In which we finished. And it was good. And that's pretty much all there is.

It was a good day for a ride.

Lots and lots of raingear--and I needed it ALL!
Because a smile doesn't actually
make a very good umbrella.
(photo by Jessica Anderson)

Although the Mt Adams Endurance Ride is held on the side of a "mostly dormant" volcano, and was scheduled for the anniversary of the eruption of Mt Saint Helens, the ridecamp was full-to-bursting, with about 157 horse-and-rider teams signed up for the event.

We showed up on Thursday with a huge group of Pirates and Fish,

Tim revealed the secrets of his "homecooked" stew.
It was delicious!

and set up a fun, rowdy camp space.

Fee had a front-row seat in camp, which made for easy proximity
for carrot-begging

My goal for the day: finish my first 15-mile loop in under 2 hours, so that we wouldn't be facing 81 LD riders on the common trail back to camp when they started THEIR ride 2 hours after we started ours.

We had to come in "hot" for that first loop,
but walked into camp the rest of the day.
(photo by Jessica Anderson)

We made it--with about 5 minutes to spare.

Moderate temps and light rain during the day helped keep
the Dragon nice and cool while she was working.

That was pretty much the story of our ride day.

I'd look at the distance for each loop, make a complicated computational estimate of the time we would spend on it based on distance, terrain, fitness, fatigue, weather, and likelihood of getting lost, and then go ride it...

We did get a few minutes of blue sky during our last loop.

...and usually "hit the mark" with only 5 minutes error on either side.

I tweaked my back during a vet check (getting out of a camp chair!!!) before the last loop, but luckily there were painkillers available.  I wasn't very smart for the rest of the day, but we did finish our ride!

Vet card shows before/after scores.  I like seeing all those "A's"

My overall time goal for this ride was an 8-hour 50 miler, and we finished "55 miles" (my GPS said it was closer to 53) in 8 hours and 8 minutes.

And the next morning

The Dragon is always a little snugglier the day after a hard ride

the sun came out!

It's good.  It's just really, really good.

Coming soon: a report on all those green horses/green riders who finished their first distance events at Mt Adams!