Ridecamp: [RC] Nick Warhol- Virginia City100 Ride Story- part 2 of 4

Oh yes, the ride.  Sleeping Friday night was very difficult due to the
whoop-em-up party bands playing in the clubs on Main Street.  Quality?  Bad.
But unfortunately, very loud.  And then there was Zayante on that stupid
skyhook.   Don?t get me wrong, that skyhook is a great way to tie a horse.
Ever tried to sleep a foot from one, with a horse eating all night? Every
movement of the horse?s head resulted in a loud squeak.  It got so bad that
Judy finally got up in the middle of the night and tied him to the trailer.
Then there was that damn mosquito.  No West Nile Virus for me, thank you, he
had to die.  It was a long, long, sleepless night- Oh camper, where art
though?   3:30 in the morning is just way to early to get up for anything.
Get up?  Who slept?   I was very groggy while tacking up and preparing to
head out at 5:00 am.  The start line was right on the main street downtown,
just like in an old western.  (The old west didn?t have many fudge shops and
paved roads, though.)  We started out with a controlled start to the edge of
town and took off trotting on nice dirt roads.  A little single-track trail
led up out of the valley, then dumped us out on long, straight, flat dirt
roads across the desert.  Okay, so where?s the rocks everyone always talks
about on this ride?   Heck, this was easy!  (you see where this is going,
right?)  We were on nice dirt roads that led us around the valley, then
through some housing neighborhoods.  Still nice roads.   We turned off and
headed out across the desert on yet another road, this one just peppered
with some rocks.   Laura Fend, Brenda Benkley, and Karen Bottiani passed us
up as we turned onto another road, this one had some rocks on it.  Still not
too bad, you could trot, but carefully.  We were at mile fifteen or so when
we turned up another climb, now the rocks were coming out into the morning
sun, hanging out on the road like lizards basking in the warmth.   A long
climb took us up to the top of the big grade, where we started down a long
road.  Jackie had gone on ahead a little, Merri and I hopped off and led the
horses down the hill.  The long hill.  The very long hill.  It was a 45
minute walk the way down to the valley floor, with some nice rocks near the
bottom.  We ended up in a town, where we trotted along the roads to the
first vet check at 25 miles, right behind a mini-mart.  Very handy!
Bathrooms, cold Gatorade, cokes, but alas, no Taco Bell.  Judy (mine) and
Gary Fend were there crewing for us, a very appreciated service.  It was the
first of three one-hour holds, that seemed like a lot, maybe they know
things we don?t.  It was a nice break, however, we left refreshed and happy.

I sort of figured that when we walked down that grade, we would have to go
back up.  One of those principles of the universe and Endurance riding
axioms, you know.  And we did, right up this thing called Bailey Canyon.  It
really was a neat trail, all single track, through trees and canyons, but it
was almost all rocks.  It went a long way up the mountain, we just walked
the whole thing.  Okay, I?m starting to see the rocks now.  It took over an
hour to get up that thing due to all those rocks.  I was happy to hear from
Judy Reens that the leaders walked this thing as well.  Spectacular trail,
just all rock.  Once at the top, the rocks stopped, but the climbing didn?t.
Up and up some more, then a huge down hill, all the way to the Washoe lake
basin.   When I mention these climbs and downhills, these are not hills we
are going over, but whole mountains.  Right at the bottom of the valley
there was a house whose owner let the ride go right through his property.
The owner was out there at the water trough he supplied, with a huge platter
of home made Oatmeal with cranberry cookies.   Oh yeah, they were good.
What a great guy.  We crossed the highway and got onto the fantastic
single-track trail that led over to the Washoe Lake campground.  It is
sandy, flat, twisty, really fun trail that goes a couple of miles through
the sagebrush.  Zayante was spooking at everything for some reason, it was
reported that lots of horses were.  Bad spirits, maybe?  Judy and Gary were
at the camp for us with a nice snack for horses and riders.


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