Woke up early and did my exercises before heading downstairs to meet up with SKWERL for breakfast. We were out the door first thing in the morning and our goal was to desert all traces of modern life and head into the distant past!
First stop, Golden Arrow, historic ghost town that has been reduced to ruins. But still in an interesting area and one can certainly seen the mark left by man. Even saw some antelope, but that'll get better later on.
Then we headed to 37th Fighter Wing, a great cache that took us through a narrow valley, through a sage forest, and bouncing up a rocky hill, only to hike the easier section of the road. That cache, while uninteresting on its own, was placed it a truly wicked location. A sweeping overlook of the entire valley, perched above the northern part of Nellis Air Force Base. Sadly, didn't see anything in that regard.
Down the hill again and we followed a new road out to head back to Golden Arrow. It was along this stretch that we saw tons of wild horses (truly wild as these bolted at the sound of our engines, unlike those near VC that could care less about vehicles) and another herd of antelope that ran straight across the road. SKWERL got some cool pictures of that one! We were making out way towards Bellehelen, where we scored our first FTF that weekend (not counting the beta-testing for Letter's to Diana.
Back on Highway 6, we headed out towards Project Faultless, another underground atomic detonation site, with far more visible results. We puttered around there for awhile, taking a ton of pictures and generally ensuring that if radiation was still in the area, we would all glow nicely. We checked out the virtual there, the nearby traditional, the close Earthcache and the other traditional. Not bad for one site. But seeing the devestation that the explosion wrought on the valleys natural fault lines really drove home how powerful those bombs are.
Continuing out Highway 6, we made a stop at Lunar Crater and gave SKWERL a chance to see that marvel, then headed over to Easy Chair Cinder Cone. The earth cache was easy, though I don't approve of the traditional as I think it's in a poor place without any prior warning on the cache page. But that's my opinion, it was still an awesome location.
Across highway 6 we came to the Black Rock Lava Flow. Imagine taking a paper cup filled with chocolate syrup, cut a slit in the side of the cup, and watch the syrup flow out into a big ugly mess. Now imagine that on mountain scale and you'll have a picture of this flow. The earthcache was a quick one, and we headed back to the traditional that was hidden up inside the flow. Per a prior log, it's actually hidden, not in the cooled lava, but in a piece of the actual volcano itself. COOL!
As the sun started going down, SKWERL announced he also wanted to get the earthcache at Meteorite Crater, so we headed that way, racing the waning sunlight. As we approached ground zero, there was almost utter darkness around us. I pointed off to the right, SKWERL swung around and our headlights simply vanished into a gaping hole in the desert floor. I won't give the dimentions as they are the answer to the cache, but needless to say, the thing is HUGE! It took two rigs with beams on high, plus Dad's ultra-powerful million watt spotlight to light up the opposite rim and all we could see of SKWERL was his tiny headlamp way on the other side.
Spent considerable time there before turning back and heading back into Tonopah. A long drive there, and I think I crashed out about halfway back. Whoo Hooo, day 2 was a complete success and the finale hasn't even happened yet!
11/29/2008
NevadaWolf found 37th Fighter Wing, Bellehelen, Project FAULTLESS, Don't Worry Be Happy, Volcanic Rocks near Project Faultless, Nuke 'Em, Easy Chair Crater Cinder Cone, Nye County, Nevada, Easy Now, Black Rock Lava Flow, LavaFlow, A Meteorite Crater, or Not, Blackbox, Warm Springs Cache
11/29/2008
NevadaWolf placed The Unknown Soldier geocoin standing watch
11/29/2008
NevadaWolf retrieved Blake's Bike Bug
First stop, Golden Arrow, historic ghost town that has been reduced to ruins. But still in an interesting area and one can certainly seen the mark left by man. Even saw some antelope, but that'll get better later on.Then we headed to 37th Fighter Wing, a great cache that took us through a narrow valley, through a sage forest, and bouncing up a rocky hill, only to hike the easier section of the road. That cache, while uninteresting on its own, was placed it a truly wicked location. A sweeping overlook of the entire valley, perched above the northern part of Nellis Air Force Base. Sadly, didn't see anything in that regard.
Down the hill again and we followed a new road out to head back to Golden Arrow. It was along this stretch that we saw tons of wild horses (truly wild as these bolted at the sound of our engines, unlike those near VC that could care less about vehicles) and another herd of antelope that ran straight across the road. SKWERL got some cool pictures of that one! We were making out way towards Bellehelen, where we scored our first FTF that weekend (not counting the beta-testing for Letter's to Diana.
Back on Highway 6, we headed out towards Project Faultless, another underground atomic detonation site, with far more visible results. We puttered around there for awhile, taking a ton of pictures and generally ensuring that if radiation was still in the area, we would all glow nicely. We checked out the virtual there, the nearby traditional, the close Earthcache and the other traditional. Not bad for one site. But seeing the devestation that the explosion wrought on the valleys natural fault lines really drove home how powerful those bombs are.Continuing out Highway 6, we made a stop at Lunar Crater and gave SKWERL a chance to see that marvel, then headed over to Easy Chair Cinder Cone. The earth cache was easy, though I don't approve of the traditional as I think it's in a poor place without any prior warning on the cache page. But that's my opinion, it was still an awesome location.
Across highway 6 we came to the Black Rock Lava Flow. Imagine taking a paper cup filled with chocolate syrup, cut a slit in the side of the cup, and watch the syrup flow out into a big ugly mess. Now imagine that on mountain scale and you'll have a picture of this flow. The earthcache was a quick one, and we headed back to the traditional that was hidden up inside the flow. Per a prior log, it's actually hidden, not in the cooled lava, but in a piece of the actual volcano itself. COOL!
As the sun started going down, SKWERL announced he also wanted to get the earthcache at Meteorite Crater, so we headed that way, racing the waning sunlight. As we approached ground zero, there was almost utter darkness around us. I pointed off to the right, SKWERL swung around and our headlights simply vanished into a gaping hole in the desert floor. I won't give the dimentions as they are the answer to the cache, but needless to say, the thing is HUGE! It took two rigs with beams on high, plus Dad's ultra-powerful million watt spotlight to light up the opposite rim and all we could see of SKWERL was his tiny headlamp way on the other side.Spent considerable time there before turning back and heading back into Tonopah. A long drive there, and I think I crashed out about halfway back. Whoo Hooo, day 2 was a complete success and the finale hasn't even happened yet!
11/29/2008
NevadaWolf found 37th Fighter Wing, Bellehelen, Project FAULTLESS, Don't Worry Be Happy, Volcanic Rocks near Project Faultless, Nuke 'Em, Easy Chair Crater Cinder Cone, Nye County, Nevada, Easy Now, Black Rock Lava Flow, LavaFlow, A Meteorite Crater, or Not, Blackbox, Warm Springs Cache
11/29/2008
NevadaWolf placed The Unknown Soldier geocoin standing watch
11/29/2008
NevadaWolf retrieved Blake's Bike Bug
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