3. 24* and blue skies! Really odd weather for Alaska in February.

    February 4 1.5 miles
    YTD 2.75 miles

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  4. I rode three days in a row! The third was in the arena though so no miles for that one. Can't wait until the snow goes away and I can get out on the trails and get some serious mileage.

    March 7 2.25 miles
    March 8 3.27 miles

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  5. March 30 1.95 miles

    YTD 10.22

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  6. April 9 Blue skies, 30*, snow but not much ice 2.25 miles

    YTD 12.47

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  7. April 12 MAT + SAR Training ride at Two Rivers, Butte, Alaska 6.25 miles

    YTD 18.72

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  8. April 21 road riding because the trails are still too soft 3.12 miles

    YTD 21.84

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  9. Hey Diane! I went to post some miles and saw that you took my name out of the list. I have not recovered from the loss of my horse but, like Grandpa always said, I got back on. I rode the Mare which is my back up horse and several friends have graciously offered horses to ride. Looks like I will be posting some miles after all. :)

    If you will add 7.14 miles on 6/19 to my total I would appreciate it.

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  10. So glad you are back in the saddle :-)

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  11. Three rides in 4 days! We crashed trail for the CTR, rode with a friend's daughter, and grid searched an area with the SAR team.

    6/22 4.39 miles
    6/24 3.12 miles
    6/25 8.0 miles

    15.41 for this week

    YTD 37 .25 miles

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  12. Still working on trails for the CTR on July 19 and 20. We are slow but steady.

    7/7 4.65
    7/8 8.62

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  13. Mare and I rode 15.1 miles on Saturday and 10.7 miles on Sunday as safety riders for the CTR. But I "lost" those miles for the DD2014 since I didn't get them posted before the 7 day deadline. :(

    We had a blast, the river was high and safety riders were needed to escort several riders across. On the mountain on the highest point we ride to a group of riders took a wrong turn and continued UP the mountain. They got to a place too steep to ride and had to dismount then turn the horses loose (one at a time) to go back down the trail to be caught and tied while the riders walked down. Because they were of the trail the rule about no forward motion on the trial while dismounted rule did not apply. All the riders lost about 45 minutes but managed to make up the time with trotting and waiting at obstacles. I hope the lesson they learned was to follow the ribbons!!

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  14. Search and Rescue mission on August 5 and 8, a total of 7.9 miles looking for a tourist who went fishing at Willow Creek. The official search was stood down on Saturday the 9th when absolutely no sign of this man was found. So sad for the friends and family

    8/8 7.9 miles

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