2000
TRIP REPORTS (pg 2)
The MAJESTIC RETURN & The Gathering
FRI. OCT. 27th (evening)
It had been a long time since I had traveled that barren stretch of
highway, since I had crested that familiar summit and seen the tiny
lights of Rachel defiantly piercing the black cloak of the desert
night.
On occasion, Area 51 has been compared to a hall of mirrors. While
such references usually referred to the mysteries of the secretive
military facility, I found the analogy fitting for a different reason
on this particular occasion. When one finds themselves wandering through
a hall of mirrors they are negotiating the maze in order to find their
way out. Often times, the exit appears to be just before them, but
when they move towards it they find that what they had seen was merely
an illusion, and that the way out if much further away than they had
thought.
For well over two years I had traversed the maze, bumping into dead
ends, discovering new paths, as well as following those paths that had
been forged before my time. I had thought that my journey was done,
that I had reached the end of the maze, but when I tried to step
through the exit I bumped into another mirror, and so I found myself
on the E.T. highway once again. I guess there is just no such thing as
a semi-retired Area 51 researcher.
I felt as though I was stepping into a historic moment when I pushed
open the gate to the Area 51 Research Center, after all, this was the
first official Groom Lake Audubon Society function. And for some of
us, it was the first time meeting face to face. The members had
gathered in large circle on the research center lawn. I was greeted
warmly by my fellow agents and after the introductions were made I
joined them in sharing my personal experiences in the area.
Shortly after 8:30pm G.L.A.S. left the Research Center in a four
vehicle convoy heading to site were we would be spending the night.
The weather forecast called for rain, which meant that camping on the
Sand Springs Dry Lakebed was out of the question. Fortunately, my
associates have scouted out many alternate campsites over the years,
and had already selected one for this occasion. Our convoy turned off
the paved highway and proceeded down the 7+ mile off-road trek to the official
Top Secret Fan-Day Fall Back Campsite (the location of which
is know only to GLAS members.) C3, exalted leader and founder of the
Groom Lake Audubon Society, rode with me in my rented sedan and
coached me in traveling dirt roads in a low clearance vehicle. (Mark
Farmer would be proud)
As soon as we arrived it started raining. Camp had, for the most part,
been set up before my arrival. The site was in a wooded area (at least
by Nevada desert standards), near a large "V" shaped rock,
the center of which housed our campfire. On a natural
"shelf" formation in the rock, C3 and a couple of the other
agents had adorned the site with some cattle bones they had found
near-by. Watching the fire light dance across the weather worn bones
brought a real "old west" feel to the experience.
I proceeded to set up my tent while the other members went about
making their final arrangements for the night. Once everything was
settled we started showing off our optical equipment and other
high-tech toys to one another. We were a well equipped bunch to say the
least. Between us we had night vision scopes, GPS units, compasses,
maps, binoculars, spotting scopes, two-way radios, scanners and just
about anything else you could want or need for "spying" on
your secret military installation of choice.
Being that we were fairly close to the restricted border, the thought
had started to occur to us that our little caravan might have sparked
an interest in some bored border guards. So on a whim, Agent Tracker
and I decided to head up a near-by hill to have a look.
In the interceptor tradition I wore military BDU's (battle dress
uniform) but putting my own spin on it, I opted for solid black rather
than the traditional desert cammo that my predecessors chose. Tracker
too wore dark attire, and under the cover of darkness we began our
ascent. Tracker had scouted out the hill earlier that day, and lead us
directly to the top in a matter of minutes.
If there were any security forces lurking about we certainly didn't
see them. Maybe the cammo-dudes were keeping an eye on us through the
mystical powers of remote viewing they are rumored to utilize, but
more likely our little band wasn't as important as we thought we were.
SAT. OCT 28th
The next morning a couple of agents returned from an early hike to
report that they had discovered some very large tracks only a few
hundred yards from our campsite. They lead the rest of us to them, and
indeed, they were huge. In fact, they were about the same size as my
own foot, only these tracks obviously belonged to an animal, and
judging from how deep they were, a very heavy animal at that! The
tracks seemed very fresh, we could only assume they were made the
night before while we slept. The strides were almost three times that
of a normal human step. Though it was hard to believe, we all knew
that these tracks ha to belong to a bear.
Armed with a can of pepper spray, a few of us not-so-bright
adventurers decided to follow the tracks and see if we could get a
look at the beast ourselves. Because the tracks were so fresh, they
were east to follow. Fortunately for us, time constraints forced us to
give up our search before we ran into our new friend, whom Tracker had
taken to calling "Yogi". (Note: A couple of weeks later a
Forest Ranger confirmed by looking at photos of the tracks, that they
did in fact belong to a bear)
After packing up our ragged group, we proceeded back down the highway
to the Rachel to prepare for the big barbeque. It had been rumored
that the infamous Interceptor Psychospy (aka Glenn Campbell) might be
coming up from Las Vegas to attend, but I really didn't believe it
until I saw him standing in the doorway of the Research Center wearing
a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt.
Introductions were made all around, and afterwards we spent a good
fifteen to twenty minutes on the porch shooting the breeze with the
legend who had graced us with his presence. Glenn, in person, seemed
to be the polar opposite of his alter-ego, the mischievous "Psychospy."
It was hard to believe that the soft-spoken, low key man before us had
made a habit out of taunting and pestering the cammodudes, local law
enforcement, and anyone else who happened to find there way onto his
bad side. Still, in no one else had showed up that day, I think we
would have considered the event a success.
When asked if he missed poking around in the desert, Glenn responded
"No, no..." with a half smile "we had our run, now you
guys will have yours." It may have just been me, but it almost
felt at that moment, that a symbolic torch had been passed. If there
is one statement from the entire day I will not forget, that is definitely
the one.
We told Glenn about the tracks we had found by our campsite, but he
dismissed our theory that it might have been a bear, and suggested a
more fitting explanation given where we were... Bigfoot.
More people did show up, more than we had expected, that's for sure.
Dave Bethke made his way from "The fringe of Houston",
others made similar treks from around the country, but the prize went
to a Japanese couple who came all the way from Tokyo for the event. In
total there were close to forty people in attendance.
We all shared our photos and stories as we feasted, and before long
Glenn was graciously signing our copies of the "Area 51 Viewers
Guide" while Don (manager of the research center) snapped
pictures. One gentleman whom belonged to a Red Flag inspired model
club had his impressive work on display.
"No soapboxes" the invitation had read, and there were none.
Just a group of researchers and enthusiasts sitting around and having a
good time, with no agendas, hidden or otherwise.
Even for a overworked semi-recluse such as myself, it was hard not to
enjoy the afternoon. There in the middle of the desert, hundreds of
miles away from the distractions of everyday life, a group of diverse
individuals had gathered for no other reason than to share their
passion for a subject that is far removed from the concerns of the
rest of society. And before the day was over, there was already talk
about next years "Area 51 Fan Appreciation Day Barbeque."
Majestic
Does A BEAR Crap in the Woods
(Another NEW Member)
SNAFU comes to us with an eye for adventure, and a NO BS attitude.
This is his first account with GLAS, and the A51 BBQ outing.
......................
Friday(Oct 27th)
The sky was black and the rain was coming down....this is how RedDawg,
Troy (my Akita) and I (Snafu) started our journey to Rachel on a very
cold Friday afternoon. My main objective was to be at the Research
Center before the sun went down due to the prospect of turning cows
into bowling pins with my F-150. We made it just before sundown and
met C3 and Tracker for the first time, I had some correspondence with
C3 before but never have we met.
They had a hot BBQ going and RedDawg and I took advantage of it and
threw on some of our own hot dogs to make dinner. It was a very cold
night but not raining as we all gathered and talked with Don and Jack
and a few others. Majestic showed up and we left shortly after to go
make camp for the night. C3 had a place that he told us was perfect
and just outside the border of A-51. It was more than 5 miles off what
would normally be a dusty trail and really in the middle of nowhere.
We all found a spot to park off the trail and set up camp.
Since I knew C3, C2, and Tracker were going to be leaving the
following day and what a pain in the rear end it would be to set up a
tent in the drizzle and the possibility of heavy rain, I decided that
I would sleep in the supercab of my truck and Troy would bunk with
RedDawg in the shell covered bed of his Ford Ranger.
Majestic and Tracker set off that night shortly after we arrived and
went lurking around with so much electronic stuff it had looked like
Tracker had robbed a Circut City store. RedDawg, Troy (a real dog
although not red), and myself sat around a fire with C2 and C3 and
talked a bit...but it started to drizzle a little too hard and we
called it a night once the other 2 got back from checking out the
area.
The next morning (Saturday) it looked a lot better, still some grey
clouds but also a lot of blue sky. Tracker was going to go see if he
could find the famous orange posts that mark the border and I decided
to follow along with Troy in the lead (he's one of those "I have
to lead dogs"). After going off the path and getting close to the
border I realized the mistake of not taking Troy's leash with me. He
kept about 15-20 feet ahead of us and we had really no idea how far
away the border was. I had to grab his collar and walk him next to me
the entire rest of the hike.
We walked around what we thought was the border and finally around
this huge rock formation, as I was waiting for Tracker to continue, he
said something that freaked me out, "Oh S***"! I asked what
it was and he said there was a security patrol down in the valley. He
asked what I thought we should do and I responded "Let's like get
the hell out of here!" He kept looking with his binoculars and
said it looked like they were camping, "Camping??" I said.
"Yep" he responded. I asked for the binoculars and checked
it out for myself, sure enough it was a white F-150 and some other
vehicles. I know that the Cammo-Dudes are now using the F-150 and
their color of choice is white. I asked Tracker why they had a Dodge
Neon though (which I saw through the binoculars). He looked again and
then said something that I couldn't believe, "That's OUR
camp!" So much for all that Circut City stuff, 'till this day I
still don't know if we crossed into the border or not. We will also
bring a better map next time.
On the way down into the valley we were only a few feet from camp and
Troy started to pull really hard and was focused on something, I had
seen some cows around and thought nothing of it, but then Tracker
looked at the ground and identified bear tracks. I thought he was
nuts. "Bear!?" I asked and he responded he was sure about
it, he photographed the tracks and we went on.
(Now a little lesson on animal instincts...Akita's were originally
bred in Japan to hunt Yezo bear, Yezo's weigh about 800 pounds and one
of the traits an Akita has is not to bark, so as to not scare away the
bear before the humans could kill it for food).
Now thinking back the way Troy pulled and was focused on what he was
pulling towards and the fact that it had just rained not more than a
few hours earlier so the tracks were fresh, I can say Troy did see a
bear and wanted to go after him. But we did not have a hunting party
and a bunch of dog's so, even though he has the instinct, he would have
gotten himself, Tracker and I killed if he had been free to meet Mr.
bear and stopped him to say hi.
We went back to camp and Tracker took the others to show them the
tracks as C2 and C3 fed me a cinnamon roll to keep me from starving to
death. We packed up shortly after that and went to the Research Center
to meet up With Don and prepare for the afternoons festivities ahead.
People started to show and it turned into a good time with more than I
expected due to the weather. The food was great, the chef did an
excellent job, Edith Grover was selling brownies to benefit the Senior
Center, which were also very tasty. **Note: Tell Edith to raise the
price a little next time, 25 cents is way too cheap considering it's
going to help out the Center.
Anyways, my friend from Las Vegas (where I also call home) arrived and
sat down with me and RedDawg and talked for a while. I have known
RedDawg for almost 20 years now and we have both known "Sarge"
for about 15 years. We went to high school together in Redondo Beach
California and have all since migrated to Vegas.
After a while I started to get a party together to go explore a mine a
few miles away. The party consisted of RedDawg, Sarge, Tracker, Troy,
and myself. We arrived at the mine site after a drive and a 10 minute
hike and decided to go inside...it was pretty cool we found two little
rooms inside the mine that had bags of blasting powder (very unstable
I'm sure) and some other old stuff. We went in about 1/2 mile I'd say
others said it's not that long...seemed it to me at least. Troy didn't
seem to like it much, he puked once we got out, probably due to the
dust.
We went back to the Research Center just in time to get Tracker in his
ride back to Cali and bid farewell to our new friends. We camped one
more night and visited Don before we left, we made plans to do it
again and maybe schedule some other cool trips to caves and ghost
towns in good old Lincoln County.
SNAFU
(NOTE: Tracker is a member of a Federal Search and Rescue team. He
took the photo's to a Calif. Forest Ranger friend of his to confirm
the Bear tracks...and indeed, it was a bear.)
BBQ(part II) & Y2K Wrap-Up
The BBQ turn out was incredible. Don Emory and I had
no idea that 35-40 people were actually going to make it. Some nice
folk showed up, and a few legends. Glenn Campbell was on hand all day
to sign autographs of anything you lay in front of him. Dave Bethke
from "the Fringe of Houston" spent the day. And, a married
Japanese couple, came all the way from Japan. I felt pretty honored
that they would want to attend our gathering, and I felt guilty it
wasn't something more. But they didn't seem the least bit
disappointed, and they expect to come back for the next one.
We had miniature aircraft models displayed by The Red Flag Modeling
Club. The BBQ Chef stayed busy all afternoon. And I got to BS with the
best of them. We all did. Everyone exchanged information, photos and
documents. In the end we made some friends, added to the GLAS
membership and had a lot of fun. Everyone wants to do it again. (AND
SO WE SHALL)
--------------------------------
2000 wrapped up nicely for myself. In Nov., I attended an AIAA
(American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics) Dinner, to sit in on
a presentation on Black Budget aircraft programs. I was invited by
original members of The INTERCEPTORS (Hip Hip Hurrah!) By the end of
the evening, I had been accepted into their inner circle. And, I plan
on taking them up on their invitations again, to take
"personal" tours of EDWARDS AFB, at there hands.
Goals for 2001 have already been explored and discussed. GLAS Chief Council, Majestic, and I have already plotted a course ahead. We hope
it materializes. Expect two "major" GLAS entries into the
Nevada wasteland, as well as all the other trips members will take
individually.
C3 ...(Imperial Leader of THE GROOM LAKE AUDUBON SOCIETY)
