Jippy, I agree that the multiple T's have gotten out of control. However,
it seems that if there isn't at lest 4 T's the hunters feel cheated. In
the far past, one T seemed to be enough, you got there with the fewest
miles, and found the T with the hider still there. He hid it well, as best
he thought he could. See story below as to the thoughts to place a single T,
where the hunters did have to use a lot of skill & luck to find it.
My story of the 20 year ago hide at Burro's Schmidt's tunnel.
WA6MHN & WA6LPI Don & Larry
Ever since I discovered the El Paso Mt. area (Last Chance Canyon) and the very
interesting history of the area, I always wanted to let others experience the area.
I have hid two all-day hunts in this area. One hunt had only one T the other I
think maybe had two. The hide at Burro Schmidt's tunnel was done on a cold and
windy night ( my wife still remembers staying awake all night, fearing that the
motor home was going to blow off the cliff, because the wind was blowing so hard
(it always must be blowing hard there). I wanted to create a spot that when the
hunters got to the area, they would be stymied as to how to locate the T. As I
remember it, I had hid the T right at the south end of the tunnel. As most of
you now know, there is no way up from the highway to the T. I remember seeing
several hunters coming to the base of the mountain, and looking up and realizing
that there was no way to get up there. Then they had to determine how to approach
the TO. There are (was) two possible ways, one was Last Chance Canyon, the other
was Mesquite Canyon. As I remember, Last Chance was impassable and the only way
in was Mesquite Canyon. The problem was, that once on that side of the ridge,
there was no signal to direct you to the tunnel entrance. So needless to say, many
of the hunters drove around on those dirt roads for sometime before getting to the
tunnel. We had camped at the entrance, so we could walk through the tunnel with the
hunters. Most of the hunters got there before dark, but several did not, it was a
good all-day hunt for those days. I know of two hunters teams that had to return
home with broken vehicles.
Don KF6GQ