Nick Warhol's DVE story - part 3

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Nick Warhol nwarhol@attbi.com

        Day three is a weird day.   It is not hard, yet not easy.  It is
not scenic, yet it has
some beautiful trails.  It has some great footing, and the worst footing
on the entire ride.
It is boring, yet really fun.  Go figure.   I've decided I like the day,
especially in
conditions like this. The weather was perfect- a little cold, with cloud
cover stretching
across the valley.   This is one of the point-to-point days, where base
camp moves to
Panamint Springs.  Judy was riding Jackie's mare, Holly, on the last two
50's, so we had
to arrange for our rig to be moved.   We left Wabi and Jackie's other
horse Odyssey,
(Jackie always has more horses around) tied to the trailer and headed down
the trail.  We
had a little mix-up in the truck-moving schedule, and our rig ended up
being left behind.
Good buddy Ken Cook came to our rescue when he was one of the last ones
heading out
of camp and saw the two horses still standing there.   Since he wasn't
riding the third day,
Judy had asked him the night before to keep an eye on the horses.  He
decided to play it safe and take the horses with him rather than leave
them there.  He shuffled things around, loaded 'em up in his trailer, and
headed over to
Panamint Springs.  He tied them up to his trailer, kept food and water in
front of them,
(no small feat with Wabi) and saw to their every need all day.  Thanks,
Ken.  We now
have a new nickname for Ken- he is officially known as "Ken Cook, friend
of Wabi."
Meanwhile, Judy and I were cruising along down the trail at a nice, slow
pace.   For some
reason, we both got really hungry about an hour after the start.   Not
much to chew on out
here.  Suddenly Judy yelps excitedly- she is riding Jackie's horse with
Jackie's saddle,
and has been digging through the tack.  She comes up with a can of fruit
juice!   We
pound it down, wishing there were more cans.  Then a few miles later, I
look down on the
trail and see something red.  Is it a mirage?  Am I getting dizzy?  Will I
pass out?  No, it's
a bag of red licorice sticks!   I leap off the horse and scoop up the
prize.  No, I don't care
who dropped it, it's mine!  I'll return the ziplock bag if they want.  We
feast on the
chewy, red delight.   Yummy!  That took the edge off.  Thanks so much,
whoever
dropped it.   This took us to the water stop at the highway crossing,
where we stopped for
water, and crossed the highway.   From this point it is a couple of miles
to the really nasty
rock road, so we crossed the road and walked.  And walked. And walked.
And walked
some more, all the way from the highway to the end of the nasty rocky
road.  It was
probably only about seven or eight miles, but it seems like fifteen.  I
have solved Jackie's
day three dilemma.  Every year people complain about the rocky road.  So
she moved the
trail to the rocky sandwash from hell.  People complained about that.  So
back to the
rocky road.  More complaints.  Here's what can happen next year- you can
take your
pick!   Don't like the rocky road?  Take the wash.  Don't like that? Take
the road.
Simple.   Besides, the road is better, especially if you are on foot.
After a couple of
hours on foot, we hopped back on and headed to the highway.  I rode along
with Steve,
my new friend from New Hampshire, who was riding Jackie's horse Rowdy, who
was for
sale.  Steve did all four LD days on Rowdy, and Rebecca's significant
other, Warren,
bought him!  (Not Steve, the horse!)  Congratulations, Warren, you have a
nice horse
there.  Warren's first, too.   We missed Alex at the highway crossing,
since he always has
candy there for the riders.  The water was there, but no sweets for us.
The long, uphill
haul to the lunch vet check seemed easier this year, since the weather was
so cool.
There's some deep sand, so we took it real easy.   It was getting chilly
as we got to lunch,
where we ate everything we packed, and still wanted more.  Holly looked
great, but Zay
looked a little strange at the vet check.  Not bad, just strange.  He
tends to stiffen up a bit
after standing around, but he looked okay for the vet.   We started the
last leg of the long
day as the temperature dropped.   I borrowed a jacket from Steve, since in
my haste at the
start I forgot to pick mine up.   Down a 4-mile wash that is half walk,
half trot, then
across the highway again to the big trot.   Ride to the bottom of the
valley, turn left, then
trot 10 miles to the finish.  We got to the camp just before the sun went
down.  Zayante
looked okay at the finish, again, strange, but okay.  Charlie the vet said
let's take a look at
him in the morning.   Another long day in the desert done, 50 more miles,
now Zayante
has 9,805 miles.   I went and retrieved Wabi from Ken, who was going to
have to bill me
for all the hay Wabi ate.  It was nice to have him back, now he could
continue to eat us
out of house and home.   Thanks again, Ken.