All Day T-Hunt Saturday 9/26/2015

From the starting point we all got bearings towards Hesperia and Lucerne Valley.  Heading that direction yielded bearings towards Mt Baldy.  OK, another Baldy bounce.  Only it never turned out to be that.  The signal seemed to be coming from Baldy.  So following the signal, I headed up Baldy. Once I started up there, I decided to go all the way to the top because in the 24 years I’ve lived in Moreno Valley, I’ve never (or don’t recall ever) being on Mt. Baldy.  So I went to the top.  It was worth the trip just for the view.  It’s like last month on the way to Big Bear, even though knew the T was not at Keller Peak, I went there any way because I was close, and had not been there in 20 years.  But, I digress.  On the way up Baldy, the signal got better, but not by much.  Although for a while the signal was from the south.  OK, it’s not up here, it must be on the other side of Baldy, and so I headed back down.  The south signal must have been a bounce since most readings pointed north of Baldy.
I went back to the 210 and headed east.  But I kept getting bearings toward Baldy. Went out to the 15 (after a bit of detouring) and went north a little ways.  The signal never got any stronger.  So I went back to Mountain where the signal was strongest and drove around there for a while.  I actually headed back up toward Baldy for a little while.  
Around 1300 I had run out of ideas and decided to quit.  I called KF6GQ to let him know I was no longer hunting and was headed home.  He encouraged me not to give up.  So I decided to go further up the 15 to see what I could hear.
At the top of Cajon, I could hear the signal for all three transmitters.  I headed west on a dirt road that took like what seemed to be forever, but the signal was straight ahead.  Eventually I bumped into the 138 took it west for a while and got back on the dirt around Pinon Hills.  Then back on 138 to near Crystalaire.  Eventually I realized the signal was directly to the south of my location.  I didn’t really want to head into the gas station barren mountains being so low on fuel. So I went east on 138 to the Chevron Station and refueled.
Then I returned to the north end of a bolder infested dirt road.  From there I could hear all 3 T’s.  I spent over an hour going south on the bolder infested dirt road, all the time thinking “I sure hope I don’t get a flat tire, and I hope the axil doesn’t break”  The signal did get stronger and eventually I was in a bolder infested canyon with nearly full attenuation.  The signal must have been coming from the dry river bed (and the story it told of a river that flowed mad me sad to think it was dead)… back to reality… immediately to the west.  I got out the sniffer and it kept pointing to the west even when I got to the west bank of the dry river bed.  I found a smaller wash that went up and to the west.  I followed it for about ¼ mile and it became clear the signal was from the top of the canyon I’m guessing 2000 feet above me.  I’m not climbing that, and I’m guessing KF6GQ didn’t either.  Putting the main T in the dry river bed at the bottom of the canyon didn’t add up since the signal was heard at the starting point on the other side of Baldy.
There must be a way to drive to the top of the canyon, but bolder infested was on was not on my GPS, and getting the cell phone to show me the surrounding terrain was next to impossible in the canyon.  But from what I could see on the GPS, I might be able to get there continuing south on bolder infested to the Big Pines Highway, then taking another road north.  I did just that.  Got to the top of a mountain with a nice windy clearing, but the signal form the main T was not a strong at windy clearing as it was in the canyon.  The T must be on the next ridge.  I could see no way to get there on any of the maps, and I was not about to drive back down bolder infested.  The sun had set and it was getting dark so around 1900 (after 9 hours of hunting), I called it quits and went home.
73, AB6PA (Glenn)