Music or Noise?

"Ride To a Different Drummer"

I have this friend I ride with that drives me crazy. You'll recognize the type.

She never stops talking! We can literally ride for hours on end, and all I have to do is nod my head now and then. I often wonder what people like that do when they are alone. Do they talk to themselves? Or do they just drown out their own thoughts with unnecessary background noise? You know the type -- they always have the TV on even when no one is watching it. If they have the stereo on, they talk louder to be heard over the music instead of turning the music down. They are always bombarded with sound (noise) and never seem to know it. These are also the kind of people who take boomboxes camping. WHOA! I go camping to get away! Away from people, away from crowds, away from traffic, away from NOISE! Please, do not bring your noise camping with you!!!

I prefer the quiet. To listen to the wind playing softly with the Aspen leaves. Aspens make a sound like no other tree. The way nature devised the aspen leaf, with a flat stem, it is susceptible to the slightest breeze. The leaves shimmer in unison, responding to their environment like a harpist strums the harp strings. The music of aspen leaves in a breeze is all the music my ears need to hear. Please, leave the boomboxes at home!

But back to my friend. We ride together quite often. We both have Arabians, both have ben into doing Endurance Rides, and both love to just get on our horses and ride, ride, ride! Believe it or not, a lot of people who own horses, ride in an arena (endless circles) or trail ride for maybe an hour--two tops--at a gawdawful Quarter Horse walk (read: slow). I'm more into riding for the sheer thrill. I love to haul! I also love to explore vast networks of trails that would take a hiker a week to cover--all in one day. Travel light, travel fast! Even at a fast pace, you can 'sit back' and enjoy the scenery!

But back to this one friend of mine. Perhaps I'll call her Danielle.

Danielle has been racing Endurance longer that I have had my Gabe! I heard at the barn that we should meet and ride together for weeks before we actually ran into each other. I figured, if you rode Endurance, you were ready for all the trails Tahoe has to offer.

Not so! Wrong! Think Again!

Just because someone can get on a horse, point it's nose to the next vet check (like an aid station in a foot race) and complete 50 miles in 6-8 hours, doesn't mean that you can really ride trail! This, I found out for myself. First thing I noticed with Danielle and her fearful steed, Dusty, is that Dusty refuses to go first down a trail. No problem, I thought, Gabe must be in the lead, so this will work out perfectly! I will lead and she will follow!

Danielle grew up in the foothills and rode the end of the infamous Tevis trail as her regular training rides, deep in the bowels of the treacherous American River Canyon. Cool! I figure we'll get along fine. I'll show her all my High Sierra Trails. We'll have fun cantering our endurance-trained mounts together all over the Central Sierra--what could possibly be more fun?

Well, I found out we ride to the beat of a different drummer. My idea of really riding includes going "off-piste," off the beaten path. I really enjoy ambling along beside a river, striking out cross country through the forest, with towering fir and pine tress to negotiate. I'm not afraid to look at the topo map and say, " humm, I wonder if we can there their from here."

However just because Danielle has done many 50 mile Endurance Rides, doesn't mean she has ever stepped a hoof off the trail. She freaks out if she can't follow the beaten path.

"Where are you g-o-i-n-g" she shrieks whenever I wander off-piste. "I dunno, over there, perhaps," I mumble and keep going. "But where's the trail?" she wails, worried that her horse might stumble in a hole or trip on a rock.

"Hmmmm., the trail seems a little faint through here," I muse, "maybe you should look for the blazes." Blazes, in the west, are used to mark the trail. They are a mark, hatched into a tree every so often along a designated trail. I prefer blazes, as rock piles (ducks, or cairns) can get knocked over (my husband does it on purpose) and a light snowfall can obscure most trails and make rock piles all look the same. Blazes, however, can easily be followed regardless of the snow cover. The only challenge becomes when the blaze is very old and then looks like any other scar a tree may have suffered long ago. I have followed 'scars' for many miles before concluding that they weren't really blazes after all!

So, I leave it to Danielle to hunt feverishly for blazes, imagining many among the folds of the red fir bark. That way, I can wander peacefully off piste while she follows, anxiously, searching. This actually will keep this motor mouth from speech for several minutes at a time!

So, why do I invite her on my rides, you may be thinking. Well, I do ride by myself 95% of the time, but sometimes it's nice to invite someone else along to show all these glorious trails to. Not many people can sit in a saddle for 6-8 hours or more a day, and Danielle is the last one to ever complain about how long a ride is.......well......except for our last ride together last fall.....Wolf Creek, 40 miles on the Golden Canyon Loop, + PCT to Wolf Creek Pass.

But that's another story! Stay safe out there and have fun!

Created by: Deanne Del Vecchio, of Tahoe Design Concepts.com
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Site Originally Created October 24, 1996.