MEATHEAD T-HUNT
REPORT BY:
WB6JPI
It was
a fine day for
a Meathead T-hunt. Since it was a “start anywhere at anytime”
hunt I listened
at Friday evening and could heard NOTHING. Deryl heard a
“week” signal from
Culver, but all others were quiet.
I had
a plan…I would
leave the house in Bloomington (Fontana) ast 6 AM in order to
maximize daylight
and go west to Mulholland and the 405 and see what I could
hear. This way if it
was down south toward
I left
the house at
Got my
first
plot-able bearings on T2 and T1 and heard T5. North on the 405
to the 118 then west to Santa Susana pass where there were
lots of transmitters. I found T2
before
I was
going down a
once a-very-long-time-ago paved road with 49 dB attenuator on
T6 when I came to
a washout that appeared to be 8 inches deep The Prius has only
5 inches of
ground clearance. I could see better roads a few hundred years
beyond that had
houses so I knew there was another way to get in there so I
decided that the
better risk is to turn around and come in from another road. I
backed up to the
widest spot I could see and started a 6 point turnaround. On
the second pass I
was moving forward, wheels crimped hard over when the right
front wheel dropped
in to washout that was about a foot deep. The force mashed the
left end of the
bumper against the hill. What had happened is that I guaghed
the width and
condition of the road while I was backing up to the “wide”
spot and from the
left window it was clear that the little gutter washout was
only 2-3 inches
deep. I couldn’t see the right side of the car from there and
had no idea of
what was there. I just assumed that it was 2-3 inches not 12,
So here I am. At
right angle to the road four feet of space behind me and I am
up against the
wall in the front. Two horses and riders came by and they
could just make it
through. The car would not back up even with the front wheels
both spinning.
(The Prius has anti skid computer that will put on the brake
of the front wheel
that is spinning much faster than the other. This will cause
the differential
to transfer power to the not so fast spinning wheel. STUCK.
I
tried to call the
other hunters, but due to my last phone having suddenly died
and I tried to fix
it and it stayed dead, I couldn’t transfer my contact list to
this now year old
phone. All I had was Marlene. Things were not going well. With
so many
transmitters it is very hard to used the hunt frequency to
call. I got the
great idea to search the phone log book and sure enough I
found Scotts number
from October of last year and as he was my go-to guy the last
time I was stuck
(20 years ago) he was the right one anyway. He was in Burbank
learning about
soldering PowerPoles but he called Deryl and Don and I did call on
the air and soon Doug
called me back,. Help was on the way.
Doug
arrived first
coming up the road and not a minute later, Don and Steve
showed up coming down
the road. After much ;laughing and finger pointing and
hopefully some pictures,
they got down to the business of getting me out.
They
could not get
behind the Prius to pull it straight out as it was sideways
and there was only
4 ft of road behind it. If the tried to drag the rear down the
hill it souls
pivot about the stuck right front wheel and further mash the
left front bumper
into the solid bank. Pulling the back up hiss would not only
leave the Prius
pointing down hill, but would also put a terrible twist on the
stuck front
wheel.
There
was a telephone
pole 10 ft behind and slightly downhill from the Prius. They
decided to take
the tow strap around the telephone pole and pull from the
downhill side until
the front wheel was out and stop before the whole Prius went
over the other
edge and lodged against the telephone pole.
Don
was the master of
ceremonies, Doug was the driver of pulling using his 4 Runner,
Steve was the
strap manager and even furnished the telephone pole bearing
using a cleverly
applied paper bag. I
hid in the Prius with
my eyes closed. What a team!
It
came right out,
and I drove away.
I
tried to find how
to get to the roads I saw while stuck, but ended up on the
road to T1. I found
the talking T telling me to ignore the signs saying I was on a
Private Road,
and the went a couple miles further and found T1, right where
it said to pay $5
if you park. I didn’t park on the pay side of the sign but I
saw that Don did.
Although
there were no
more transmitters heard up this road I went another 4 miles to
a locked gate.
The road is most interesting although I did manage to totally
ignore a lady
with a yellow vest that was very concerned with my zooming by
on my way up. I
found all kinds of things building and built years ago up
there. The is
I went
back west and
found the way into T6 and by then I had found T2, T5, T6,
Talking T and T1. I
needed T4, and two that I had not heard to make up the 8 Ts
known to be hidden.
I ate lunch. T4 was only heard at one place near T2 and then
it wasn’t very
strong. I went back there and took a bearing and then checked each north
bound road until I found
it. There I could hear T7 and went to find it. Instead I found
the elusive T10
and noted that T7 was across a very deep chasm from T10. The
only way I could
get there was to go about 5 miles around to Balboa and come in
that way since
my GPS kept routing me to closed/gated or non existent roads
in-between. Found
it in the dark and went home.
Eight
transmitters
all on paved roads what a fin hunt for a Prius…Oh, I forgot to
mention that the
wind was so strong in the area that I had to crawl on my belly
to a couple of
transmitters in the late afternoon I couldn’t
stand up on the slopes and bend over etc.
GREST
HUNT, THANX to
all.
Bob,
WB6JPI