A trip to Tikaboo Peak on Monday 7-Apr-2003
Our previous visit was in late April 2001 and on that occasion Tikaboo Peak had some snow which made the climb a little tricky in places. On that occasion we arrived at Tikaboo base camp at around 0630 and there was some noise from what my colleague thought to be a MiG-29 overhead. The video footage on that occasion was inconclusive and by the time we reached the summit, it had landed.
This year we weren't too hopeful of seeing anything as it was earlier in April, there was a war on and we didn't leave Vegas until 0530 which meant that we could be amused/worried by Howard Stern on the radio all the way up to the turning off Highway 93. The easiest route into Tikaboo from civilisation is from a turning just to the north of the entrance to the Pahranagat Wildlife Refuge. It's a dirt track across Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land which is public land and the equivalent (I guess) of National Trust land here in the UK. A few miles in and we found this gate.
We naturally assumed that the land is still BLM and that the gate was provided to keep cattle where they are supposed to be - as grazing rights are allowed on BLM land - rather than keep mad secret plane spotters out. Note the 4WD as we have grown more sensible with age. On previous trips we've used all manner of regular Hertz rental cars and even used them via the more interesting northerly route outbound back to civilisation.
When Tikaboo came into sight we noticed some contrails in the sky which looked to us like air-air refuelling was taking place to the north of Groom Lake.
There was only a little snow and the climb was straightforward enough. Some of the rock cairns have been replaced by yellow tape since our previous visit in April 2001. The biggest factor was the cold; it was 3C (37F) at the base of the mountain. Not a problem while exerting ones self climbing the mountain but a significant concern when at the top and 7800ft AMSL.
Having reached the top, we were amazed to find the base a hive of activity (compared to previous visits anyhow) leading us to joke that perhaps they were having a Families Day as from 0845-1300 it was non-stop action, albeit at binoculars/scope-straining range much of the time.
0900 Large fighter departs to the south, stays low in the valley then pops up doing the occasional roll. I say large as it was easily visible on departure which surprised me as Janet 737s aren't exactly big at 20-odd miles range.
0910 F-16 observed flying high right overhead Tikaboo.
0915-1030 we work out that the large fighter appears to be a Su-27 type and while it performs mainly at low level in the valleys to the South of Groom Lake the F-16 stays high and more to the east. The 'Su-27' is painted in that rather fetching blue-ish colour. Su-27 lands first followed by F-16. Judging by hangar door opening and closing the Su-27 is put away in the front right of the 'Red Hat' hangars.
0915, 1010 small white a/c depart Groom to the SW
1000-1100 Blackhawk callsign Cowboy 30 with refuelling probe airborne over the base and incessant chatter leads the scanner to find it. Amused to find that a bit of scanner knob-twiddling gets transmissions in the clear - tx and rx freqs shifted slightly it seems. TWR on 371.025 and a/c on 371.100 but no channel hopping or encryption evident.
1040 small white a/c arrives
1045-1200 a MiG-29 appears in formation with a bizjet. They fly racetrack patterns at medium level. A F-16 appears briefly close to the pair then goes higher and on occasion dispenses flares when close to the pair. The F-16 operates generally to the east of Groom, largely N-S overhead Tikaboo while the pair stay west of
Tikaboo. The bizjet is a Gulfstream II and has 2? pylon things under each wing and a chin bump.
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1140 Janet 737 lands callsign Eagle 12. I read somewhere that the Janets change callsign (e.g. from Janet 281 used at Vegas) on contact with Groom but we hadn't actually heard this before due lack of traffic on previous visits.
1200 MiG-29 callsign Cowboy 18 lands first. Tower says 'nice chute'. F-16 callsign Cowboy 61 is following it in but tells the tower that (something) has hung, doesn't declare a full emergency but goes round for another 5nm straight in approach and lands safely. No obvious Red Hat hangar door opening/closing follows so one assumes the MiG is put away in a different location to the Su-27.
1210 the Gulftream II chase plane callsign Cowboy 03 lands.
1305 Janet 737 Eagle 12 (same callsign outbound as inbound) departs.
1400 another Janet departs.
Shortly afterwards we came down off the mountain.
Our previous visit was in late April 2001 and on that occasion Tikaboo Peak had some snow which made the climb a little tricky in places. On that occasion we arrived at Tikaboo base camp at around 0630 and there was some noise from what my colleague thought to be a MiG-29 overhead. The video footage on that occasion was inconclusive and by the time we reached the summit, it had landed.
This year we weren't too hopeful of seeing anything as it was earlier in April, there was a war on and we didn't leave Vegas until 0530 which meant that we could be amused/worried by Howard Stern on the radio all the way up to the turning off Highway 93. The easiest route into Tikaboo from civilisation is from a turning just to the north of the entrance to the Pahranagat Wildlife Refuge. It's a dirt track across Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land which is public land and the equivalent (I guess) of National Trust land here in the UK. A few miles in and we found this gate.
We naturally assumed that the land is still BLM and that the gate was provided to keep cattle where they are supposed to be - as grazing rights are allowed on BLM land - rather than keep mad secret plane spotters out. Note the 4WD as we have grown more sensible with age. On previous trips we've used all manner of regular Hertz rental cars and even used them via the more interesting northerly route outbound back to civilisation.
When Tikaboo came into sight we noticed some contrails in the sky which looked to us like air-air refuelling was taking place to the north of Groom Lake.
There was only a little snow and the climb was straightforward enough. Some of the rock cairns have been replaced by yellow tape since our previous visit in April 2001. The biggest factor was the cold; it was 3C (37F) at the base of the mountain. Not a problem while exerting ones self climbing the mountain but a significant concern when at the top and 7800ft AMSL.
Having reached the top, we were amazed to find the base a hive of activity (compared to previous visits anyhow) leading us to joke that perhaps they were having a Families Day as from 0845-1300 it was non-stop action, albeit at binoculars/scope-straining range much of the time.
0900 Large fighter departs to the south, stays low in the valley then pops up doing the occasional roll. I say large as it was easily visible on departure which surprised me as Janet 737s aren't exactly big at 20-odd miles range.
0910 F-16 observed flying high right overhead Tikaboo.
0915-1030 we work out that the large fighter appears to be a Su-27 type and while it performs mainly at low level in the valleys to the South of Groom Lake the F-16 stays high and more to the east. The 'Su-27' is painted in that rather fetching blue-ish colour. Su-27 lands first followed by F-16. Judging by hangar door opening and closing the Su-27 is put away in the front right of the 'Red Hat' hangars.
0915, 1010 small white a/c depart Groom to the SW
1000-1100 Blackhawk callsign Cowboy 30 with refuelling probe airborne over the base and incessant chatter leads the scanner to find it. Amused to find that a bit of scanner knob-twiddling gets transmissions in the clear - tx and rx freqs shifted slightly it seems. TWR on 371.025 and a/c on 371.100 but no channel hopping or encryption evident.
1040 small white a/c arrives
1045-1200 a MiG-29 appears in formation with a bizjet. They fly racetrack patterns at medium level. A F-16 appears briefly close to the pair then goes higher and on occasion dispenses flares when close to the pair. The F-16 operates generally to the east of Groom, largely N-S overhead Tikaboo while the pair stay west of
Tikaboo. The bizjet is a Gulfstream II and has 2? pylon things under each wing and a chin bump.
1140 Janet 737 lands callsign Eagle 12. I read somewhere that the Janets change callsign (e.g. from Janet 281 used at Vegas) on contact with Groom but we hadn't actually heard this before due lack of traffic on previous visits.
1200 MiG-29 callsign Cowboy 18 lands first. Tower says 'nice chute'. F-16 callsign Cowboy 61 is following it in but tells the tower that (something) has hung, doesn't declare a full emergency but goes round for another 5nm straight in approach and lands safely. No obvious Red Hat hangar door opening/closing follows so one assumes the MiG is put away in a different location to the Su-27.
1210 the Gulftream II chase plane callsign Cowboy 03 lands.
1305 Janet 737 Eagle 12 (same callsign outbound as inbound) departs.
1400 another Janet departs.
Shortly afterwards we came down off the mountain.
