Friday, April 08, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Tackling The Trail
By K.C. HOWARD
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Esther Gutierrez sits astride her mule Thursday during the Review-Journal Centennial Ride. Gutierrez was one of at least four riders who were thrown.
P.J. McClark chats at a campsite Wednesday, the night before the start of the Review-Journal Centennial Ride.
Riders listen to instructions Thursday morning before they they hit the Old Spanish Trail near Tecopa, Calif. They and their mounts covered 20 miles.
Kendall Dick, 6, sits atop hay bales Thursday during the Review-Journal Centennial Ride.
Head wrangler Ladd Dick summons aid after a rider, Review-Journal ad designer Paul Nitch, was thrown from his mule Thursday. Nitch was taken to St. Rose Dominican Hospital.
Photos by Isaac Brekken.
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ON THE OLD SPANISH TRAIL
About 45 horses, some bearing still-sleepy riders, strolled out of China Ranch in leisurely groups Thursday morning.
As they hit the Old Spanish Trail near Tecopa, Calif., one rider sang, "Get along little dogies."
Then Esther Gutierrez and her mule burst through the dust at a frantic gallop, weaving through pintos and quarter-horses on the way to the front of the pack.
"Whoa," Gutierrez cried in vain before the beast finally came to a halt.
It was an ominous start to the first 20 miles of the three-day Review-Journal Centennial Ride. Before the last horse hit the Landing Strip campsite at 6:30 p.m., at least four riders, including Gutierrez, had been thrown from their rides. No one was seriously injured on the journey to the campsite, on the state line 23 miles east of Pahrump.
"This is the real deal," rider Ellen Ross of Las Vegas said. "We're walking in history's steps. I just hope my butt can handle it."
The 60-mile trip from Tecopa, Calif., to Bonnie Springs Ranch is a marketing event sponsored by the Review-Journal to commemorate the paper's 100th birthday, which was officially Thursday.
The ride is also about the Old Spanish Trail, the all-weather route to Southern California for thousands of traders, gold miners, Mormons and thieves during the 1800s.
The Review-Journal has provided modern conveniences for the 60 or so riders, crew and wranglers, such as bottled water, portable toilets, nightly entertainment and an occasional chauffeur for tired riders.
The explorers who identified the different portions of the trail had it rougher to say the least.
John C. Fremont and other explorers who are credited with defining the Old Spanish Trail went from water hole to water hole, often slaughtering a horse for food.
In several cases Thursday, it was the humans who were at risk. Paul Nitch's mule reared as soon as he got on him.
"I guess I touched him the wrong way," he said before he left for the ride.
Not too long afterward, Nitch and his mule were running like Roy Rogers after a sunset. Nitch dodged a date palm and somehow calmed the animal down.
"This thing tried to kill me twice," he said, unaware the mule planned a third attempt.
Nitch was taken to St. Rose Dominican Hospital after he fell from his mule in Mesquite Valley. Wranglers who attended to Nitch, a Review-Journal ad designer, said he was not seriously injured.
"I think his pride was hurt more than anything," said Tennessee John Stewart, the trail boss.
A 10-year-old girl, the daughter of Ladd Dick, the head wrangler, held on as her mule bucked twice before she fell, only to get right back up again as if nothing had happened.
A Review-Journal reporter also crashed to the ground when her horse spooked for an unknown reason. A bit shaken, she climbed onto a different and calmer horse.
Gutierrez was riding her mule along Furnace Creek Road about an hour after her initial scare, and "he just started bucking."
She hit the dirt, and the mule took off running. Gutierrez suffered a minor head injury and had bloody scrapes on her elbow.
Wranglers attended the fallen, helped stragglers catch up and said the number of crashes was not uncommon for such a large trail ride.
"It's fun, it's also challenging," said Ross, who despite a few accidents reveled in the pioneer spirit of the journey.
The trek, which wreaked havoc on almost everyone's legs and posteriors, went through jungle thickets in Willow Creek so dense the group had to turn around and take Furnace Creek Road out of the California canyons.
In Mesquite Valley, the wide-open prairie was rich with creosote, sage and wild daisies.
Ross took it all in and said Las Vegans need to see more of the natural beauty of the desert environment.
"We can retain our heritage along with the glitz and glamour. We have it all you know."
