Ray and Deryl's Story
of the November 2004
Meathead hunt

We heard two transmitters at the start point, vertical polarization. Great! Only thing it seemed that we were hearing them from 5 to 20 degrees, a bit of a spread. After listening to the signals awhile and getting input from other hunters, we decided that around 10 degrees was probably a good heading to head out on. Looks like Palmdale or further out in the desert.

We took the shortest time route to the freeway off the hill and headed to Highway 2 to go over to 14 towards Palmdale. Thanks to the Thanksgiving weekend, traffic was not a problem. We stopped at the intersection to go to Mt. Gleason or Mt. Pacifico and took a bearing. Onward towards Palmdale we went.

Rare for Deryl and I to stop for lunch around Noontime, but we decided to after we got petrol in Mojave. Next stop California City.

Actually it looked to be the mountains along 14, beyond Jawbone Canyon. Did we pass one? Not sure, but there is Wayne and Peter stopped on the opposite side of the road. We stop and take a bearing and decide we did pass one. So we turned around and found the one off of Red Rock Ransburng Rd on Saltdale Rd at a Turtle reserve or some such thing.

Off we go into the mountains. Schmidt’s Tunnel is in there somewhere. We were reminiscing with Jippy at the start point about Don’s hide at Schmidt’s Tunnel twenty years ago. Twenty years!

I must admit that I usually have to ask Deryl the details of specific T’s when I am writing these tales of our misadventures. But since I am writing this late at night and won’t have a ny time in the near future, I will just wing it and give a less than detailed account of finding these transmitters.

We made our way through some fun whoop tee do (the traction control indicator came on more than it has ever before) dirt roads.

W heard more transmitters and found them along the way towards Schmidt’s Tunnel. We kept just a jump ahead of Wayne and Peter most of the time. The wind nearly blew us off of a few peaks that transmitters were hidden at.

Schmidt’s Tunnel is really quite amazing, to think that he dug it out by hand over 38 years. It is a half-mile long.

By the time we exited the tunnel it was dark and cold. Deryl and I had found a total of nine out of the ten transmitters. Wayne suggested dinner at The Outback in Palmdale on him. Everyone there was ready to call it quits with what they had found.

We had a lot of fun out on the hunt. Thanks Doug.

We had a great dinner. Thanks Wayne.