2003/07/30 – 08/02

White Mountains, California
Sirius Lookers of Sedona & The Local Group (Astronomy Club of Santa Clarita Valley)

The premature, yet gladly accepted, arrival of my Starfinder sort of threw a little wrench in the plans for my trip to the White Mountains in California mostly because I was not ready for its needed “upgrades” and adjustments. I was really hoping to get the alt/azimuth Teflon pads before I left. Packing for the trip was semi-difficult simply because I did not know where everything was going to go in my truck or even that it would fit. Plans that had been made were changed: Thom & Ellen were originally going to stop over, and then Ron said he was coming by too. These plans did not pan out. Dennis had called and said he was coming this way and would contact me when he got in town. It turns out that John followed Dennis to Las Vegas. While I was at work on Tuesday night, Dennis called me on the cell telling me that he and John had arrived in Vegas and were staying near Circus/Circus (Algiers). Dennis was to call me again around 5am and this he did. At the time I was in the process of fueling my truck on the way home to get ready. Shortly after 5:30am, Dennis arrived at my house. My plans were to pack and leave and then take a nap once arriving at the camp-site. Dennis had other plans; he had been up all night and wanted to take a nap first. I guess it was a good thing because I was not really ready to pack and leave. While Dennis napped, I made my final preparations and eventually ended up sleeping for about an hour; Dennis had told me to wake him at 9:30. We made contact with John and the plan was for Dennis to go get him and bring him to my house and then we would all leave together. I needed to pack my things into the truck and would do that while Dennis was gone. We opened the door to find a hard rain coming down; the monsoons were at it again. After it stopped raining, I began packing and Dennis left to get John. It turns out John had tried to call us and couldn’t reach either Dennis or myself so he decided to leave on his own. Dennis returned and I was ready to go having packed all my belongings under a huge plastic tarp. At 12 noon with a balmy 97 degrees, 48% humidity and threatening rain showers, we hit the road on our way to the White Mountains.

Our first stop was in Indian Springs where we tightened some things that had come loose in the back of my truck. For this trip I had decided to bring Sierra with me and we made a stop for her at the rest area near Armagosa Springs.

The map to our destination showed that we should stop in Beatty for fuel or we would probably end up running low by the time we got to the White Mtns. Having topped-off we continued up US95 towards the middle of nowhere.

We passed the Shady-Lady on our right and started looking for our next landmark on the left. With 161 miles under our belts, the Cottontail Ranch came into view and we turned on State Route 266 towards Lida.

After climbing the grade and getting up into the higher elevation (~7000ft. ASL), I was totally surprised to what I saw; beautiful pines and wide scenic views right here in Nevada! Of course this ended abruptly as we descended back down into the next desert valley where we made the last turn onto State Route 168.

Very large storms were building to the east but ahead of us the weather looked promising.

The climb up into the mountain range was unbelievably curvy. If the sign says 15mph, they really mean 5mph. It was a white-knuckle event for me.

Once I reached the top, the view made the torture of the climb worth-while. The road at the top of the climb opened up into a wide valley slowly narrowing to the bottom where at one time, I’m sure must have held a huge glacier lake in the Earth’s ancient past. The valley seemed impenetrable due to the steep rise of the surrounding mountain walls. Near the bottom, we snuck our way out through a narrow slit in the rocks climbing once again towards higher ground. Westgaurd Pass at 7271ft ASL was the indicator that our destination was near. A mile or so west and to the north was the turn-off that took us the last leg of 5 miles up a picturesque road with dramatic views of the Sierra Mountains. With 234 miles under us, temperatures 20 degrees cooler and 5 hours after our departure, we reached Grand View Campground situated at ~9000ft ASL.

We stopped first at the look-out point to enjoy the view and briefly talked to a man who was a pilot in the Air Force. He told us of being able to see the Northern Lights while flying his plane in the air space 35,000ft over Greenland. After that, we went on to find our campsite. We chose two campsites on the east side of the meadow and quickly set up our tents to mark our spot before making our way down the mountain to find the others who were setting up at Pinion Campground.

At Pinion, which is ~7200ft ASL, we found Thom & Ellen, Ara & Ana, & Geoff whom had already arrived. John had gone to Bishop were he got a motel room and Ron was nowhere in site. Thom had made Chicken/Shrimp stir-fry and while eating we sat around talking of things the dark skies would offer. The skies were partly cloudy and we had hoped for at least “sucker holes” to look through. A nice conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Mercury were to be happening but clouds blocked any hope of seeing that. As darkness started to encroach in the skies, the Summer Triangle was visible through the clouds. My hopes of getting first “dark sky” light for the Meade 16” Starfinder looked like it might happen. Just as I was thinking of leaving for Grand View, a flash of light to the South-east caught my eye; it was lightning and not a good sign of things to come. The storm quickly approached and before I could say my goodbyes for the night it began to rain. At Grand View, I found my tent had wandered a little from where I set it up (which was temporary). Trying to move faster then the storms I grabbed it and staked it up under some little Cedar trees which would provide protection from the rain and hopefully not a target for the lightning! I got under the plastic tarp and grabbed everything I needed for camping and threw it in the tent leaving only my astronomical equipment in the truck safely wrapped under its protective cover. I set-up “house” as enormous thunder claps burst in the air and lightning lit up the angry night sky.

I stayed up until 12:30 (midnight) drinking coffee (courtesy of Thom & Ellen of course!) ,looking at star charts under the light of my dim flashlight and sharing snacks with Sierra before finally giving up on hopes of the sky clearing and going to bed. I forgot my pillows under the tarp and had to make due with a rolled up blanket to lay my head on. I set my alarm for 2am, 3am & 4am only to find each time that more storms had or were approaching. During a lull in the rain, Sierra and I walked out to the look-out point only to find even more storms were on the way. At 4:30am I hit the hay for the last time before the voices of Dennis and Ara woke me up at 9am. I woke up to find the sun had come out but was still tired and went back to sleep. I woke again at 1pm to the sound of Dennis and Johns voices only to find clouds had returned. At least I had gotten some rest after my last 12 hour shift at work, a long drive to the White Mts and staying up until the wee hours of the night hoping for clear skies.

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