Message posted by lone wolf on September 02, 2005 at 21:40:35 PST:

The story goes that the railroad ties were dropped by helicopter for the USGS at the time they put their marker on the peak. Now why the USGS needs big heavy railroad ties for this task is a good guestion.

Just about anything that could be lifted by two people could be put on Tikaboo. Of course, those two people would need to be highly motivated. Some have brought 8 inch and 10 inch reflector telescopes to the peak, which by the way is not a good idea. One you have enough aperture (i.e. enough light), the extra aperture doesn't help and in some circumstances is worse. You can google "poor seeing" to get more information. [I wouldn't use more than a 5 inch scope.]

Tom Mahood has a post either here or on ufomind.com about the first Tikaboo hike. It turns out that the site had been used for base snooping prior to their arrival. There was a rock wall to hide behind. I suspect the base acts as if there is always someone looking since you don't have to be on the peak to see the base, and they probably can't inspect every viewpoint in the range.

Though there is no shortage of rock stackers, these rocks walls are of questionable utility. They do insure you will have field mice and perhaps a snake as a visitor. Somebody went through great pains to build a rock wall at the power lines. I gave it a try, with a field mouse and two lizards to keep me company. When the wind blew, the rock wall didn't help much. What bugged me about the one built at the power lines is it blocked the path to drive along the ridge. I assure you that in your SUV, the wind is a lot less annoying than behind a rock wall. I don't have the heart to destroy what someone probably spend 4 back breaking hours building, but it is nearly useless.

In Reply to: RR Ties on Tikaboo posted by Lumpy on September 01, 2005 at 0:09:30 PST:

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