Message posted by pete on April 17, 2010 at 23:52:20 PST:
Hi , I managed to get to the US , and visit Las Vegas and obtain a suitable vehicle and head to the tickaboo area. The last part of the trial AFTER what I think is the main car park... which had what looked like a large metal bath.. maybe to feed cattle/animals... and also there were TWO large concrete looking hollow cyclinders.... Past this point the road seemed ok until it came to a dip in the road that looked difficult to drive over even with a all wheeel drive car... I think it could be passed but I didnt want to risk it.. So I was not 100% sure if I had arrived where I should have.. In the end I decicided to risk climbing the Hillside to the west, but I could NOT see any obvious route... I did managed to climb so far and it was not easy carrying a heavy pack... I then eventually came across a trial with coloured strips of tape on some trees. This made things much easier, that was until I reached the last one i could see... It then turned out that I had walked onto a trail that took me to a snowed up side of the mountain... I had not realised that it was still so snowed up on parts of the mountain... It seems the Right hand side of certain points still had snow..but I didnt expect it. By this time, It was past 2.30pm as i had really took my time and the first part of my route that no doubt had took me in the wrong direction.. I did struggle with the heavy pack and I found the Snowed area hard going.. in the end I had to turn back as i just didnt think the trial that I was on would pass the showed areas above me.. I didnt want to risk walking to left to an area with less snow as that wasnt straight forward half way up the mountain... so I followed the marked trail back down... THIS was MUCH easier than the trail I had attempted earlier.. Upon following it, I was able to see where the correct trail started and It came back past the dip in the raod and back to the concrete cyclinders near where I parked my car.. I tried to enter the tickaboo coarinates into my GPS Also with me starting later in the day, The Sun was starting to go below the mountain and I didnt want to get to the top to try and photo the Airbase with the sun facing me... I am sure its best if you can get up their early and have the sun behind you.. SO I may attempt it again in a day or so, IF I can get up early enough..Initially going up the easy route... and then try to divert to the no snowed up area and attempt to climb some sort of trial.. At least I now know what to expect in the area and with the trail... No doubt some of the scenery is stunning...even looking east opposite to the direction of Groom lake..
After a VERY late start for me, ie about 10 a clock AM... It took me an hour to get to where i aimed for but as i was stop starting taking photos etc, BUT I did Managed to follow the 22 mile drive ok, but I was not sure that I had reached the end of the trail as my GPS suggested that the Car Park area was not the same reading as indicated on this forums coordinates.
but for some reason my GPS wouldnt allow me to enter the number 6... and tickaboos GPS numbers have 6s in the numbers..
In Reply to: Re: Visiting tikaboo mid April posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on April 07, 2010 at 21:26:24 PST:
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