Don KF6GQ and Steve KD6LAJ
Story of the July 27th 2013 hunt

Nothing had been heard by any of the active T-hunters as of Friday night, I was wondering if
plan "B" of WA6RJN had gone awry!

Sat. morning @ 6:00am I see on the web page, that Bob WB6JPI has heard a signal to the East.
Okay I had better get in touch with Steve, because he is going to head over to my place to start.
I waited to a reasonable time (7:30am), to call, I get no answer, this is not good, he is
probably on his way already! I now call Jippy to see if he can update me with new info. Well,
Jippy being Jippy and not wanting to give away any real information, told me that after he got
into his T-hunt vehicle, he saw that it wasn't really coming from the east, but failed to tell
 me where it might be coming from! But he did say, that I would get my own bearings from traveling
east to Steves house. That would be fine, except Steve  is most likely heading this way as we talk!
 After thanking Jippy for all the help, I called Steve again, this time an answer! He hasn't left
yet, good stay home and see if you can get a bearing! Now on my way to Steve's house I start to
hear the T, it is east as much as I can tell. Then as I go futher east near Mt. Baldy, I get a
real strong bearing up the canyon between Baldy and the mountains to the west! Very strange, I
thought we might be heading south, but it looks like north! When I get to Steve's home, he confirms
that the signal is coming over the mountains to the north. Up to Cajon Pass, to our normal spot,
and we get a bearing of 335 degrees true. Because I had also talked to N6AIN earlier, and knew
he was picking up Ray N6EKS, I called him to tell him our bearings, so he maybe would chose some
other route, instead of coming all the way out to Cajon Pass. It looks like it goes up through
Red Rock Canyon and to the east of Lake Isabella. So up the 395 we went. The bearing stayed quite
consistant at 335 degrees all the way  to Red Mt. Then it started to turn to the west more. I
told Steve, "It crosses right over Burro Schmitt's Tunnel", well no one has hidden there since I
hid there back in the 70's, it's as good place as any, and boy! do I have a good way of getting
there! As we approched the mountain ridge the signal was  starting to disapear. This isn't right!
If he was hidden at the mouth of Burro's Schmitt's tunnel, the signal should still be strong!
Let's look at the map again! We have a bearing going across hwy 14 above Red Rock campground out
towards Pinyon Mt. & Gold Peak. We started up the 14 and stopped across the entrance to Dove
Springs OHV area. Now I know this area from many years of riding there, and just this past year,
we spent a weekend camping at Red Rock Canyon, and riding our motorcycles in the Dove Springs
area. I told Steve, with all the fence lines, private property, and closed areas, we  would  be
luckly to be able to get up to where the T appeared to be! I over ruled Steve (I was driving),
and told him that there is a good road from Jawbone Canyon that would take us up there for sure.
Well I hadn't figured on some recent heavy rains that had erodded some of the dirt roads badly.
Somehow we passed Butterbredt Canyon road, and went all the way to Kelso Valley, and came in on
the back side of Gold Peak. By now we knew the T wasn't any futher north, because we pretty much
had gone completly around it in our travels! So down Butterbredt Canyon Road, all bearings
(about a -2S units, in the noise signal) was coming off to our right! This didn't seem right,
but we kept going on, We had passed a turnoff to our left, but with no signal to show that way
we kept going until bumping into N6AIN, and N6EKS! We discussed our dilemas, and because now we
where getting a strong signal towards GoldPeak, we decided to go back to the turn off, and see
what we could find. From this point on, N6AIN and we leaped frogged to the rest of the T's, six
in all. When we got to the top of Gold Peak, we could hear about 4 other T's, back down in the
Dove Springs canyon area. All other T's were found on our  way  towards the Dove Springs OHV area.
We stopped and talked with Doug, who was at T11, and found out that Jippy had been through
about 3 hours earlier. Now, I wonder of how we would of made out if we had come in from hwy 14 at
the entrance to the Dove springs area. My argument was, that in the OHV are (which is an open area),
has one million four hundered and seventy six thousand different trails, that intersect  the area,
not to say that all the fences and gates to inhibit your travels, we would of been lost for hours
 trying to find the T's. Coming down the other way, the land is all closed and limited. So there in
effect was only one way out, with the T's close by.  I did find the real Dove Springs, which in  
all the rides I've done there, I never knew where it was located.

 I want to thank Doug for putting on a good hide, and was close enought so I got home before
9:00pm even after dropping Steve off
in Fontana!
  Don KF6GQ