Work in the Eastern Mojave
September 2008
Please note that all content and imagery on this page is copyright © Paul J. Lorona, 2009, unless otherwise noted.
Permission to use must be obtained in writing prior to use.
Images not credited were taken by Paul with a Canon EOS 20D using the EF 18-55mm f2.8 zoom lens.
The background image was taken at Edom Hill, near Palm Springs, California.
Working in telecommunications is fun.
... if you're a gear-head techno-dog like me. To paraphrase something a co-worker of mine back in the Santa Fe daze once said - "Where else could I get paid to indulge myself in some of my favorite hobbies: four wheeling and two way radio?" Add a goodly amount of over-the-road time to that and it becomes quite the treat. The only way it could be better is if they allowed me to smuggle a Fox along as a stow-away. <shrugs> I guess you can't have everything.
So in early September I bid my pretty Fox a fond and temporary farewell, climbed in to my trusty if aged company-supplied steed, and formed up on my counterpart's six o'clock position for the run to the River. Four days, thirteen sites / facilities, and some of the best food I've ever had on the company dime.
It didn't take long for us to get serious ...
This is Chuckwalla. It is the highest point in a mountain group south of Interstate 10, out in the desert wastes between Indio and Blythe, California. It is a major communications hub in our network, and is accessible by a steep, narrow, dusty trail that would rapidly turn to mud in any type of precipitation. Fortunately, we didn't have any of that. It was over ninety degrees while we were there.
Resting at the top. Larry's truck is the further of the two visible, and he is working (supposedly) beyond. This view looks southwest towards the Chocolate Mountains and, beyond, the Salton Sea.
This view looks west from Chuckwalla. The Orocopia Mountains are in the middle background on the left, with the Cottonwood Mountains on the right in the distance. Between them, over the horizon, is Indio. Somewhere in the thin haze just this side of the horizon is Cactus City on Interstate 10, and even closer is Chiriaco Summit. And yes, that is Larry's truck, he is beginning his descent down the mountain.
As I said, the trail is steep and narrow. Here the yellow circle helps identify Larry's truck, a one ton GMC utility body with ladder rack. He's about halfway down to the lower gate in this view. Thankfully this is not a busy trail, there weren't many places to pull over for uphill traffic, and backing up for a pass didn't seem like a good idea. This view looks southwest, the Chocolate Mountains are in the distance.
After visiting several other sites on our way down to the River we holed up at Gene Camp, the desert headquarters of our company. Gene has it's own kitchen, which is renowned company-wide for the quality and quantity of food they put on for visiting crews. We had the dining hall practically to ourselves that evening, and ate like kings. The staff also put up bag lunches for us for the three days we would be needing them.
Gene also has the "dorms," which are more like motel rooms than dorm rooms. While the air conditioner was fussy in my room, it worked often enough to keep an old coyote cool, and I had satellite TV to stare at after I sent my e-mails and caught up with my friends on the Internet. The showers flowed a lot of hot water when I got up at 0430 and the towels smelled fresh, so I felt well taken care of.
In all we were treated like honored guests by the folks at Gene Camp. They were quite friendly, not only professionally but socially as well.
Sunrise at Gene Camp. The structure on the left supports high voltage transmission lines for our pump station.
Early morning on the Colorado River above Parker Dam. View looks a little south of east from the summit of Black Metal Mountain, we are just southwest of our intake pump plant. The city of Parker is in the middle distance. Black Metal is another major hub in our communications network.
A bit later in the morning I trained my lens northwest towards Lake Havasu, visible in the distance. Closer in, the community of Black Meadow Landing is visible. Depending on the elevation of the river at this point, Black Metal peak is about 1300 feet above the water line. The access road is visible at two levels in this image. The road to Black Metal is one of the steepest and most narrow trails I've been on in some time. The trail to Chuckwalla looked like a highway by comparison. Still, solid, reliable trucks had no trouble getting there.
Of course, the ultimate in sure-footed mountain travel requires one of these guys. If you can catch them ... <grins> These are feral burros, they inhabit the canyons around Gene Camp and our other desert facilities in the immediate area, and are quite used to being around us and our equipment. They are not tame, however, and will usually keep their distance if approached by a human. Trucks don't seem to bother them much if they approach at a casual speed, we drove right up to them while they sought the sweet grasses in the lower canyons, and they didn't seem to even notice us unless we called to them.
We had weather. Here we are at our intake pump plant looking down the Colorado River towards Parker Dam as an infant thunderstorm develops. Much later in the afternoon this storm would bring about a dramatic drop in temperature that is fairly typical of the desert. We were sitting on an east-facing veranda after dinner enjoying the ninety degree plus temperature, which wasn't uncomfortable because the humidity was quite low. Along comes this storm, the wind picks up, the rain begins to fall, and then the hail begins to come down. Within moments the air temperature dropped to the low sixties as the hail roared down. And within a quarter hour of the storm's cessation and passage the air temperature climbed back to the mid eighties, but it was now humid as Hell and quite uncomfortable.
I love cloud pictures. This is that same developing system, taken from a different vantage point on the same facility. This was the only day we would see rain.
The next day we were off to Iron Mountain and the pump plants in the desert. Here we once again proved that old adage - The Lord Forgives, Rocks Do Not. Larry's tire went flat as we climbed the last few yards to the summit, it's sidewall victim to a sharp rock. His spare was practically new, his jack well maintained, and he had sockets of the proper size to fit the lug nuts of his wheel and our impact drills. Fastest tire change I've done in the sticks ...
This view from Iron Mountain site number one looks northwest up Ward Valley with the Old Woman Mountains on the right and Danby Dry Lake at their foot. Away in the distance in the haze are the Ship Mountains, and on the other side of those is old US-66 and the mainline of the BNSF Railroad. Iron Mountain number two is on the ridge in the center of the image.
More cloud pictures, this time at the Eagle Mountain Pump Plant. This view looks east across the upper end of Chuckwalla Valley to the southern end of the Coxcomb Mountains. We are on the very northern flank of a developed thunderstorm system that chased us all the way back to the Los Angeles basin. Apparently this storm dropped several inches of rain on the desert as it moved northeast, up out of the Coachella Valley and over the Little San Bernardino and Chocolate Mountains, into the area Larry and I were leaving. We heard stories of hail from our desert peers the next day. We managed to avoid all that, but it sure looked ominous and threatening.
We evaluated quite a few sites on our trip. It was mostly a "get aquatinted with the sites" trip for me, but we did do some actual work at a couple of the facilities, so it wasn't all one big joyride.
Honest! <winks>
Thanks for riding along with me ...