Dave and Mike's trip
Like everyone else at the start we had a bearing of 15
degrees. After getting out of the LA Basin we decided the best
route would take us up the14. As we pulled into Lancaster
we noticed that the signal took a sharp turn NW. We
tanked-up the Jeep and headed for the signal. Our route took us
out the 138 to a point were we turned toward Lake Elizabeth. We
had to cut mileage by driving several dirt roads on our way to Munz
Ranch rd. On one of these roads we stumbled upon Rattle Snake
T. From there we headed on to Munz Ranch Road where we ran into
Jippy and exchanged much misinformation. We headed on to the
intersection at Lake Elizabeth. Dave wanted to chase a reflection
to the left, I wanted to chase no signal to where our very good earlier
bearings had pointed. Having the steering wheel in my firm grasp
I won the argument...and was wrong...although technically going in the
right direction I overshot the access road to the main T by 7.4
miles. It took Dave 7.5 miles to convince me to turn
around. While on the return to the intersection we noticed a
radio site high above the lake. Dave saw that the access road was about
.1 miles before the intersection so we decided to give it a try.
As we approached the access road we noticed Scott and Tom coming
straight at us flashing hello with their headlights. We're guessing
that as they were looking at us and waving they missed the switchback
turn up the trail. We waited for them to go out of site around a
bend in the road then we went up the trail and found the hiders, Deryl,
and Jippy. Oh yeah, we also sniffed out the three transmitters up
there. We then left the hill to meet up with Deryl for dinner and the
drive home. My 15 mile error in judgment most likely cost us the
win, but looking at the mileage results it would have been close.
Scott and Tom's mileage must have been incredibly low when they
first hit the area of the lake because even the second trip around the
mountain didn't hurt them. Kudos to the Over the Hill Duo for a
great win and thanks Don and Steve for a great hide!
73! Mike K6SNE