Message posted by gary on December 22, 2002 at 10:09:58 PST:
If you stay outside the fenced areas, you are on public land. I wouldn't be "in their face". Take your photos and then move a discrete distance from the fence. The base is manned 24&7. I have been approached by basecamp residents twice. Once I was asked why I was there, and once I was asked to leave, which I did, eventually. ;-) There are maps from the BLM that indicate private and public land. If you want to win an argument with security forces, it wouldn't hurt to have one. I checked with the BLM in Tonopah regarding Halligan Mesa, which is near basecamp, and the BLM used such a map. It is acutally in the BLM's best interest for you to travel on their land (which is our land), so they are quite helpful in this respect. The Tonopah BLM doesn't sell the map that covers basecamp, but I was told you could get it at the Las Vegas BLM office. If you see the fuel truck parked near the end of the runway, they may be expecting a plane. [It's not always there.] Another clue is the "steps" being in the same area, to aid in deplaning. One time both these elements were there, and I waited two hours, and nothing landed. A few white trucks arrived from off-base, so I figured I would track them to at least accomplish something. I expected them to turn down the ET Highway, but they headed toward the TTR. While Basecamp is generally associated with Groom, I'm not sure of the source of that knowledge. It could just as easily be associated with the TTR.
In Reply to: Basecamp... posted by Elliott on December 21, 2002 at 23:31:33 PST:
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