2023 Quicksilver - Nick Warhol

October 3 2023
by Nick Warhol
photo by Nina Bomar

The Quicksilver ride went off very well this past weekend in San martin, Ca. We had a great turnout, in fact the best in several years with about 21 in the 50, about 49 in the 25, and about 18 fun riders. The weather was perfect all weekend except for, of course, ride day. Wouldn’t you know we would get the first measurable rain in months on Saturday. It wasn’t much, and the cool weather was sure nice, but it was wet enough to get some of the trails a little sticky and slippery in the morning. Brian Reeves and I spent 11 hours on Thursday marking the trail and getting the water on the trail, then on Friday I went back out to finish the marking and check to be sure the cows had not done their usual damage on the signs. They did not; in fact, this is the first time in the many years I have been marking this trail that we did not lose a single sign. We also provided Ride with GPS that a lot of people tried and liked.

I spent a couple of nights at the Kilty-Newburn Hilton in San Martin, where Sorsha got her own plush, private pasture. Thanks Jill and Michael! On Friday night I was going to stay in camp, but I did not have a place to sleep since I did not have my camper, so I got treated to a queen size bed in the Schneider rolling Hilton. I even got to sleep with Pony, Shel’s sweet dog, on my bed. She’s a big one, not a foo-foo dog. I have not slept with a dog on the bed since I was about ten. It was nice! She’s a real sweetheart. Thanks Lisa and Shel! Speaking of dogs, I had to include a picture of Lori Oleson’s new puppy, Jemma, who was taking care of crew duties for Lori. She’s a lab, but what a color! And I thought Podie was a cute puppy!

I started out on the first loop of the 50 in the light rain, riding with Nina Bomar from down south. We rode the whole first loop together and had a nice ride. I thought her horse was a seasoned, experienced guy since he was so good. Turns out it was his third ride! Nice horse. We did have to take it pretty easy in a few spots due to the slippery conditions. I did not have any issues with mud sticking to Sorsha’s shoes since I had the Equi-pack sole guard in there, but her feet kept throwing mud up all over. It hit the bottom of my shoe, which stuck, then it got between the stirrup and my foot. It was a bit slippery there for a while till I stopped and got rid of the mud from my shoes. We had a great loop- we just rode along and made the best of the wet conditions.

Except for the vet check. You may have heard that like in baseball, in endurance riding you can always have something happen that has never happened before. Yep, in my 32 years and 15K miles I have never crashed in a vet check while trotting my horse for the vet. Michael Newburn drove the ambulance trailer up to the vet check; it was parked with the back open at 90 degrees, and pretty close to the vet trot out lanes. I was in the lane closest to the trailer as I trotted Sorsha for the vet. Michael was sitting on a chair inside the back of the trailer, and just as we trotted by, he moved. Sorsha saw that and jumped to her left a bit, which is where I was. She basically body-checked me in mid trot. She trots fast for the vet! I took a real header, hitting the dirt and actually rolling over a couple of times. She just stopped while I picked myself up and tried to brush off the embarrassment. I was the laughingstock of the vet check for a while. I reminded everyone that “we shall never speak of this again!” Thank goodness no one got a video of that one!

Lunch at 25 miles went quickly; I headed back out and hooked up with Lisa Schneider on Shel’s horse Paco. Another great horse! He really moved along nicely. The second loop was great since the mud was gone and the trails were in nice shape. I have not ridden with Lisa for a while, so we just trucked along at a great pace, catching up on family, horses, and of course AERC stuff. We got to the last check at mile 38, and picked up a junior rider named Stella Stilwell, whose mom, Karen, had been pulled. A REAL junior. 8 years old! Lisa took her on in a heartbeat, and let me tell you, this kid is incredible. She rode her horse in front of Lisa and I just about the whole 12 miles to the finish, and she knows how to ride! She actually paces perfectly, much better than a lot of adults I know. She knows when to stop and walk. Oh, and she just happened to have finished the Virginia City 100 a couple of weeks ago. She’s 8! It was a treat to ride with her.

We let Stella come in ahead of us for fifth, I got sixth, and Lisa seventh. Our ride time was just over 8 hours- it was a 24.5 mile LD and a 49 mile 50 this year. The only issue I know of was a woman came off at about mile one and got hurt with a concussion and got taken to the hospital. I don’t know who it was, or the extent of her injuries yet, but She did get a ride back to camp with Juan on my quad, so I think she’s okay. Juan and Rachael went out and found the horse, and Rachael led it back to camp on foot. A long way! Thanks, Rachel!

Nina ended up with BC, which is pretty cool, since it’s a new horse. Sorsha blew through the ride as usual, and hit her 2000 mile mark with her finish. It was a great weekend from my perspective; we got loads of compliments on the ride in general. Thanks to ride manager Jerry Wittenauer and his crew, to Brian for his help with the trail and vet check work, to Jill and Michael for putting up with me and my Big, Brown, Girly Horse, and to Lisa, Shel, and Pony for the great bed on Friday night. The ride will return next year, better than ever, with some changes and improvements. It better be back- it’s the only ride in the Bay Area anymore, unless the fireworks makes a return. That’s so depressing. Next stop: camp far west if all goes according to plan!