Fire Mountain February 2001

The Quicksilver members attending this year were Trilby, Jeff Luternauer, Bing
Voight, Robert Ribley, and Mike Maul.  The weather was good - cold enough for a
little ice in the morning but warm during the day.  The ride manager was Mike Benson
and ridecamp was in the Valley Riders own campground at 2500 feet.

The camp is located above town so that all of Ridgecrest is spread out as a pool
of little yellow lights at night in the distance. The mountains surround the
area with some snow showing on the peaks this time of year. The stars at night
look like there are millions - Orion coming up as we go to bed early and Scorpio
rising as we start in the morning with the Milky Way running from one horizon
to the mountains.

The ride this year had an introductory 15, a 30 LD, and the regular 50 mile
with loops of 13+, 15+ and 22 miles.  The "Duck" was the head vet with several
assistants. The introductory 15 had only a few riders - in the 5-10 range.
The 30 mile LD had 42 starting with 37 finishing and the 50 started 89 with 71
finishing.  Starting time was at 6:30 AM - just about dawn - for the 50s
and 7 AM for all others.  The first two loops were on fairly soft ground over trails
and dirt roads with the third loop after lunch having some rocks
and slow climbs. Holds were 15 minutes at 13 miles, 1 hour at 28 miles, and
15 minutes at the 3rd.

QSER finishers were Robert in the 30s?, Bing somewhere in the 40s,
Jeff somewhere in the 50s and Trilby 71st of the 71 finishing. In my case -
I was riding with a local gal named Anne for most of the second
loop - and about 2 miles out of the
lunch hold coming in - we both noticed that in about 20 feet - Thor went from
fine to "off".  He got a little better by the time we did the vet check
halfway through the hour - Dave said we were OK to go out even though
he was not 100%.  I decided to pull anyway - there is always another day.

So even though we didn't finish - there were lots of things to remember
about the ride.

There were great completion awards - the club presented all finishers
with very nice foldup canvas camping chairs.

The views were spectacular - the mountains in the distance capped with
snow just being caught by the dawn light as we rode out - first lavender -
then turning to rose pink as the first light caught them. The sunsets were
a beautiful intense pink lighting up the few clouds.

Some "local" hazards pointed out by ride management - the ostriches
in one spot - and a 4 ft deep coyote den in another.

And passing the gal on the POA and her saying "you guys look so far up there".
All kinds of horses can get out in our sport.

We were all sitting around the campfires eating and keeping warm when Trilby
came in near the last minute in the dark.  It gets cold fast in the desert.

Driving back coming from I-5 on 152 - I was struck by the differences
between areas in California - the green of the hills here contrasting
with the dryness and brown of the desert in Ridgecrest.

And the temperature differences - the weather was cold and crisp in
Ridgecrest now but Anne was telling me about the summer where she conditioned
if it got down to 106 but if she waited until it got to 105 - it might
not happen that day.

It was a great ride with spectacular views and excellent trail markings
- the first of the year for me with the Jan SASO and 20 Mule Team next.

Mike