Not long after the Wild West Pioneer Ride, when I realized Fantazia would not be ready to do Tevis this year, I decided we’d do our own Tevis Cup practice ride. Because one of the challenges of Tevis (or any 100 mile ride) is riding in the dark, I wanted to do a night ride.
Originally, our night ride was going to be on the 24th, during Tevis. This was partly because I wanted to distract myself from the fact I was neither riding nor volunteering. (I would have loved to volunteer, had it been possible for me to get there.) Mainly it was because riding in the dark is easier when it’s less dark, and I wanted to catch the full moon.
In the end, I couldn’t ride Saturday or Sunday, which would also have been great. I planned to ride Monday, but a local forest fire was causing a lot of smoke, so Tuesday it was. Fortunately the Park Fire is largely within recent burns, so it has not been difficult to Cal Fire to get a handle on it. Last night was mostly clear (not that it helped us that much!)
The importance of paying close attention to the moon when riding in the dark
It’s not only about when the moon rises, it’s also about where.
Moonrise last night was at 10:56pm–more than an hour and a half later than it would have been Saturday (9:08pm)! But the thing about moonrise times, is that they don’t take into account mountains. Because the moon moves, the importance of the mountains changes. Whereas on Saturday it rose East-southeast (and would thus have come over the horizon faster because fewer mountains that way), last night it rose in the east. To the east I can see (when riding) peaks that are over 10,000′ (Maggie Mountain, which has two peaks). Maggie lies just north of due east of the local peak I summitted and looped around last night. Fortunately the moon came up south of Maggie, over lower peaks that are only just over 8,000′. The moon still has to work to get over those. It started showing just after 11, and was free of the horizon at 11:18.
You can find out when and where the moon rises and sets on the Farmer’s Almanac site or on timeanddate.com. Enter your zip code for more accurate estimates.
You also need to pay attention to where you are with reference to the landscape
Fantazia and I were at the top of the peak when the moon rose. We had got there by winding around the east side. That’s my favorite way to ride around the peak… but I should have done it the other way last night. Even though the moon was out, we dropped down into the shadow of the mountain. In fact, almost the entire way home was along dirt roads that (coincidentally) lie to the west of hills and ridges.
Above: On the left, you can see our local topography. Notice that I was bound to ride in shadow even with the moon up, because of the ridges to the east. On the left, you can see where we are in relation to the peaks of the Sierra Nevada.
We rode away in the dark because the moon had not risen. We rode back home in the dark because hills were blocking the moon. Note that what I call hills would look like mountains if you live in Flat Places! The difference in elevation between our training barn (~760′) and the peak Fantazia and I summitted last night (3,261′) is around 2,500′. There are a lot of ups and downs no matter which way I go, so even if the moon were directly overhead, the route would always involve some shadow. Last night we were riding in the dark (the very dark) far more than was strictly necessary.
Above: pictures of the San Joaquin Valley from the utility tower at the top of our peak.
Our ride in the dark
We rode for 3 hours, 41 minutes (3:15:25 moving time), and covered 10.70 miles with 2,900′ total elevation gain. We went much more slowly than usual because it was dark. Even though we’ve been riding out there for more than a year, and followed dirt roads most of the time, I still hesitated to let Fantazia trot. She was willing, although she was much more careful of Things On The Ground than usual (and usual = very careful). But many of our roads go along steep inclines if not cliffs, and I couldn’t tell where the edges were.
I would not want to ride that route in the dark if I hadn’t already done it many times in daylight. Only once was I not sure of where to go, and that was when we’d gone across pasture in our usual short-cut to a gate. It does not look at ALL the same in the dark! Fortunately Fantazia knew where we were going. Most of the time, I knew where the road went (in broad terms) even when I couldn’t see it.
What it like to ride at night?
Riding in the dark is fun, if somewhat unnerving. Fantazia was very excited at first, but settled down on the first steep climb. She was entirely unafraid of (black) cattle materializing out of the dark or leaping up to run crashing through the trees. (Lo and behold, all the cattle we came across were lying down and sleeping. Who’d’ve thunk?)
Of course, I had ridden at night plenty of times. When I was growing up, I’d ride at night during the summer because it was cooler. I’ve showed in many evening performances. I’ve gotten up before dawn to ride, starting when I was a teenager. I rode before dawn for months at a time during my time galloping racehorses. On the training track in Madrid, this meant no lights, no nothing except the moon and stars. (Darkness is actually far preferable to fog on the track!) But this was the first time I’d ridden on the trail, in challenging terrain, at night.
Above: If you look closely, you will see the shadow of a tree, and stars. This was before the moon came up.
My boyfriend speculated that I’d see more wildlife at night. Well, I mainly saw darkness. Maybe Fantazia saw wildlife, but she didn’t let on about it. She was only afraid of the place where we encountered a rattler weeks ago, but she’s afraid of that in broad daylight.
I did see three shooting stars.
Mainly, time and distance get distorted in the dark. Some stretches of road or trail I had previously thought of as long (or short) seemed short (or long). Slopes seem steeper. Time passes slowly.
It wasn’t really that dark. Once the moon was up, I could usually see our shadow. But I couldn’t distinguish rocks and trees very well. I ran into far more branches than usual, because Fantazia wasn’t worrying about things that high.
Some advice for riding in the dark
Avoid looking at light. I’ve finally found one thing I don’t like about my Garmin Fenix: the lights from underneath (where it touches your skin) shine very brightly at night. Turn the brightness on your cell phone as low as possible, and try not to look at the screen if you must turn it on (as I did to take pictures). Don’t look at houses or towns where the light pollution is tremendous.
All these things destroy your night vision!
Along the same lines, turn the flash off if you are going to take pictures. It will destroy your night vision, and probably cause your horse to come to a screeching halt.
Tailing is really useful in the dark! Your horse can see better, so if you have to get off, it helps to grab the tail. That way if you trip, you are less likely to fall.
Know your trails. And if you don’t, ride somewhere with no cliffs, rocky slopes, holes, or other treacherous terrain.
As mentioned above, pay attention to the whereabouts and timing of the moon.
It probably isn’t worth it to take pictures. I did because I was going to write this blog post, but even when you can see things, your phone camera cannot. (Yes, you could do it with a big fancy camera, but do you really want to be riding with that at night?)
Trust your horse. If you don’t, don’t ride in the dark. The horse will have to do most of the navigating when it comes to precise placement of hooves.
Safety
Enable live tracking on your phone so that someone who cares if you fall off a cliff can come rescue you. iPhones have that feature built in, and you can add apps to Androids. I personally use WhatsApp for this, because my boyfriend and I already use it. To enable live location tracking on WhatsApp, click on the + button to the left of the text entry. Select “Location” –> “Share your current location.” Make sure you select “8 hours” if you are going to ride for a while! On iPhone, go to your contact info, scroll down, and select “Share my location.” It’s permanent.
I do this whenever I ride in new places. There is very poor cell coverage, but at least he will know the last place I was before dropping off AT&T’s map. Normally I wouldn’t do it when riding these well-known trails, but I thought it a good idea for night riding.
Take home
I probably won’t do many night rides. To be honest, this is mainly because I like my sleep! But riding in the dark is something every rider should at least try. Overall, it gave me a new perspective on the landscape, and a lot of time to think.
And if you are training to ride 100 miles (think Tevis!), then it’s a must.
Pingback: Endurance training while the Rest of Life is Happening: Road to Tevis # 54