http://freeformusa.blogspot.com/2006/04/my-last-tevis-ride.html
I found the link to the story I was talking about. It was a different Paul who emailed it to me. My apologies to Paul Sidio.
The story is very long, so I copied and pasted the last part of it, with the pertinent info about the horse going over the cliff and being rescued.
The top part of the trail is called Cal 1 and the next section is Cal 2. Bo, who was leading us, had never been on this section of the trail. On about the third switch back of Cal 2, Bo was trotting fast with Jon and Spider right behind us when I heard some scrambling and then Jon saying, “Going down.” I turned and looked and could see the light bars on Spider tumbling over and over. My heart sank as I heard Jon yell for Spider, that frantic scream you would yell after your child when he stepped into the path of a freight train. I yelled at Jon to see if he was OK and all I could hear was him yelling for Spider. The other riders were now on top of me as I halted Bo. By that time, I was at the corner of the switch back. Two riders were in the corner, apparently coming up the trail as Spider rolled right over the trail in front of them. As they let me by, I thought that Jon had gone on down the switch back that I was on. I sent the other two riders on to get help, let all the other 15 or so riders pass me, and then went back to find Jon. I finally found him and he was okay, having only gone down about 30 feet or so. We thought sure that Spider was dead because of how steep it was where he had gone down and because of the fact that he had gone completely over the trail in two spots. He went out of sight tumbling over and over and then there was dead silence. After the second switch back there aren’t any more as the trail continues west. Jon asked if I would go on to Francisco’s and make sure we got some help. I gave Jon my flashlight and left my good friend in the darkness. Bo easily found his way through the darkness as my tears clouded my vision. I knew that Jon would be okay but I could still hear his screams for Spider in my mind. I knew that other riders that had passed me would get to Francisco’s long before me. At this point, alone in the darkness and knowing that Spider was dead, the ride did not seem to be very important. Waiting year after year for the Tevis ride did not mean anything anymore. Bo and I just kind of plodded along and finally came to the vet check at Francisco’s which seemed like forever.
Wonderful volunteers, a couple of young ladies, held my horse while I went over the to person with the ham radio. He said they knew what had happened and that the sweep riders had already been in contact with Jon and were making plans to get him out. I kept worrying about what I was going to tell his wife, Anne Marie. I looked for the signal on my cell phone but no such luck. I decided that Jon had probably already been in touch with his wife on one of the radios that the sweep riders had and that he would beat me back to Auburn by a long shot.
I pretty much took my time at Francisco’s, watching at least 20 riders pass along down the trail. I had no clue what time it was and really did not care. Bo and I started walking on down the trail, a section Bo had been on at least once. We walked along the trail about 200 feet above the American River, the full moon shining brightly, which would have been pretty nice if tragedy had not struck. We just walked in the darkness, not a soul in sight. I could see the tiny green light bars that they had marked the trail with dangling in the air. As your horse moves up and down along the trail you can make out all kinds of shapes and visions. I could see outlines of giant houses with windows and doors. The whole time I was thinking about Spider and Jon’s frantic scream. I decided that this is my last Tevis ride and a DNF (did not finish) at that. I never wanted to feel like this again. I am sure that my eyes were all red and blood shot.
We finally got to the river and crossed without incident. Bo was used to going fast on this last section of the trail. I knew that the last vet check, the quarry, is just four miles down the trail, but really didn’t care. I didn’t even look at my watch to see what time it was and had no idea what the cut-off time was. Bo kept trying to trot and I kept pulling him back to a walk. About two miles after the river crossing, I heard riders behind me. Bo and I just kept walking. Soon there were three riders, the drag riders coming from Francisco’s. Well, that meant that I was the last rider on the trail. They started chatting with me and I told them what had happened. By this time, I could see the lights from the vet check at the quarry. The ladies said that the cut-off time for the quarry was 4:15 a.m. and gave us some encouragement. I started thinking about it and decided that if Bo had it in him, we would give it a try for our good friend Spider.
Bo and I left the drag riders in the dust as we cantered that last two miles into the vet check. The people at the check could hear us coming and started yelling that we could make it. As we neared the check, they lowered a yellow ribbon they had used to direct the horses. The vet ran out to check Bo who got a quick drink and then had his pulse checked. Reaching the mandatory 68, he did a quick trot out and we were good to go. We nailed the 4:15 a.m. check-out time but now we had to go almost seven miles in under 60/minute. Bo had done this section of trail at least three times so he knew it well, but we had never done it in the dark and 60/minute was a real push even for daylight hours on a fresh horse. Bo had already done over 95 miles
Bo seemed to have taken on new life and had to be held back almost the whole way. I knew that if I got to the top of Robie Point by 5 a.m. I could make the finish by 5:15, the cut-off time. Bo ran through a section of the trail called the Black Hole of Calcutta like a champ. He strongly trotted all the way to the top of Robie Point were I checked my watch at 5 a.m. We then sprinted down the trail that weaved in and out, up and down, over some rocky areas, through the star thistle, and under the tree limbs towards the finish. Soon we heard someone screaming from the finish line. Some young girls (bless their hearts) started yelling," You can make it, you can make it." We crossed the finish line at 5:15 a.m., the last place finisher with maybe the fastest time between the last vet check and the finish line. I could not have been prouder of Bo if he’d had the four years of conditioning instead of his meager six weeks.
We walked into the stadium where Bo vetted through, looking very good, I might add, for a horse that just ran and last six miles of a 100-mile ride. We would get our “Spider buckle”.
I stood around for a few minutes looking for someone I knew. It wasn’t a very big crowd of people who had stayed up to see the last place finisher at 5:15 a.m. I finally spotted Jon’s wife, Anne Marie, and the tears welled in my eyes.
She told me that Jon was on his way in and would be there shortly. I assured her that Spider had to be dead, that there was no way he could have survived that fall, and vowed never to do this ride again
Bo ate some hay as we were talking and we saw a truck pull into the parking lot. Jon got out and we hugged and cried, then got down to business of finding Spider. Works were already underway for the search party. I left Jon talking to the search people and went to tuck Bo into bed. I had told Jon to wait because I was going with him. I had Bo squared away and was changing clothes when Ann Marie appeared and said the search party had already left. I didn’t think that I would be able to sleep but told them to come get me the minute they heard anything. I jumped up in the camper bunk at about 7:30 a.m. I laid awake for some time but finally fell asleep. At 10:30 a.m., there was knocking on the camper door and voices yelling that they had found Spider. I could not believe my ears. The first info that we got was that he was swimming in the river. Not all that info was correct but much better than dead. We waited for what seemed like forever for Jon and Spider to show up at the fairgrounds. The Tevis Gods had spoken again, only this time they were smiling.
We spotted the truck and trailer pulling into the parking lot at the rear of the Fairgrounds. I ran out and could see Jon riding in the back of the trailer with Spider. I jumped on the side of the trailer, looking in at Spider and Jon. The truck pulled as close as it could to the barn area and then stopped. I opened the trailer door and out jumped Spider, looking like he had been in a knife fight with straight razors. We walked Spider to the wash rack and washed his cuts and abrasions. He appeared to only have one (1) significant wound, a puncture wound to his left upper front leg. He was not lame and was eating up a storm! His right eye was somewhat swollen and he looked like a prize fighter, (the looser).
I got Bo and took him over to keep Spider company while we waited for the vet to show up to treat Spider. Jon told us of the rescue while we waited.
Jon said that he and two volunteers, and the vet, Jamie Kerr followed the path that Spider had taken off the trail of Cal 2 on his journey down towards the river, with Jon in the lead. He said that he got to a ledge about 50 feet above the river when he looked down and thought he saw Spider’s head lying with his mouth open on top of a giant boulder. Thankfully, what Jon saw turned out to be a piece of driftwood. Just as he decided it was not Spider, Jon heard a noise to his left. He looked and there was Spider, 30 feet away, standing with his hind feet on the up slope of the hill. Jon could not believe his eyes. Spider was trying to reach around and grab a little patch of grass that was nearby. Jon called out for the rest of the party and they came on down the hillside. Jon led Spider to a small clearing where the vet did a quick assessment of Spider’s condition and was given some medical treatment by Dr. Kerr. The volunteers cut some brush and small trees out of the way so that they could walk Spider down this steep section closer to the river.
Dr. Jamie Kerr stayed with Spider, letting him eat the green grasses alongside the river while Jon went downstream to see if they could get to Ford’s Bar. The other two volunteers went upstream but ended up coming right back down. By the time Jon had turned around, Dr. Kerr and the other two had decided that the best way out was the way that Jon had gone, downstream, so they started crossing the river. When Jon met up with Dr. Kerr, the vet was soaked from head to toe as Spider had stepped on his toe and down into the river he’d gone. Dr. Kerr led Spider out about four miles to the waiting trailer in Todd Valley; or the way Dr. Kerr tells it, Spider pulled him up the trail the whole four miles
After Jamie Kerr returned to the fairgrounds, he made a more comprehensive inspection of Spider and spent some time cleaning out the puncture wound. Spider was cleared to go home at about four in the afternoon. Being pretty tired myself, I loaded Bo and headed for home.
The drive home went quickly as I reviewed in my mind everything that had happened in the last 34 hours. I did that same review for the next two weeks and then some.
At about 10:00 the next morning Jon called and said that he was going back to Cal 2 to retrieve his saddle. I told him I wanted to go and met him in Todd Valley, along with my precious Honda Rancher quad. Jon and his wife rode on the quad they had brought and Peter, their son, rode with me. We parked the quads at the beginning of Cal 2 and started walking. Jon shot a video on the walk to where Spider took his spill. We walked the two switch backs, marking Spider’s path with trail ribbon. We found where he had flown over the last switch back, marked it, and then started the climb down. We went down about 100 feet and then decided to use the rope that Jon had brought (300 feet). We secured the rope to a tree and the four of us descended the rest of the way to the bottom. We ran out of rope for the last 100 feet but the mountainside angle had finally started to mellow a little. We are guessing that it is about a 50-degree angle on the hillside. We took a reading on Jon’s altitude watch at the top and then again at the bottom, 750 feet. During the climb down the hillside, backwards, holding onto the rope, we could see small trees and other large bushes that had been dislodged by Spider’s fall. Whole tree branches had been snapped off the trees that he had come close to. His path was very definite. If Spider had gone the extra 50 feet to the river he would of died, but this 750 feet should have killed him too, so who knows? If it’s not your time, its not your time. We spent a few minutes at the water’s edge and then started the trek back up the hillside. Jon had purchased a large quilted BBQ bag, one of those real nice covers that you put over your Weber BBQ. We stuffed his saddle into the bag, tied it off with the rope and within the hour we were up to the trail.
On Thursday of that week Jon invited my wife Nancy and I, along with Tracy and Eric, our outstanding crew, and with their respective significant others to dinner at his house. We arrived about 5 p.m. and went directly to see Spider who whinnied when I called to him and paced around his pen. Jon got him out and I hand-trotted him around to see how he was. He was good to go. Jon told me that Spider wanted to look all scarred up like Bo so that’s why he fell down the mountain. Jon and his wife gave us a gift, it was a Manx Kitten, with the name of Tevis, who thinks that she “is the Tevis God”.
Three weeks later Bo and Spider were racing on the wonderful trails at Point Reyes, The hard rocky terrain of the Tevis seemed so far away.
