don092212

Okay, our story told by KF6GQ.

It was a fine day for a transmitter hunt, mostly blue skies, with some clouds to the northwest, (which is the way we are headed) bearing of 345 +/- 10 degrees. Up the 405 to the 5 with bearings still 340-350 degrees. Now Deryl told Doug that watch for antenna eating trees, so now I knew exactly where Deryl was hidden! Many years ago I hid up there and got attacked by visious red ants (see story on web page). All we had to do was take the shortest route to get there! We got off at the Tremplen hwy exit, and got to a spot where we could see the ridge where we suspected Deryl to be at. We could hear 4 T signals from this location, and the spread was from the west most point that Pine Canyon rd is on top of the ridge to maybe west of Burnt Peak. Well we all ready went past the point we could get around Castaic Lake and come up from the north side, so we opted for the Ridge route. Note sign at beginning that indicates that road has no outlet, but we know this is not true. Past forest gate on this end, is open as expected. Travel maybe 20 miles up Old Ridge Route rd. until we come to a closed gate!

What is this! On the pivot side (hinge side is a fallen (crushed sign) telling that the other side area is closed because of environmental concerns. Well who are they to tell us we can't go to the open side of gate, since we are already on the close side? It looked like Jeeps or other 4X4 vehicles had made a rock ramp of sorts from the open side to the closed side of the gate. Picture this if you can, boulders (probably placed by the forest service to stop going around the gate) with a slope upwards over the boulders, to a steep drop on our side of the rocks! Spaced far enough apart to cause wheels to drop into the gaps! On our side was a dirt embankment with very soft dirt (no traction). Well it was obvious that we needed to build some kind of ramp on this side, to allow us to get over the rocks. The only picture that Steve got was of me up on the side of the hill, dis lodging rocks (sand stone) to place into the spaces of the boulders. We spend about 39 minutes with shovel and hands making a ramp up and over.

Now about the time we were finishing this effort, a Jeep shows up on the open side of the gate I could see no winch, but at lease an extra pair of hands if needed. I soon found out how bad the traction was in the dirt that was already there, and our fill on this side of the boulders, nothing! So as I was rocking back and forth, I gunned the car going forward as my front wheels grabbed traction, and I shot over the rocks easily with only a minor jolt as my skip plates bottomed out at the crest of the boulders. But I had enough momentum to carry me over to solid ground, and nothing leaking or broke! Wow! we made it! Time out for drinks and snacks, and on with the hunt.

So we continued up to our first T, which was past the first one we should of found, and located the "Genius" T. We were looking for maybe a road to the T, when out of nowhere, a rock jumps up underneath the car and makes the car jump up about 6". "Where did that come from?" I can't believe that we didn't see that rock, just sitting out in the middle of this empty clearing! Well off to the T and check in. Now off to the main T which was further along the road to the east. Now my car is making a "funny sound". still nothing leaking, but definitely not right! Met up with Ray at main T. He told us we need to find 5 T's if we want, to be able to win. Steve decided with all we went through, we deserved to win! So we could hear one more T to the east, and left to find it. Couldn't hear any more to the east so came back to main T and both Ray and Deryl were there and told us because of the way we came in, we probably missed one of the other T's. So off to the races again. Soon we passed N6MI, and he gave us some lawyer double talk about anything to do with finding T's. As soon as he left, Doug RJN was seen coming up the road, at a calculated distance, to let MI find the next T,and then just walk in! Okay. We started to hear a new T, that we missed on the way in, but was one we passed, not the one AIN said we missed because of the way we came in. It was found out in the open on top of a hill, and we could hear the next T from here. As we drove back to the 138, we were able to find the last t, a voice T telling us how to find it! A 4X4 up a steep hill, a left, a left, back down a hill, a left, a left, back to the steep hill, stop! a short walk, back to the top of the down hill, T is found! That makes 5 T,s found with 100.3 miles to find the last one. Back towards home, Dinner at Denny's in Castaic, Home before Dark! Great!

Note: The skid plate got bent up, and was touching the exhaust pipe, making a noise @ 2000 rpm, so it shouldn't be too bad to straighten the plate, and put it back on.
Don KF6GQ

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