[BR-Crater] photos from Crater Assault 4 trip to Black Rock

[Ian Kluft]

I posted photos from Stratofox Crater Assault 4, a day trip to the Black Rock
Desert on Sunday, April 26.
   http://www.stratofox.org/pics/sca4-200904/

So far it's just my photos.  I'll add Sam's and Steve's photos when they
upload them.

As the event's name suggests the point of the trip was exploration related
to the impact crater theory.  I'll send more about that to the br-crater
mail list.  Anyone interested in details about that should subscribe or
see the list archive at http://www.thunder.net/mailman/listinfo/br-crater

We made it just a day trip because it's too early in the season to drive on
the playa (lakebed), much less camp on it.  Hiking on Pahsupp Mountain, we
could see the playa is still wet.  (This was my 40th trip to Black Rock.)

The participants in SCA4 were Rich Loring, Steve Rubin AE6CH,
Sam Thigpen KL1FE and me.

The hike was a lot of fun, getting to explore a part of Black Rock where
none of us have been before.

The return trip turned out to have several delays.  We knew we'd have to
take a different route home to avoid traffic jams on I-80 where there was
a scheduled closure for road construction near Colfax.  The unexpected
delays were from Steve having two flat tires - different tires hours apart.
As Stratofox does, we stuck together to watch for each others' safety.
In both cases, his vehicle's tire pressure sensor warned him the tire was
going low in time to pull over and avoid tire damage or loss of control.
The first one was on Jungo Road close enough for him to get to Bruno's
Garage in Gerlach before it went flat.  Bruno's patched the tire.  With the
delay, we got dinner at Bruno's Restaurant in Gerlach before hitting the
road.  (Nearly all the businesses in Gerlach are owned by Bruno.)

Rich lives in southern Reno so obviously that's as far as he went with us.

We detoured through Carson City and South Lake Tahoe to avoid the I-80
closure.  Steve got the second flat in Sacramento.  He put the spare on -
Sam and I helped.  The second flat was probably also due to the rough
condition of Jungo Road - a bulge we had noticed in Gerlach wore through.
The thought that it would last long enough to get home turned out wrong.

So instead of getting back by 11PM, it was 2:45AM for me, 3AM for Steve
and even later than that for Sam (who had a 6AM meeting at work.  Ouch!)