With two solid 50’s under our belts, I’ve decided to keep stretching our relationship a bit. Next week instead of waking up at 5am for a 6am start, I’ll sleep in awhile. We’re going to the Midnight Rider 50 up at Mt. Adams, heading out for the first loop at 3pm…which means we’ll finish up around 3am! This is an excellent experience to see if we have what it takes to ride at night, a critical component if I ever want us to move up to 75s or 100s. The ride is set up so you do the first loop in daylight, two other loops, then the first loop again in the darkness.

Seeing as how I haven’t ridden Tarma in true darkness for awhile, and not at speed, a few friends and I snagged spots at a local campground for this weekend. Battle Ground Lake State Park is utterly familiar for us, I’ve ridden every inch of it’s trails on five different horses now, plus it’s where I put in my first few trail rides on Tarma. We can warm up with our friends in the evening, do a mock vet check around 9pm, then head out and fit in a few dark, solo loops to see what we can manage, but with friends close by to assist if needed.

This will also give me a chance to feel where she’s at, technically she’s had two months off since her last 50. I think I’ve threaded the needle of giving her rest and recovery time and conditioning, but as always only the trail will show us if that’s true. This will also be the first true test of the Supracore pad, as the Jen X pads gave her white hairs (either from the heat of the inserts or the fleece on Mrs. Sensitive Skin). My hope is that we can do the first two or three loops solo, as she seems to do better with just me for company (and arguing with) at the start, but find someone to hook up with for the darkest loop. It’s been a little bit since I sat deep and really let her move out in that all day trot of hers and I’m excited to see if we can add another turtle award and go 3/3 on last place finishes this year! Though I might let her move out a bit faster during daylight, just to give ourselves a buffer.

Now, fingers crossed there’s no Hi-Tie shenanigans and her Octos stay on!