Mike's Story
The trek of K6SNE and N6IDF
On the Monday before the hunt the Jeep developed a severe overheating problem.
That was also the hottest day in the basin this summer to date. After a flushing,
a fan clutch, and finally a new radiator the Jeep was alive again. To say the
least it was an expensive week. It was now Friday and the Jeep still had no radios
installed. Dave and I worked most of Friday to install radios and build a mast
and beam for the hunt. We finally finished the last connections Saturday morning
and left for King’s Hawaiian where we met Jippy for breakfast (the King’s Scramble
was most excellent!).
At the Hill we had bearings on three transmitters. We were not entirely certain
we were looking at direct signals on two of those and thought they were bounces.
We were wrong as they later turned out to be T-2 in the Duarte Riverbed and the LAJ T
that was dead before we got back to the basin to hunt them. We decided to head north
for the main T. We had to stop just off the 405 Fwy at Jefferson to purchase a power
adaptor for Dave’s mapping computer. His original power supply died at the start point.
The only tragedy on this hunt day was dealt with early. We also discovered that while
driving the mast was terribly difficult to turn. We just made the fit to tight…oh well,
onward.
From there we made our way north to the I-5 and the Grapevine. As we passed Templin Hwy
we heard a voice T pleading with us to come and find it. It was definitely on the west
side of the freeway…. and we weren’t. There was no exit for the next 7 or so miles so
we decided to grab it on the way home.
We continued to head north towards the main T were we heard another voice T west of the freeway.
We jumped on the exit to the Pyramid Lake recreation area. Just inside the unattended park
gate there was a road that lead west to several camping areas, The first T we signed-in to
was on this road just past a closed campground. Dave and I were stoked that we were the
first to sign-in. From there we headed back to find the main T. On our way back to the
freeway we took a detour to chase a reflection and ran into Cathy and Bob on the road to
Heavenly Valley ORV area, looking for the T we just signed-in to. After exchanging
misinformation we went on to find the Main T.
We exited at the 138 and found our way to the Old Ridge Route. I was wondering what it
might have been like to drive the route in a model T back in 1928 when it opened. It was
kind of amazing how curvy the road originally was with its narrow two lane concrete roadway.
We ran into Deryl on the Ridge Route and exchanged some more misinformation and then continued
searching for the trail to the Ts (we were hearing at least three up there somewhere.
The sign read Sawmill Campground 34 miles and it seemed like the right road so we forged ahead.
We also discovered that it wasn’t on the mapping program. Oh well, forward! We met RJN and
Son on the road to Sawmill Campground where we exchanged some more misinformation. After a
couple more miles of driving we found ourselves at a place called Libre Mountain where we found
the main T in a beautiful daisy filled meadow/campground area nestled in a wonderful stand of
old oaks. The Snake T was similarly hidden nearby. T 3 was hidden in the biggest
old oak I have ever seen. What a beautiful spot Don. Just in case no one else noticed T3s
oak was also a gravesite. Dave and I noticed a small cross and well maintained pile of rocks under
the oak. We at first thought it was a pet someone had buried there, but a closer inspection showed
that it was a woman that was buried in 1997. The cross was complete with a nameplate.
From Libre mountain we headed to get the only T still heard in the area. On the way down the
mountain we ran into Jippy, where of course more misinformation was exchanged. Back down the
I-5 to Templin. The T became very strong as we approached the break check area about a mile
before the Templin exit. We jumped off the freeway at the break check area and blasted past a
tiny dirt road that left the exit to the west. We stopped in the check area, where we had
ABSOLUTELY NO SIGNAL. We considered backing up the off ramp to get to that road but that would
have been unethical. We did find that there was another exit from the check area that put you
directly onto the Golden State Hwy, which essentially took you back to the dirt road that lead
to the T over the tunnel. This was a great spot Don.
From there we headed back to the basin to get the Ts that ended up not to be reflections. We
finally arrived in the Duarte area to hear only one of the signals, the GQ Riverbed T.
Apparently the LAJ T had long since died. We spent a considerable amount of time in the
riverbed area sniffing the GQ T, which was also dying. David finally sniffed it down after
a considerable hump through mosquito-infested swamp. Not hearing anything else we called it a night.
Don, as always you put on a most enjoyable hunt. Thank You!
Mike K6SNE