Hider: Don KF6GQ and Steve KD6LAJ

Feb 2014 Transmitter hunt Story from the hiders.

 

Many hunts ago Steve & I where on a hunt for Paul & Peter Ronney. The place was north of Barstow near Slocum Mountain. Needless to say we got lost! We had just out run a thunder storm with winds of 60+ mph, dust and rain! We were some place just north of Hinkely, and traveling north east. We were on a motorcycle trail, and sometimes going cross country, trying to get to a road shown on my Garmin! We were going up a long canyon (this is the same canyon that Deryl & Doug got to see close up) and when we got to the top, we saw a flag flying, I thought it was somebody camping. As we got closer it was some kind of memorial to fallen riders. These are people who rode & loved motorcycling in the desert, and their families and friends felt to set up a spot form them to be remembered. Note: I've now been there three times, once on the Ronney hunt, once me and my son and a friend rode all the way there from Charlies Place (Wagon Wheel) where we camp and ride. And now for this hide. Over those years we have seen the memorial grow from a dozen to over forty plaques and various bits and pieces of either motorcycle parts or clothing. I'm amazed that this area has been left with no vandalism. I think the motorcyclist who take the time to ride there feel a kinship to the memorial. I hate to think what might happen as others find out about it! One thing that I wanted to do for a long time was to place a weak T close to the start that might be missed as the teams drove off to head out to find the main T. Well it worked! Only too well. Everybody heard it at the start (it was less than 1 mile from there, on the east side of the 15 freeway along the frontage road. It was running 5mw into a J-Pole and everybody left and drove right by it on there way to hunt! Now my thought was if someone realized they had gone by it it would take some backtracking and miles to go back and find it. Later when the teams realized their mistake, how many miles shorter their mileage would be (about 75).

 Anyway back to the story. We felt that we just had to hide out in the area so someone else could enjoy the the drive up the canyon, as happened two of the hunting teams did. Besides having to wake up at 5:00 am, drive a total of over 250 miles, climb up a 100 foot hill seven times, it was fun putting it on.

Based on some of the comments that where left we felt that we succeeded in putting on a successful hide.

 Some of the comments:

At Memorial “Steve McQueen was here” I'm not sure about that but it's a nice thought.

From K6VCR who came in the “right” way, “long dirt road from 395!”

From WA6RJN after finding all 5 transmitters near the monument, “only one more to go!” “Must of missed the first time” Mini T near start. “Typical GQ road” from RJN on first T he found after coming up canyon.

At Main T; “Interesting roads”, “Nice Hike!”, “Yikes!”

To me this sounds like a successful hide!

Oh and Jippy. He started a bit late and somewhere along the way his DF radios quit, and he nearly ran out of gas ( I bet he was back in Black Canyon where he did that before). Sorry Bob, you would of liked the area.

Thanks for those that came out, and as I said we enjoyed it, Steve & Don KD6LAJ & KF6GQ

 

Teams                                               N6AIN/N6EKS              WA6RJN                  K6VCR/D0TI      WB6JPI
                                                          Time   Miles                  Time    Miles            Time    Miles        Time   Miles
T1Near Start point                           DNF                                19:33  185.8             20:30   161.0         DNF
T2 Main T 2 watts into 5 el             15:40   120.6                   15:5o  101.2             16:20   79.5           DNF
T14 .2 miles to north of main T      16:04    120.8                  15.39  100.9             14:50    79.4          DNF
T8 @ Husky Monument                 16:36    121.9                  16:19  102.3             15:34    77.5          DNF
Snake T @ at Monument                16:29    121.8                  16:27  102.5            15:27     77.5          DNF
T9 @ DOT Earth Measurement     16:55    123.9                  16:47  104.5             15:05    75.0          DNF

And the winner is after looking at all results and doing a coin toss, K6VCR and D0TI.

A short Movie from AIN/EKS as they get near T2 Movie

Bob WB6JPI's Story