Re: Flood pix
Posted by Bigfoot on August 19, 2004 at 09:44:29:
In Reply to: Re: Flood pix posted by Cactus Jack on August 18, 2004 at 23:34:17:
Howdy CJ,
I love the Death Valley area. It is one of the most unique places in the U.S., if not the world! Most folks I have met out there on the trail have been friendly, helpful, and glad to see you (with the exception of one fellow at Russell's Camp a couple years ago). I have had nothing but good experiences with park and concession personel (Just don't mind me if I don't pay $10 a gallon for Coleman fuel, I always bring plenty! Teehee..)
I can understand the Feds bringing everything down to lowest common denominator..after all, I once encountered some European tourists around Kingston Mountain near the pass between Tecopa and Cima Road....and they were manuevering around the heavily rutted road in a rented Dodge Neon. They saw the road on the map and thought it was a "shortcut" to Las Vegas. They were just a mile or two from the ranch house on the east side of the pass, and it was April and not too hot...and being they were determined to get to Vegas that way because they didn't want to have to "waste time" backtracking... I left them with the suggestion that if they got stuck, not to walk back to Tecopa but to walk over to the ranch house (I had just driven past the house a few minutes earlier and there was someone home).
Apparently no disaster of "Missing German Tourist" proportion took place, as I didn't read about those fellows in the paper or on the web...but the opportunity to be in the news is always available to the foolhardy or un-informed, even if you aren't around to read about it!
You can bet that if I didn't live 500 miles away, I would be there to help dig out!! Heck, if it wasn't for this dang work thing and kids starting school (first day in Second Grade for my 7 year old son today!) we would be there anyway!!! I would just call it a "working vacation"...(both my 7 year old and 4 year old sons were out there braving the heat with me last month).
How are the local folks holding up out there? I would imagine this will be an experience never forgotten!! I lived in Las Vegas, and Bullhead City, Arizona, for a total of about 20 years and desert floods were pretty interesting out there, though I never had the floods come right through my house or car..(I did read that the same storm system that hit you folks wreaked havoc around Needles, California..only 15 miles south of Bullhead)
While living in Bullhead, I once had to four-wheel drive it home from work in my old '63 Scout. This after a storm deposited about 3 feet of mud and rock on Highway 95 between work and home, and the county "closed" the road...the only stretch of pavement at the time...and after storms gaps would open up on the back roads that could really be a suprise if one was barreling along at 30 MPH and wasn't paying attention...talk about "pucker factor"!!
The power used to go out all the time in Bullhead in the early 90's, and I used to set my generator on the front porch and run a cord to the swamp cooler in the front room. The neighbors would come over and hang out until the power would go back on...those little old mobile homes got hot quick when the coolers didn't run!!
I just didn't want you to get the impression that I was some jackass that would go out there and get stuck and cause problems for the locals and put a strain on the currently limited resources...that wasn't my intention at all.
Hope to meet you out there some day as well!!