Long time gone

I have not blogged in several years, guess coming back from Japan made everything here seem unblogworty...

I am back because of something which happened to me last week. I was up at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake performing an Environmental Management System audit. While I was out there, I heard about the Trona Pinnacles, and decided to go out there to take some pictures (see above).

The Pinnacles are about a 20 Minute drive east on Highway 178 from Ridgecrest (the town just outside China Lake where we were staying), then another 6 miles south on a dirt road to the Pinnacles themselves. Everything I read said that it was OK to drive there in a two-wheel drive vehicle, as long as it had not been raining (which it had not).

So, I grabbed my camera, my new GPS logger, and a few bottles of water and drove out towards the pinnacles after work. I arrived at maybe 6:00 PM (sunset was 8:00 PM) and started to shoot pictures. There was a map at the site which showed a circular road around the pinnacles, and I followed that, stopping to take pictures quite often.

Although I thought I was still on this circle road, apparently I had gotten off of it onto a road which is not two-wheel drive friendly. I noticed a truck stopped ahead, and just figured he was there taking pictures like I was, and began to drive around him. When it was too late to do anything about it, I realized that he was not parked, but was stuck in a wide wash that this road crossed. With nothing else to do, I pressed forward around him, hoping to keep up my momentum enough to get through. I got about 15 feet farther than he did, and was within maybe 15 feet of solid ground when I got stuck, and good.

I spent about 20 minutes trying to extricate myself, to no avail. The truck was unattended, and I had seen no one the entire time I was out there. It was now about 7:20, there was no cell phone service, and not a soul around. I got two bottles of water, locked my car, and started walking back towards the highway, 6 miles back up the dirt road, periodically checking me cell phone to see if I had any coverage.

The pinnacles are on the southern edge of the Searles Dry Lake, about 10 miles south of the town of Trona. I could see the town on the other side of the valley, and the dirt road headed pretty strait that direction. As the sun set, I could see the lights from town, and that, along with about a half moon, was plenty of light to find my way. The weather was nice, and I was in no danger, I just knew I had a long walk ahead of me (6 miles to the highway, and then perhaps another 4 into Trona if nobody picked me up).

After more than two hours of walking, at about 9:50, I finally reached the highway, only to discover that the few cars that came by had no interest in stopping for me. Highway 178 between Ridgecrest and Trona is not one of your busier roads, even less so at almost 10 o'clock at night. There was probably about one car every few minutes or so. The first eight or ten cars passed me, but finally a nice couple (the Gossetts) and their granddaughter stopped for me.

I told them what had happened, and that I needed a ride into Trona so I could call a tow truck. I got in their vehicle (a Toyota SUV, a 4runner, I think) and we stated to drive towards Trona. After a few seconds, they told me that getting to Trona would not do me any good. There were no tow trucks in Trona, no cell phone service, and no pay phones. They told me they would take me to Ridgecrest instead, as that is where a tow truck would have to come from anyway. We turned around, and headed back in the other direction for a minute or so, before they realized it would taker them as long to get me to Ridgecrest as it would just to go with me out to the pinnacles and pull me out. They had four-wheel drive and a tow chain, so we headed back out to get my car.

Getting the car out was fairly easy, and only took a few minutes, after which they followed me back out to make sure I made it OK. As we just started back, we passed a tow truck coming the other direction, undoubtedly to rescue the truck which had been stuck right next to me.

I made it out fine, and got back to my hotel at about 10:55, exhausted, with sore feet, and a hole warn in one of my socks. My car was filthy, as were mu clothes, but I was just fine.