The DC Ride begins Monday morning at 7 am when the Greenies come wake everyone up with margaritas and mariachi music. They come around with two buckets: one of ice and one of margarita mix and tequila, and give you breakfast margaritas. This is where the drinking begins.
Take time to think about that and let it sink in.
Back in the day (this is like 6-7 years ago and before), the people in charge of the ranch camp used to hire an actual mariachi band to come play during this time and during the El Presidente Party. It was really cool, because the Mariachis would would start playing around 6 am, and wander around the whole area of the ranch where the guest rooms are. It's a really cool thing to wake up to, if you get the chance. Otherwise, you get woken up to them at your door while you're in PJ's with people handing you booze, playing and singing as loud as they can. It is my personal goal to bring them back in the coming years, even if I have to pay for them myself. I miss them.
You wander down to the dining room and patio for breakfast after this. There are more margaritas for you there (should you desire...I recommend not). You eat breakfast, then get your gear ready to be loaded in the U-Haul (another Greenie job. You should be getting the trend by now that they are in charge of most of the bitch work). After that, you take your saddle bags down to the corral, along with you in all your riding gear, and get ready to mount up. Now, if you have a girl or some other friend of sorts to ride your horse into town, they mount up instead of you. Me being friendless and lacking in a girlfriend in proximity (she had some fucking "FE Exam." Load of horseshit, in my opinion), I had to ride for an hour and a half into town. This is time to get adjusted to the idea of what you're about to do, let the last minute fears sink in, and think about all the things you forgot to do before you left wash over you in a tsunami of panic. Also, it's a chance to ride by some houses on the outskirts of town that have very loud, barking dogs that scare horses and send them careening into the brush. These things happen. Especially with girls on them who are expecting an easy ride. I was already on my toes at this point, so I didn't go anywhere. All the other horses around me did though. Not a fun way to start the riding day.
In short order, we get into town. We dismount for a bit, eat lunch, which consist of prepared, bagged sandwiches for us, and hurry up and wait. Then, we mount back up and ride across the railroad tracks. Horses do one of two things in the presence of tracks: nothing or panic. Thankfully, the camp was devoid of the panic option this trip. Last time I was on the ride, some joke thought it would be fun to trip the sensors and make the crossing think a train was coming. Loud noises and falling railroad guards are NOT FUN around animals that do not know what the fuck they are. Once we ride past that, we get to the library. More time to hurry up and wait. We must wait for "high noon" for the ceremonies to start. People make boring as speeches. Horses get restless. Riders get restless. My brother goes to hold a flag (I was expecting disaster at this point). The national anthem is sung. In a moment of sheer stupidity, I decided to take off my hat. My horse decided it was then a good time to leave NOW right the way we came. I put a stop to that, but not before I had ridden about 100 feet and had to ride back. Last time I ever took off my hat. Sam noticed. I would not get to live this down later.
Let me expound a bit on horses and riding them. Riding a horse is not like driving a car. True, they have the same functionality as a car: acceleration (kicking them), brakes (pulling back on the reins), and full power steering. However, a horse is an animal, which means it has personality. They have things they like and dislike (also other horses they like and dislike), and they do take care of their riders so long as their riders take care of them. My horse (Topito is his name) and I didn't hit it off to a great start. It took a couple days before he realized I was trying to take care of him to. After that, we came to an understanding. Once you learn the personality of the horse you are riding, you can have an amazing time bonding with the animal on the trail. However, if any horse wants you off, there is not a power in this universe that can keep you on. Imagine if you will being in a very packed crowd, people brushing up against you on all side. This is very uncomfortable. Horses like it just about as much as people do. They have a more direct way of dealing with it, in the form of kicking and biting. That is what makes this next part pretty insane.
We leave all at once. We cross the Wickenburg bridge in a huge group (about 10 horses wide), and then we must narrow down in a few minutes to ONE HORSE AT A TIME to cross a cattle guard (I would suggest googling this). This is not a good idea. This is where people get kicked or thrown. Luckily, neither happened. The Flag Bearers get to lead everyone out, and my brother did a fantastic job. We met up with him afterwards, and unfortunately got stuck in front of a group of Californios. Pushy bastards. Later, we would end up falling behind by about 50 yards. We could still see hats, which meant we could find the trail. These guys were having none of that, and kept telling my brother to spur his horse and catch up. They earned a nice, Andrew style glare. I didn't even need to tell them to shut the fuck up.
We ride out pretty much in single file for most of the ride. The trail is denoted by markers, which take the form of pink ribbons tied around trees to let you know which way to go if there is a fork in the trail. The weather was beautiful, and it had just rained, so there was absolutely no dust. You couldn't ask for ideal conditions. The trail for the day passed mostly uneventfully, save one minor hiccup. Once we got farther into the desert, we came across a point in the trail where there was an obstacle in the form of a four-foot high rock. The horse had to climb this rock. The procession went Greenie - my dad - my brother - me. The Greenies' horse had a little trouble and stumbled on the way up. My dad's horse, Gonzo, isn't exactly sure footed. He took his time and got up without issue. My brother's horse went up without issue. My horse decided this would be a good place to practice his high jump career and decided to take it in one leap. I don't weigh much, so I came off the saddle a good six inches and slammed my nuts down right into the saddle horn. Ouch.
Monday's ride lasts about 4 and a half hours. The ride was into Sayer's Station. Sayer's station is the ruins of an old post office stop and general store that used to feed the surrounding countryside. It was abandoned long ago, and now servers as our first campsite. The Los Cab camp is on a slight hill, which means putting up your cots gets interesting in the geometry. All heads point uphill. Getting off the trail, the wranglers take our horses to feed and water them, then we go get settled. Once settled, we do more Greenie events (such as have their sponsors embarrass the shit out of them with funny stories), and they do the next Greenie task of getting us all drinks. Once dinner rolls around, we all go eat steak, salad, and potatoes (the ride hires a catering service that moves with us and sets this all up), and retire to the campfire for more drinking and merriment.
If you've never heard me talk about nightfall in Arizona, you will need to know this: as soon as the sun is gone, so is the warmth. There is a good 20-30 degree different between night and day. This week was no exception. Soon, it is very cold, which means people are either huddled up in their bunks or huddled up around the fire. I chose the fire for a while. This gave Sam ample opportunity to admonish me for not taking my hat off for the national anthem. Joy. Monday night is usually a pretty early night, as we have the longest day on Tuesday: 9 hours in the saddle. This is the day when you DON'T want to be hurting. I did my hurting on Monday.
Next update:
High climbs, rivers, rolling horses, and a long ass day. Plenty of fun stuff.
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