Well it was a GREAT hunt. I so enjoy being totally frustrated. Spent a fortune in gas (total miles door to door 804), slept until 1PM Sunday...But it was GREAT.

Got a good signal at the start and for most of the trip up the 405/5/99 was able to find the thing on SSB. Stopped at Apple Annie/s in Tulare for a quick slice of applepie ala mode (a little hungry after only an English muffin at Kings) and on up 168 into the forest. Found a Tulare/Kings county map in the box but no Sierra Forest map. Phooey, Probably the key to the whole thing was this forest map as neither the county or the DeLorme had any of the roads I was soon to use. I wandered off of 168 toward the transmitter a couple times and managed to miss the forest station where I could have bought a map. My wanderings actually shortened my mileage a little and I was feeling good about my decisions so far. I was on a winning route.

In these wanderings I was zooming along minding my own business, and this CHP pulls me over in the very turnout that Tom and Joe are using for taking a bearing. This is the first I see of any T-hunter and under such embarrassing conditions. The CHP couldn't be talked out of a ticket so I got a 76 in a 55 mph zone speeding ticket to help my daily frustrations.

Got to Shaver Lake and decided that the transmitter was SE and I had to go around the lake and up through Huntington Lake and on to Jackass Meadows. Big mistake. I got bearings back toward Shaver Lake and kept on going. I met some Jeep folk at the Kaiser Pass and they told me that Deryl had gone before me. I went on.

Got to Ward lake and a little further (ranger station, now closed as it is 6 PM) and concluded that I didn't have enough gas to get back to Fresno it I went further. I couldn't remember if Shaver had a gas station or how late it would be open. Couldn't take the risk. Deryl talked to Scott and I could tell that he had gotten to 9000 ft and no transmitter (I was down at 7200 in a hole with no signal) so I decided to go get gas. On the way back to Shaver, I took a lot of bearings and with some careful elimination of reflections they all pointed south of Shaver lake near Bald Mountain. If they had gas in Shaver, I would extend my stay (I usually quit to be home around midnight and as I had 350 miles to get home, I should be leaving around 6-7pm). They did ($2.39/gal).

On down Dinkey road and got a lot of bearings toward Bald Mountain and a few other places. I now had bearings from all sides pointing at Bald Mountain, but none of my maps gave any clue on how to get up there. I had also talked to an old grizzled Indian at the gas stop and he said, "Son", he said, "Son, you just know them crazies are up there on that Bald Mountain. I tole' dem not to go in the dark but they's crazy". I asked him how to get up there and he said, "Son", he said, "Son, you haffa make yer own road".

I went up everything that could have been a road. One was marked "Bald Mountain Jeep Trail" and my hopes soared, but it disappeared into a pile of rock in about 1000 ft. Found a couple more "roads" but they too pooped out. Finely found Rock Creek Road which I had seen from the other end on 138, but it didn't seem important at the time (6 hours ago). Again trying many little roads off of Rock Creek and finely came to one with a sign saying "Bald Mountain Jeep trail". Musta been the other end of the one I found earlier. I went up it and the signal was 50 dB, but the bearings were all over the place and I seemed to be on the top of Bald Mountain but the GPS said it was 1/2 mile on, but the signal went way down when I went that way, plus the road? was going down.

I sat there in this flat place that seemed to be the top of a hill for a while and contemplated. It was 11 PM, way past my go-home time. I was hungry and tired. I had 405 miles on the trip (zeroed at PV). I tossed it in.

Headed back down and hadn't gone but about a mile and ran into Tom/Joe coming up. We exchanged lies for a while and I went on home.

Scot had called Marlene and told her that I was was within 1000 ft of the transmitter at one time. I assume it was where I was on the top of that hill. I ran DeLorme Topo when I got home (the car computer can't run it fast enough to be useful so I don't bring it along) and found that Bald Mountain has three peaks with in a 1/4 mile of each other and I was on one of them.

Great hunt with the Bald mountain at 7800 ft and a clear path to the start some 236 miles away. The bearing from the start of 348 was dead on the mountain. I got 342 which might have been some influence from the Tehachapi's or maybe Frazer, but others got 348.



Bob WB6JPI