Back To The Inyos, May 2009

teotwaki

Excelsior!
What do old whiskey bottles,

Navy fighter jets

and hiking with a good friend


all have in common?

The Inyo Mountains!! :victory:

 
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teotwaki

Excelsior!
Over Memorial weekend I was supposed to go to Utah to go through 43 miles of the Paria River canyon including 12 miles of slot canyon. A huge storm built up in Arizona and Utah with 2 inches of rain on Friday in the area of Page, Arizona. Heck, got to cancel.

So what do you do when your truck is packed and ready for adventure?

Go where history, technology and natural beauty all come together! On Friday I called up Alan (TeraWanderer) to see if he had anything planned and it did not take long to come up with a list of things to look for:

1. Old roads built by Chinese laborers
2. Scenic overlooks with solar garden accent lighting
3. A jet fighter crash site
4. Old mill sites
5. Salt Tram artifacts
6. An old horse corral
7. Great camping
8. Fun off roading
9. Cool hiking

...and more but with only two days to try for it all. Not too ambitious, right?

Buckle up tight......
 
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teotwaki

Excelsior!
Some of the things I will relate are not really secret so a little effort can locate where I went. Please forgive me if I do not lay out maps and coordinates so that Looky-Lou's can easily swoop in and pick over these locations.

A little bit of History that I have found as it relates to this old desert road. Additional info is welcome.

"While searching for a proper supply route to their burgeoning mining town, the owners of the principal Panamint mines noticed an aggressive San Bernardino firm, Meyerstein & Co., which was supplying goods. One of the mine owners was United States Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada, and it was he who approached Caesar Meyerstein with the proposition that the San Bernardino merchants establish a stage line to Panamint. The proposal was accepted, and in the early fall of 1874, preparations for the construction of a road from Cottonwoods to the Panamints were underway.

Lane immediately began the project, starting a work crew of Chinese at Cottonwoods under foreman Charley Craw. Wasting no time, Lane proceeded to Panamint to lay out the road. While there he ran into trouble -- not from the robbers, rustlers and cutthroats, but from the miners themselves. They objected to the use of Chinese labor.

California at that time was widely anti-Chinese, and the town of San Bernardino was extremely so. Practically every issue of the newspapers in the mid-1870s carried some item about the Chinese, usually very negative. How Lane handled the situation with the miners the papers do not say, but he must have persuaded them to rethink their position, because the road was completed within a few weeks."


http://www.empirenet.com/rdthompson/lane10.html

The construction of the road through the rocky terrain is amazing. Hard-packed earth and stacked rocks provide a surface that can be easily driven by a 2WD passenger car, even after 135 years.

 
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teotwaki

Excelsior!
Death Valley is chock full of scenic views. Sometimes the little surprises are what makes them memorable.

Stunning view of Saline Valley...


but what is that?


Ahhhhh hah! Genuine Rock Garden accent lighting. Solar powered, of course!
 
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kellymoe

Expedition Leader
I'm heading out to the Saline/Inyo area on Thursday, it's been too long since my last trip in August of last year.

The third picture at the start of your post is of someone aon the crest of the Inyo. Is that shot taken above San Lucas Cyn near Burgess Mine? I have hiked to the base of that peak in the background of the same picture looking for climbing routes, it has potential for some good climbing.

Looking forward to more pictures.
 

teotwaki

Excelsior!
Sobering Encounter

Nearby China Lake is host to all sorts of aircraft and training exercises. Many times I'll hear the thunder of jets and turn on my camera just in case they pop over the ridge that I am on. It is understandable that mistakes are made while training at speeds that whould be dangerous enough without flying over the rugged terrain of the Inyos and Death Valley.

On the fateful day of June 3rd, 1982, Navy Lieutenant Richard R. Decker of VA-195 (Lemoore, CA) lost his life when trying to clear a rugged canyon above the Saline Valley. He was flying a single engined A-7E Corsair II. The jet's Naval Bureau Number (BuNo) was 158010.

Alan and I did not know that this aircraft was an A-7 nor that the pilot had died.

This is another jet from the same squadron with notes to compare to wreckage photos.

The A-7 was manufactured by LTV (Ling-Temco-Vought) where Vought was originally Chance-Vought Aircraft.

Fuel Probe inlet area is hinged to allow it to be deployed for refueling.


Two of the three digit aircraft number, digits "2" and "1" ?? I highlighted the photo of the faded numbers with the thin red stripes


Marker Light made by Chance Vought Aircraft


Part of red-striped triangle noting the air intake danger


part of the word "DANGER" that was stenciled within the triangle area. Please note that I highlighted the faded letters with a light red line

as in this similar example


Microwave waveguide from the nose radar system. It may have been part of the receiver subsystem.


Alan discovered many pieces of the cockpit frame and plexiglass pieces. We quickly realized that the pilot must have still been in the cockpit. Definitely caused us to pause and remember that it was Memorial Day weekend.

 
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teotwaki

Excelsior!
I'm heading out to the Saline/Inyo area on Thursday, it's been too long since my last trip in August of last year.

The third picture at the start of your post is of someone aon the crest of the Inyo. Is that shot taken above San Lucas Cyn near Burgess Mine? I have hiked to the base of that peak in the background of the same picture looking for climbing routes, it has potential for some good climbing.

Looking forward to more pictures.

That picture is not at Burgess but here is the rough location: Alan is facing North, to his right (East) and well below is the Bonham talc mine. To his left would be the canyon where Mexican Springs is located. I'll have more pictures and description of that location.
 

kellymoe

Expedition Leader
That picture is not at Burgess but here is the rough location: Alan is facing North, to his right (East) and well below is the Bonham talc mine. To his left would be the canyon where Mexican Springs is located. I'll have more pictures and description of that location.

Thats right, I meant Bonham mine, dont know Why I was thinking Burgess? I have camped at Bonham on a few occasions as well as San Lucas Cyn before it became closed. What were the temps like up there? I'm expecting some pretty hot temps in the valley and the springs but it is usualy pretty nice up in the Inyo's.

More pics, keep em coming.
 

teotwaki

Excelsior!
Don't go there...

Alan and I headed up from Saline Valley, passing through Cerro Gordo where there was several vehicles parked with no one in sight. We headed north-west on the old road, eyeballing various passable jeep trails that have been stolen from vehicular access.


The BLM has tried to sugarcoat the removal with cute little signs that advertise foot travel preference.
Here Alan expresses his opinion of the goofy signs:
 

teotwaki

Excelsior!
Interesting Discoveries

As we trucked along we briefly considered going down to Mexican Springs but Alan was keeping an eye out for other roads on the West side of the road. Roughly half way to the Salt Tram Cabin we spotted a road on the right that went across an open area towards a canyon. A short ways in we found the inevitable BLM Wilderness sign so we parked and grabbed some hiking gear.

We had noticed that a lot of trees had been felled along the road that we were hiking....


and eventually we found this metal reservoir with yummy-scummy green water

and to the left is a white porcelin bath tub.

And then we spotted this tag on a piece of pipe.


There were also some remnants of old style pipe that was made from rolled steel as well as some pieces of lumber from some old structure.

Then we started to find pieces of threaded pipe. We followed those around the north-east side of the mountain, basically heading back towards Mexican Springs, guessing that the water was tapped to augment the water that was pumped from Mexican Springs to Cerro Gordo.


Unfortunately some sort of BLM do-gooders hauled in a pipe cutter, chopped up all of the threaded pipe and casually tossed it over the side of the trail, littering the mountain side.



They then put in some chopped-off BLM markers designating the pipe-path to be a "trail". Really insane destruction of historic items.

After a bit the trail goes around the mountain to head towards Mexican Springs. An earlier picture showed Alan precariously perched above a very sheer cliff. To his left is the Bonham Talc Mines


and to his right is Mexican Springs where you can also spot the road we had just traveled


 

adventureduo

Dave Druck [KI6LBB]
Jim, your reports are always amazing man... keep it coming... you're starting my week off with a great read and some sweet pics.
 

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