Necrophoamin the Narrowest (Part 3)

Part Three.
April 1974.

To Go Where Florists Had Gone Before,
or
“Better Luck Than Sense”.

I usually do these things alone, but I had a volunteer on this one. Deb was a high school friend who kinda kept tabs on me because now and then, I “Did interesting things” and she wanted in. My stupidity wasn't an issue for Deb – she had tagged along on other adventures. (hopping freights and the like)
My plan was reckless simplicity: Go up Highway 127 and, once in Death Valley, turn left.
“Oh, SR, You're so clever!”
“Thanks Deb. Your judgment calls are right up there too!”
And with that, we set off across open desert reveling in our shared naiveté. (French for clueless) The topo showed a sort of “jeep trail,” but I doubt anyone at the USGS would actually look you in the eye on that one. There was no trail. I guess it was just as well – we didn't have a Jeep. We got up into the Windgate Wash, found a spot out of the wind, and called it a day.
In the morning, we fired up the VW and set out. We had about 40-odd mile round trip ahead. I navigated using a compass and triangulating off mountain peaks. My Dad had a plane, and he usually left the navigation to me. Out here, I didn't have FAA signals to work off of, but I understood the basic geometry involved. About mid-morning, we arrived at the edge of the China Lake Naval Reservation.
Oh yeah. Did I mention the Naval Ordnance Test Reservation? The Epsom Salts Monorail is entirely inside the reservation. We were kinda at the back door. We only needed to step about 2 miles inside the perimeter, and seeing as the Navy had 19,600 square miles to play with, they probably bombed stuff more towards the middle. Right?
Oh pshaw! We'd be fine!
No, I was never it the military- why?
After a few hours of negotiating our way across open country we came to the top of an embankment. We were at the top end of a wide desert wash that ran east-west toward the Panamint Valley. The Epsom Salts “mine” would be off to the left, about a mile. By my calculations we should be looking down on the monorail, it should be right in front of us. But there was nothing. Just sage and what there was of a dirt road that only led to trouble: down into the Navy's Bombing Range. Sigh. Well, we could at least go look for the Epsom Salts Works “Mine”. I found a place to get the VW off the wash embankment, and headed left toward the Works. But I was so sure we were in the right spot – where was the monorail?! I stopped, climbed out, and wondered into the sage where the track should be.
Holy Moly – There It Was! The beam that carried the rail was gone – but the supports were all there! Without the riding beam, they'd all simply fallen over. They were almost invisible from the side, but Thwhen you got lined up with them, they formed a dark line to the west and to infinity!
Or at least to Trona anyway.
SR

Our “camp” at first light.


My chosen course was actually the historic route of the 20 Mule Team Borax Wagons. (insert sophomoric ass joke here) I'd figured surely I could get through if they had!


Success! It doesn't look like much – but this sun baked trail of lumber is something special.


They didn't move much earth in building the monorail – this would qualify as a “cut”


Looking southeast toward the Epsom Salts Works, about a mile or so away. It the background is the embankment we came to that gave us the first overview of the RR (But couldn't see).





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2018 12:53PM by Dutch Flat.