Diet Taco... trying to keep things light

Great read. Thanks for killing some of my time at work.

I saw you mention the Marble canyon in the Cottonwoods. Would this be the same area as the South Coyote buttes area? I have a permit for the area, entering via Cottonwood cove.

 

Nope, sorry should have been more clear. There are a lot of "Marble" and "Cottonwood" things spread across the southwest! This Marble Canyon is in Death Valley near Stovepipe Wells. It is at the southern end of the Cottonwood Mountains.

That said - years back before I had the Tacoma I did visit the Wave down in the Coyote Buttes area. Silly composite photo I did of me desperately running to try and beat my camera's 10 sec timer for a picture of my brother and I at the Wave.

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Very cool photo.

 

Thats awesome! Thanks again for the clarification.

 

Hey Ken. I really hope you and yours were nowhere near Death Valley or Mojave in the past few days. Please check in.

 

Nope, we’ve just been parked at home in muggy old Baltimore so far!

I did live in Ridgecrest some years back so all the photos in the news are of familiar places. I haven’t checked in with any old friends from the area as I figure they’ve got their hands full at the moment.

Must of have been one heck of a shake. I was in the Northridge quake in 1994 over in Pasadena and that was quite the ride 25 miles from the 6.7 epicenter. If I was still in Ridgecrest I would have been about 12 miles from the 7.1 epicenter.

Curious about damage on base. The 6.4 was right in the middle of their energetics division practically underneath a rather expensive test pad for large solid rocket motors. The 7.1 was right about on a range I used to participate in some missile tests.

 

Good.

Im assuming China Lake? I read on BBC that that NAWS reported in as "not mission ready until further notice."

 

Yep, both epicenters were on China Lake itself and quite close to some of their larger facilities. The ranges are huge but most stuff is concentrated right by Ridgecrest.

Here’s their 2018 range video of things going boom. The wee little orange missile at 0:33 and 3:15 is what I spent most of my time there helping design. Back then we were still just starting to test hitting stationary targets on the ground. Nice to see it now cutting down on those annoying drones. Maybe the NPS can deploy some around the springs in Saline...

 

You got brass balls towing all those target trailers around. That's some serious overlanding right there.

 

No different than posting in the 3rd gen forum really.

 

Love your truck, great work!

 

My dad flew B-29s/B-50s off the coast of Florida towing targets back in the 50s. He got a different assignment ASAP.

 

Seriously, that's a remotely controlled tow vehicle correct?

I thought this was fucking nuts:

 

Yep. For less destructive tests - low mass without a warhead - they sometimes directly remote control the target vehicle itself as the vehicle is most likely going to survive with just a hole in its side. But of course there is no live person anywhere nearby a target in any circumstance. "Nearby" can be a huge footprint as well - not unusual for massive sections of the range to be closed for a single test. And for almost all development testing no one is even allowed outside a bunker at the launch site - rocket motors sometimes explode.

And given how tracking algorithms work there is a real risk they'd center punch the tow vehicle by accident. It is called "testing" for a reason! I was on a shot once where there were two (stationary) targets on the range for two different shots. There was an unexpected transient that caused the missile to lose lock on the intended target and then immediately acquire the second target. Center punched it nicely. Because the cameras were all set on the intended target everyone thought it was a total failure until folks went out to recover the missile and found a hole with an X over it from the fins almost dead center in the alternate target!

 

It was described to me one time that we can hit the jelly donuts without touching the creams...and I've never forgotten that. WE GOOD.

 

This is on China Lake NAWS.
3’ shift at the top, 5’ at the bottom.

 

Wow, impressive shot!

I tracked down some more images from the same source.

 

Good pics. Very reminiscent of the Easter 2010 quake in Baja.

 

Ha! We were just talking about this one when I was visiting family in HI.
My family and I were in Walmart in Grossmont Center in La Mesa, CA.
We were walking to check out and I noticed what I thought was someone tossing a bag of something over the isle to the other shelf.
Turns out it was the building shaking.
Then there was a very loud crack from the ceiling and lots of rolling.
People were full-on sprinting to the exits without their full shopping carts.
Turns out it was like 7.1 based in Mexicali area.

 

On that day in April, 2010, I was 1.05 miles from you! I was at Car Quest Auto Parts in La Mesa and I felt that same rolling sensation, went outside and was like OMFG the parking lot light poles were trying to wiggle outta their concrete / asphalt foundations.

Pics from the Easter Quake in Baja: