Carolyn's Perspective

Friday, June 24, 2005
Black Eagle Mine, Independence California
to Grass Valley, Northeast of Austin Nevada
228.4 miles 7.25 hours
Pilot: Tony Deleo (aka Diablo)

[Diablo's Flight Aricle]

You don’t usually get, or probably want, to hear the driver’s side of the flight, it is usually not as exciting, I am sure, as the pilots.  However, in this instance, I would have to say that I had quite an exciting and interesting 24+ hours!

The day started, unfortunately, with a tremendous hangover. I don’t deal well with hangovers, as I don’t get them very often.  (Only if I stray from my usual red wine, and I had the night before, too many margaritas!)  At breakfast, I could hardly eat.  I think Tony and Cathy were feeling some “pain” also.

The road to launch was decent, much better than Black Hawk’s, but, definitely long and narrow, not much room for error here.  There were a few spots that the car barely made it through, and I was thinking of the ride back down, hoping that I would not dent or scratch Herb’s car!  While the guys were getting their gear together, I replaced the streamers on a few “sticks” to have something to do while waiting.  Tony took off first, then Herb (interesting take off technique, I was happy I did not have to assist!), then Hammer.  John and I assisted Bob launch, it was getting pretty cross by then, and has a “non-pilot”, I have to say launch is my most “unfavorite” part of the day, especially when it is blowing hard or cross.  I get nervous waiting and watching, it always looks so scary to me!  Anyway, assisted John launch, and was now up on top of the mountain all by myself.  It is an interesting feeling for a woman to be all alone in that type of environment, your imagination runs wild and you picture some mountain mining man appearing to “harm” you in some way…

Drive down from launch was long and uneventful, except for the tight spots where I held my breath and hoped that I didn’t hear a scrap of metal against rock.  I stopped in Bishop for an iced latte; I was beginning to feel better (thank God) and needed some caffeine.  Passed Hammer and John in Benton after they had just landed.  Onward to Luning, where I waited for Herb to land, he had indicated that he would land in the dry lake bed.  While waiting, heard from Tony a few time, he was headed past Gabbs, towards Austin, asking Herb for insight on the route to take.  We briefly discussed the road going north from Austin (the 305).  More on that later.

Herb landed and I helped him breakdown his glider.  I don’t know how much help I was, but I did the best I could, we were hurrying to catch up to Tony, who was quite a bit ahead of us by this time and out of radio contact.  We left Luning and arrived in Gabbs at about 7:00 p.m.  Of course, the one and only gas station was closed!  However, a couple walking their dog suggested knocking on the door of the nearby restaurant (which was also closed).  Sure enough, the door was answered by a couple of interesting looking and friendly older women who came over and opened up the station for us to fill up.  A storm was coming in, they said, hail in Hawthorne.

We were on our way to Austin, a long way when you are not going as the “crow flies”, 90 miles!  When we finally arrive, it is dark, about 8:30.  We stop at a pay phone to pick up my cell phone messages (I have had no service for hours!) and we have not been in radio contact with Tony.  I know that Tony will have called in his GPS coordinates and other information.  Sure enough, I get the coordinates and the info that he is north of Austin, in a dry lake bed at the 228.4 mile mark.  He said he followed the road that Herb had talked about earlier.  So, Herb and I assumed he meant the “305”.  We put in the GPS coordinates and started off up the 305.  It became apparent after we had driven several miles up the 305 that the arrow on the GPS was pointing in a direction that did not make sense.  We assumed that the numbers must be off… you know what they say about assumptions.

About 30 miles up the 305 (it is now about 10:00 p.m.), we stop under a light and “regroup”.  Close examination of the DeLorme maps show that there isn’t a “dry lake” bed this side of the mountain range.  We start analyzing the coordinates in the map book and realize that the dry lake bed is on the other side of the mountain range to our east.  Not up the 305, but up some unpaved road (we did not know at the time that it was unpaved) called Grass Valley Road!  We decide to make a little bite to eat, fortunately, we had the cooler in the car.  While eating, I notice a few “grasshopper” type things crawling around.  I HATE grasshoppers, I have had a phobia about them since childhood.

So, back down the 305 to Austin.  As we are driving, I said to Herb, let’s guess when we will get to Tony!  I say 12:15 a.m., what do you think?  We drove through Austin on the 50, which winds up the mountain.  We then turn left onto Grass Valley Road, and we are now on dirt road!  My prediction of 12:15 a.m. would have been attainable if we had been able to drive over 30 mph!  We are driving though very desolate ranch land and there are SO MANY RABBITS on the road, it is unbelievable.  It became nearly impossible to miss them as they dart into the road (they are so DUMB) and sprint back and forth in front of us, not knowing which way to go.  I would say we were successful in avoiding 95% of bunnies that ran in front of the car during that hour and a half or so ride.  Every time one (or sometimes two or three at a time) ran in front of us, I would cringe and gasp, and Herb would swerve trying to miss them.  Sometimes, though, we heard the “thump”, and knew we didn’t miss :(

Finally, we are about 9 miles away, per the GPS, and we make radio contact.  I am thinking, ahhh, almost over.  WRONG!  We get to a point where it shows we are just to the east of Tony about 2.5 miles away, we can see the strobe on his glider… GREAT, almost over, it is approximately 1:00 a.m.  Except, we can’t find a way to get there.  All “roads”, and I use the term loosely, more like over grown two tracks that haven’t been used in months, lead to dead ends, fences, swampy land, etc.  We finally find a “road” that goes on further than the others and feel we are going to succeed, only to come across a big metal fence.  But, Herb opens it up, we drive through (of course, close it behind us, we are on a ranch!) and continue.  Next obstacle very wet mushy areas, where Herb stops the car and goes on “expeditions” quite far ahead of the truck on foot to make sure that it is drivable.  We continue on, but, once again, come up against a fence, we cannot go any further.  To make matters worse, we have temporarily lost our tire tracks through the one to two foot high vegetation that we are driving through, the moon is two days past full and not so bright.  We are SO close (2.3 or so miles) but SO far!

Radio contact follows with Tony, he decides that he will walk to us, leave his gear (since we have GPS coordinates to retrieve tomorrow), and at least he can sleep in the car and not freeze all night.  About 20 to 30 minutes later, he comes back on the radio.  The dry lake bed is not so dry, he has run into very marshy land, cannot get through, and is walking back to his gear.  We will have to find him at daylight.  It is now about 3:30 a.m. and I am SO DONE with this!  I just want to sleep.  Which is what we attempt to do, until 5:00 a.m., when it is light enough to drive back out the way we came in, back to Grass Valley Road.  Herb is anxious to get out the huge field that we are in, just in case the rancher sees us and is upset.  We get back to Grass Valley Road (we are going to head south to find a “road” that will take us to the west side of the “dry” lake bed, since the north end of the “dry” lake bed is not dry at all and we can’t drive through it!)

On the way back, we get to count how many bunnies we killed the night before!  How wonderful…

It really took some scrutinizing of the map and coordinates and I learned a lot from Herb on how to read the map.  We got really good at figuring out exactly where we were on the map, based on the GPS read out.  Finally found the right road to the west side of the lake bed, this took us until about 7:00 a.m. to get to where we had radio contact with Tony and we are sooooo close again.  Unfortunately, once again, we cannot get close enough.  The terrain (we are off road now) is just too scrubby and soft in areas to drive Herb’s truck, and so, at 1.3 miles from Tony, we have to leave the truck and start to walk towards him.  The desert is still “asleep” even though it is very light, there are no lizards or flying noisy bugs (yet).

About a mile from the truck, we meet up with Tony, who has his pack with his harness and stuff in it, his base tube and keel.  The plan is that Herb and Tony will carry the glider (no easy task) to the car (they have to walk another .3 miles to the glider, and then turn around and come back to the truck) and I will take the pack and two other items and walk back to the truck.  All the while, Tony is telling me that I won’t be able to carry the pack, it is too heavy, and I am insisting that I can.  The more he argues with me that I won’t be able to carry it, the more pissed I become.  Don’t tell me that I am not capable of doing something!  In any event, I insisted that he put the pack on my back (he said it weighed 50 lbs. I don’t have any idea, except that it was a pretty heavy load).  Anyway, I start walking to the truck and don’t look back.  I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, keeping my eye on the horizon, to keep on track, as I could not see the truck and didn’t want to get off course.

As I am walking, I am starting to hear these weird “rattling” sounds coming from the dried and scrubby sage bushes, which of course, starts freaking me out.  It seems like every bush that I walk by starts making this hissing noise!  At first I thought it was rattle snakes!  Then I didn’t know what it was, but I did know that the desert was starting to come alive, as lizards starting scurrying about and it was getting hotter.  Yee-haw, we were having fun now!  This may not sound like a big deal to the men, but I am sure that any woman reading this will understand where I am coming from when I say I was a little skittish by now.  But, I am proud to say, I made it all the way to the truck, without stopping once.  Dropped my gear and waited for Herb and Tony.  Problem, I don’t have the car keys (and didn’t know there was a hide a key).  I am thirsty, but have to wait till they get to the car.  It is 8:15 a.m. I sit behind the truck, in the shade, lay my head on the harness pack and try to sleep.  Not much luck, and after about 30 minutes I climb up on the truck and start scanning for Tony and Herb.  Can’t see them…. time goes by… it is now 9:10… they should be here by now.  I start to worry, we have no radio contact and I am afraid that they are in trouble, maybe a “heart attack” or something… (OK, I have a vivid imagination!), but I am thinking, I will them till 9:30 a.m. and if I can’t see them by then, I am using the satellite phone to call 911.

I then see dust on the road that Herb and I had been on, and see a truck coming my way.  Great, I am thinking that they ran into some local on the lake bed, who knows a way to drive the glider to the truck!  Unfortunately, when the truck pulls up, I see that Tony and Herb are not in it and some guy is now walking towards me.  Again, the women will understand my slight apprehension, and I am hoping that he is just checking to see if I need help and not some “weirdo”.  His name is Bill, he is a geologist, and his crew is working in the area.  I explain our situation.  He fortunately has water for me, I am really thirsty.

We see Herb walking towards us… where is Tony?  When Herb gets there, he says that Tony is .29 miles away (per GPS) and they need help getting the glider to the truck, it is just too heavy.  Bill says there is a road that will take us closer to where Tony is, follow him.  Unfortunately, Bill didn’t know what he was talking about, because after driving through the scrub, back up to the dirt road and following him a ways, we come to the conclusion that there is no road (surprise, surprise).  And guess what, we are now .43 miles away from Tony.  Screw it, let’s just walk to him and get the damn thing.

Now, here comes the really great part. Remember the “grasshopper” things from the night before, and the “hissing/rattling” noises I had been hearing as I walked to the truck.  Well, apparently, that was the “waking up” of the locusts (at least that’s what I think they were, big, thick, brown bodies, jumping around on the road, some people call the Mormon Crickets).  There were hundreds jumping around on the road and in the sage scrub on the way to Tony.  There was NO WAY I was walking through them, or so I thought.  I have to remind you, I HATE grasshoppers, I am really afraid of them.  BUT, what choice do I have…

So Herb walks in front, thinking that by stomping his feet, it will scare them away and if I walk behind him, they will not bother me.  Nice try.  They just kept hopping around my feet.  I had to just ignore them and keep walking.  We finally get to Tony and begin the grueling trek back to the truck, in the heat, through the locusts, and balancing the glider on the three of our shoulders.  Now, I know Tony had the heavy end of the glider, but it was still very heavy at my end and walking through the scrub in SHORTS was a little difficult too.  The dried limbs of the scrub were scraping my legs up and between trying to dodge the locusts and scrub and hold up the glider and the heat…. well, you can imagine.  I don’t even know how long it took the three of us to carry the glider to the truck; we had to stop to rest several times.  But, we made it.

FINALLY, on the road back to civilization.  Poor Herb was exhausted and “crashed” in the front passenger’s seat on the way south back to Grass Valley Road and I drove.  There were hundreds of thousands of the locust things all over the dirt road.  It was so gross.

As we headed back to Austin, anxious to get there to have breakfast, we got back onto the 50, a paved road, yeah!  The road was literally rust colored from all the locust things that had been squished on it.  And they were still crawling all over the road, crunching under our tires.  Herb thought they would make a good pie!  Yuck.  These bugs were everywhere, for about a 50 mile radius.  We have lunch at about noon in Austin.  I spend 15 minutes picking the “stickery” things out of my socks and shoes, as they are poking me!

We finally got back into Lone Pine at about 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.  Talk about a long “day” or I should say two days.  All I wanted was a shower and bed.  So, am I a dedicated driver or a dedicated girlfriend… or… am I just crazy?  I felt like I had been in a combination “The Amazing Race” and “Fear Factor” episode!