We heard three loud transmitters at the start of the hunt on P.V.  This was outstanding – thanks Don.  We even used attenuation.  Now when was the last time we did that at the start point?  Bearings for the three signals were between 20 and 30 degrees. 

 We headed out towards Highway 2.  Traffic was not too bad and soon we were starting up Highway 2.  In the back of my mind I was thinking Mt. Gleason, but I thought it had been used a lot over the years, so I did not say anything about it.  We stopped at the parking lot where you head towards Mt. Wilson and Mt. Disappointment.  There were some signals appeared to be reflections towards Wilson.  We went on a ways to check the signals again.  More (reflections – we thought but actually at least one was probably worth checking) signals back towards the way we came. 

 Onward towards what we think is the real signal.    We turned off onto Upper Big Tujunga Road and headed for Mt. Gleason/Mt. Pacifico.  At the intersection of Angeles Forest Highway Upper Big Tujunga Road, the Road to Mt. Gleason and the Road to Mt. Pacifico we took a bearing.  We were not convinced, but decided to go up a ways toward Mt. Gleason.  After driving a couple of miles we decided to turn around and go to Mt. Pacifico. 

We went towards Roundtop and found T-3 that was listed as T-2.  We then continued on to Pacifico and found nothing there.  This was a rocky route.  I had started the morning by going to my local tire store, to have a screw removed from the left front tire.  I was being extra careful with having the new plug and patch in the tire.

As we arrived in the area of T-9, Bob was arriving from the other direction.  We soon found T-9.

3N17 was the road of the day.  No hiders found yet and it was close to the 4 o’clock mealtime cut off.   We were hungry and hoped we would find them still serving.

We concluded that we had not gone far enough in the morning, when we were on the road to Mt. Gleason.  So back we went out to the main highway and back along Upper Big Tujunga Road to the Mt. Gleason turn off.

We found the ‘snake T’ and continued on.  They had to be at one of the campgrounds up ahead with food.  As we thought we were getting close to

T-1 and food, I transmitted asking if they would continue serving a bit longer (a request I feel that the hiders never heard, for I do not believe they were anywhere near T-1 at 4 o’clock).  We went by the closed gate of Lighting Point camp ground, I hoped they were not at the end of the three miles of dirt road ahead. 

After a while I heard a revving of a motorcycle engine, I looked in my rearview mirror and there were three motorcyclists about to come into the vehicle.  I let them by.  Little did I know that they were the first of about 25 of them that we would encounter on this road.   We drove on a ways and determined that the signal was behind us.  We turned around, soon there were more motorcycles coming our way.  After several went by, one stopped and said there were about fifteen more coming, I asked how far behind they were, he said about two minutes.  I cautiously went forward, we could see people up on the ridge in front of us.  We did not see any other roads there other than going into the campground with the closed gate.  Soon the last group (hopefully) of motorcyclists were coming, we pulled over. 

We went on to the camp entrance, knowing how t-hiders are and Don not being above closing a gate, I checked the closed gate and sure enough, it was unlocked.  We went through, closing the gate behind us.  Inside were some strange signs and boxes.  This was not good.  We went on and were stopped by several characters and said the beacon was around somewhere to the right and blah, blah.  So we went back to the first area of the campground that was basically empty.  The signal said it was that way. 

The road came to an end with dead tree limbs across it and a closed gate on the other side of them.  I stopped.   It was as far as I was going.  Deryl felt sure it was just on the other side.  I did not share that opinion.  Off he went with the L-Per.  I stayed with my vehicle in case those para-whatevers were around.  A few minutes after Deryl disappeared from sight, I realized two things.  First, that he went off without the mileage (in case he did find the transmitter) and second, that he did not have a radio to transmit with if he needed help.   I transmitted in the blind the mileage; hearing “I gotcha” right after my transmission, which later Deryl confirmed was Bob.  

After about 15 minutes I started to get concerned and ventured out in the direction Deryl had gone.  At just before the other closed gate, Deryl appeared, out of breath and no transmitter found.  We got out of there and headed towards the other campgrounds.  Shortly, it was clear that the signal was still coming back from where we came from.  I was no way going back to the para-whatevers in the campground or the motorcyclists (which ranged in age from forties to pre-teens, with varying degrees of inaptitude of navigating their machines, mostly too fast, where other vehicles may be encountered).  So I headed out, and for home, since we had not heard any other transmitters.

As we arrived in Pasadena, Deryl got a phone call from Mike.  He too was in Pasadena looking for a gas station.  We were looking for a place to eat, since we had not eaten all day.  Mike was also hungry and we all wanted to see where we had each been and Mike had found T-1.  We decided to go to Coco’s it was right off the 210 freeway, easy for Mike to head home on afterwards, my place was just several minutes south of there.  Deryl called Mike to tell him where we would be and discovered that Mike was having problems with his Jeep.  Mike felt it would start in a few minutes, so we just waited for him.  Eventually he did make it to the restaurant and we had dinner. 

From what Mike said about where T-1 must have been, we surmised that we were so distracted by the motorcyclists and the fact that Don had said he would have a meal prepared, that we thought he was in that campground (not having heard any other transmitters, we were under the delusion that the hiders had to be at T-1).  Actually, we probably could have reached the transmitter from where we were on the road.  In fact, we may have pulled over exactly where we could have walked to the transmitter, if we had not been so focused on the erratic motorcyclists.

All in all it was a fine Mini All Day.  It had been years since we had been to some of those locations, even though they are close to home.