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Nick Warhol's DVE story - part 4



Nick Warhol nwarhol@attbi.com

        Day four, the last day.  I was up early to warm Zayante up- no
worries.  He
looked just fine.   Same as always.   Great!   For some reason, Judy and I
got started late,
and didn't leave camp until about 7:30.   It was neat to be all-alone out
there, until we
caught Trilby, as well as some other riders after a while.   The long
climb up to the top of
the pass was way colder than I thought it would be.  Down the other side,
and we get
dumped in to the worlds coolest wash.  This baby is as wide as a ten-lane
freeway and
just as flat.  Great stuff, and great trotting.  We stopped at the super
hidden water spring,
then saw the dead burro a moment later.  Yuck!  This guy was recently
expired, since the
buzzards and critters had only eaten his middle section.   Kind of sad,
but kind of
fascinating at the same time.  That's nature in action, though.  More fast
trotting brings us
to the end of the wash all too soon, then we head up along an old paved
road to the
bottom of the Darwin climb.  A short walk up a pass, then down the other
side takes us
into the town of Darwin.   What a strange place.  People live here, but
you never see
them.  Ever.  You feel like they are watching you from their houses, but
you never see
anyone.  It's the twilight zone!  Rebecca joined Judy and I, since her
sister and Steve
were doing the LD rides that circle back to camp from Darwin.  A quick
water stop and
we head for the best part of the ride- the absolutely beautiful romp up
the valley, up
through the Joshua trees, through two passes, all very trot-able and the
best scenery on
the ride.   At the top you see the mountains in the distance that line the
highway 395
valley- they are huge, and covered with snow.   The White Mountains, or
the Sierra?  I
don't know, but they are awesome.   Another hour of trotting takes us to
lunch, where we
are near the back of the pack.  It is usually really cold and windy at
this check, but this
year it was much nicer than in the past.  You just sit up there and look
at those mountains.
All too soon its time to leave.  We vet the horses, (Zay looks just fine,)
and continue back
on the same trail.  That's okay with me, since we get to go back through
those passes
again.   We trotted all the way from the top of the last pass down into
Darwin.   A drink
of water, and back through the bizarre little town.  What's this!  It's a
resident, and he
waves and smiles!  That was a first.  Maybe he was really a tourist.  We
climb back up
the pass, down the other side, and slowly make our way to the dead burro
wash.  There he
was again.  (where would he go?)   The end of the wash- now its just a
long walk up, and
a longer walk down the other side.   We reach the bottom of the grade just
as the sun is
setting.  Its only about 3 miles now, trotting on a nice road in the dark.
We get to the
highway, where I go behind, since Zayante is blazing white in color.  I
got to play
reflector, since we had to go the last mile or so on the shoulder of the
highway.   We walk
into the finish just before six pm, for our final completion.  Zay vets
fine- he looks like he
did on day one.   We headed for the campers, where we had planned a fancy
group
dinner, rather than the banquet.  Their menu- beef.  Our menu- my home
made Cioppino,
(2 Crabs, four kinds of fish, 2 kinds of scallops, mussels, prawns),
Warren's pork
tenderloin roast, with apples and potatoes in a wonderful sauce, an
appetizer plate that
would have been at home at a 5 star restaurant,  three kinds of wine,
fresh French bread,
salads, Brie, smoked salmon- you get the idea.  For desert we had Steve's
famous
banana/ice cream special recipe flambé with rum.   Eating like this is
part of hanging
around with Rebecca and Warren.   This is good stuff.   The awards meeting
came next,
where we got more bowls, and got to hear Jackie tell us that this year had
the most horses
do all four days, and the rides had the lowest pull rates ever.   Way to
go, everyone.   I
just made sure Jackie orders the DVE 4-day horse and rider sweatshirts in
any color but
Green- I already have one of those with my and Zayante's name on it.   A
third next year?
I sure hope so.
        We hung around Ridgecrest for an extra day after the ride, so we
could relax, and
Judy could take Wabi for a ride.  I ran back (?) to Paniment Springs in
Jackie's truck to
pick up the big red trailer, since the truck that towed it out there blew
its transmission.
Hah!  Last year that was me, not this year.   On New years day evening, a
group of folks
that were still around all went to dinner at a strange little restaurant
called The
Homestead, I think.  Jackie, Alex, Dave the Duck, his wife Anne, daughter
Calina, Judith
Ogus, Becky Glazer, Robert and Melissa Ribley, Judy and I all had a really
fun feast on
everything from Swordfish to petite filet mignon.  We must have spent two
hours just
yacking.  It was a great way to top of a great week.
        Four more perfect days of riding, Wabi did great, no problems, and
Zayante now
has 9,855 miles.   I'm really excited about that horse getting to ten
thousand miles, which
won't be long now.  He's a special animal, and I'm proud to be part of his
endurance
career.   Thanks, Jackie, for putting me in touch with this remarkable
horse.

Zayante's biggest fan,

Nick Warhol
Hayward, Ca



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