Have an adventure on me.

The Sunrunner Magazine is your access guide to the desert for which I write a column on everything from places to visit to surviving those places when Mother (Nature) goes "Tag! You're it". The article in the next issue deals with visiting the desert and shall hopefully lead you to try one of several adventures I shall post about both here and at DesertBandanna.com Two adventures are planned with the first being worked on. Starting here in the virtual world it shall hopefully lead you into the desert to put your feet on the ground.

The Sunrunner Magazine shall be available at the
Los Angeles Times Travel and Adventure Show
February 14 - 15, 2009
Los Angeles Convention Center
Travel Trade: Saturday 8 – 10 am
Public: Saturday & Sunday 10 am – 5 pm

and online at TheSunrunner.com

A change of name.

As you can see we have a new name, The O'blogitory so called because because my friends and associates seem the think that blogs are obligatory these days. Hence the name The O'blogitory. That is also the reason I do not write in it often. Yet in light of recent emails (a half a dozen or so) I shall endeavor to update it more often seeing that people now think an virtual presence on the Internet is more important than a physical presence in real life.

On with the show

On the calendar: Sunday March 1st 2009 is the 10th (I believe) annual Hike for Hope Breast Cancer Research Charity hike at Indian Canyons in Palm Springs, Ca. My wife and I have been a part of this for many years and urge you all to attend for a day of hiking in one of the deserts most beautiful settings. Hikes range from easy to strenous.

The Great Calif Shake Out Pt III

It's over. All that's left now is to tot up the statistics. For my part after this mornings post, written in simulated panic, I was able to contact my wife and affirm she was safe at her place of employment. She stays there until I am ready for her to come home or go to a shelter. Since the house is uninhabitable shelters can be created from several sheets of 9x12ft 2mil plastic painters tarps I have since I'm painting the house. Parking the cars back to back with the tailgates open provides a basis for a 3-4 person shelter. City water works so toilets are in use however I am sticking to the 20+ liters of water that were in the cars for drinking. The dinner fixings I bought this morning before the quake were cooked on a propane BBQ, I think most of us have one and at least we eat well tonight. Tomorrow, we'll see about salvaging the kitchen and the food there. There is still no power. Entertainment is whatever I can play on my laptop or listen to in the car. I also have a couple of books in the car, Rock Climbs of Joshua Tree, a couple of light novels and of course several Desert Bandannas. Light is provided by a Coleman lantern, light sticks, and other battery operated lights. There are extra batteries in the car. Not necessarily for emergencies but because my GPS and handheld radios eat them. Bedding was salvaged from the bedroom, however there are emergency blankets in each car. Using my HAM, FRS/GMRS radios, Radio Shack scannerand listening to broadcast radio I was was able to stay in touch with what was going on around me. I would imagine that if shelter and evac point instructions had been issued I could have availed myself of them. Yet considering the panic at an evac point it's probably better to stay where I am for the moment.

After I saw to my own self and made sure the neighbors were OK I was able to take the time to enter the garage back door and was able to grab out tools, rock climbing gear including several hundred feet of rope and anchors and checked in again with the EOC making myself available for ant Search and Rescue work involving climbing and rigging. There aren't going to be enough of those kinds of people around.

Initial panic is going to be the first problem to deal with this you need to be proactive until your settled in for forst few days. That's the goal. The second problem is dealing with the boredom while waiting for emergency services to wind up to full capacity and for relief to come. That could be anywhere from 2 days to a week or more. That makes the immediate priority food and water. Water is not a problem since I can treat it from my survival gear or with some bleach or chlorine from the pool. Food is another problem, there is only a limited amount. A few days salvaged from the kitchen and maybe 3-5 days worth of whatever in the packs. On the other hand *evil grin* I do have a .22 rifle and could walk over to the wash to hunt small game. Maybe find one of Sarah Palin's moose ;) Just kidding. I borrowed a neighbors chainsaw (mine's electric) and with that an the axe form the jeep tomorrow I'll try to cut into the kitchen to see if I can rescue the food from the 'ol Frigidair. If successful I'll cook what I have smoking some of it to make it last longer. Any ice or cold packs left shall be transfered to a cooler along with everything I can put in there. Need to find more ice.

Does all this seem far fetched? Fiction? Man vs Wild or Survivorman? Beyond the abilities of most people? Not at all. I've had a charcoal smoker and a propane BBQ for years so cooking is not a problem. My existing household kit includes a basic cooking set kept in it's own pack. I am ready for disaster to strike, not prepared, but ready since no one can ever be prepared. As far as I know everything including communications at a basic level this is doable by everyone. Unless your severely injured or dead and as long as there are others nearby it shall work itself out. All you have to do is have a survival kit of some sort and take an active part in your survival. I figure we (three of us) are good to go until relief arrives.

The Great California Shakeout Pt II

The great California Shakeout on 13 Nov 08 10:00 am is a simulated 7.2 magnitude earthquake that shall strike the Palm Springs area near the Salton Sea about 50 miles from where I live. I let my wife, a writer for the Desert Sun Newspaper, tell me how much destruction there was to the house which includes the media and dining rooms as well as the kitchen. The Bedrooms, bath and garage are accessible although going into the house is risky. That leaves me with what is in the car and whatever I can salvage from the garage, the washing machine? Ready, set, go!

10:00AM the quake struck just as I was returning from morning errands. My shopping included the fixings for tonights dinner. Shock report: SHOCK!!... Make up your own feelings on the very bad scale. I sat in the car for 10 minutes and waited for aftershocks and until I stopped shaking from the adrenalin rush and thought it was safe to get out. There is no house, or kitchen but I do have dinner. Cell phones are down, no electricity, no nothing.

Always step one is to ensure the safety of those immediately around you even if it's a neighbor you don't like. Family at home? OK! Pets? Dogs are scared but the cats don't seem to care at all. Turn off the gas, circuit breakers and water. I have easy access to the the hot water tank so it is drained into as many buckets as I have. That's 50 gals of water right there in addition to the 10 liters in my car. Next is to assess what your going to have to do. For me it's getting into the garage. After inspection from the outside the garage is safe, with no signs of giving way. The problem is it's locked behind a steel roll-up door. Parked out front is my Jeep with it's off-road gear including 2 shovels, an axe, a bill hook, crow bar, jacks, rope etc. Getting into the garage presents no problem and if I don't knock it down getting in I should be safe once inside...

only the jeep keys are in the locked garage. No problem just break into the jeep to get the tools.

I'm not giving thought to food or water since I have both in my car along with my standard day pack. That's enough to keep me in the desert for a week and it's early in the day so I think signals first. I want to find out about She Who is My Wife. There are no cell phones or landlines. So I try her FRS/GMRS radio, the one she has in her car. No luck; it's probably in the car and she'll retrieve it eventually. Next dig out my amateur (HAM) radios. The antennas on the roof have all been knocked down and the radios are covered with years of dust from being in storage. An old antenna called a J-pole is in the pile of junk by the side of the house. Setting it up takes about 20 minutes. Getting the radios online takes the same with a battery from my sons motorcycle for power, plug everything in and dial in the repeater frequencies. Now check in with the Ham radio emergency teams located in various Emergency Operating Centers in the area. Once checked in I can now monitor the radios and find out what's going an. A lot of destruction and damage as I feared. More dead than was thought of. I the mean time the FM radio in my MP3 player had been providing me with news, music and Nathan Baca a local TV journalist. It is now 12:30, there have been hundreds of after shocks. I have comms so now it's time to sit, eat, take medications and contemplate the next step. I have to find out about Judi, my wife, and think about tonight. The radio reports lots of roads damaged between here and her office by the airport and despite the rule of Stay Put!On the other hand I have to find out. It's not really a problem and while my SUV will get me there over the damaged and cliogged roads a better choice is my Jeep, the wall climbing "Dirt Dog", now I can drive over debris, sand damaged roads, even cars if need be to get to Judi's office.

So time to get everything setup. Back in a few hours.

The Great Calif Shakeout Pt 1

Tomorrow, Thurs Nov 13 is the great Calif Shakeout. Purported to be the largest disaster simulation ever run. Locally here in Palm Springs, CA the local TV station KESQ.com has a reporter, Nathan Baca, going through a 3 day simuation living through the aftermath of 7.2 quake. At first I thought about doing nothing then decided to take part in my own way. At the time of the simulated earthquake tomorrow morning wherever I am I shall react andl take the steps I think I would have to in order to ensure the survival and safety of my family. I shall document this effort and blog it here so you can see what I am doing throughout the day.

"Wait!" you scream, how can you do that if you don't have power for electricity and the internet is down. I am an amateur radio operator and have a laptop computer, all kinds of radios most currently packed away in boxes and simulat access to SatPhone for the duration of the simulation. After all if they can simulate an all comms out disaster I can sim Sat Phones since my radio gear will do actually that. So I'll simulate comms using my laptop and Internet connection for that purpose only.

I'm curious as to what I'll do since like a real disaster I don't know what's coming and I don't know how I'll respond when I try to apply a sense of panic to the situation. I suppose that will depend on what I hear as disaster reports when I tune in to what ever's happening on the radio, broadcast or otherwise.

Hiker Hell.

Ever wonder what can happen to the average hiker? Wander over to Hiker Hell a blog given to the mistakes and mis-adventures of hikers around the world. See what can happen when Mother Nature does walk up and go "Tag, you're it!" Some are tragic in their ending others border on the comic like two hikers who had to buy cell phone minutes to finish their rescue call.

Closer to home I do find an outrageous number of people doing the foolish. June 1986: Temperatures are normally between 106F and 111F. One Saturday 3 (one in the car) people drove five miles down an more or less improved dirt road through the Wind Electric Generating facility where I was Director of Operations and out into the desert to be found by Security Chief Robert (white shirt) where they were wandering around half naked, drinking beer and buried in the sand. We assumed they were looking for the settling ponds belonging to the local water agency and drove in the wrong way, a common mistake. The ponds were a popular place to swim, windsurf, sail and play and as a result a lot of other rescues took place in the same general area due to people trying to get to the ponds through various wrong way entrances. Per SOP Robert called me on the radio interrupting my Saturday and I responded with a pick-up truck suitable for the task of yanking them out. During the rescue operation an unusually contrite group of people quietly stood by while the Porsche was pulled free and set back on the road. It was at that point Robert walked up gave me three business cards. These people were the CEO, VP and GM of the wind park, my employers. They had never been out to visit their investment and had decided on a whim to drive out from Thousand Oaks, CA (150+ miles) for a visit unannounced. The moral to this story? Even smart people do stupid things.

Somethng Stupid

Found New Years Eve 2005 with a broken front end.

I do things even I say don't do, like going into the desert alone. Last week it was a drive out to the Eagle Mining district to look for a few geocaches. My side trip was at the last second, in fact I didn't even know I was going until I turned off the main road onto a dirt track. Out of two-way radio and cell phone range and about 6 miles out into the basin to play. Click for map then zoom in to explore.

I drove as far as a wash I couldn't cross and sat there thinking. What if something went wrong and my car broke down or dug in. Nobody knew where I was and that meant walking out in 104F temps. Doing a six mile easy to moderate hike in the day (the road back) is not too bad, if you are accustomed to it. I've done much harder hikes in higher temps as a both a guide and a tribal ranger. Properly dressed with a couple of liters of water the smooth track to the main road would have taken about a 2 hours to walk. However when you consider the time of day better to wait until 5pm or so to avoid the heat of the day and direct exposure to the sun.

The question is how prepared was I? Despite the fact I had 6 liters of water, a fully equipped 5-day pack along with a jacket and hat, not well enough. Driving into the basin I was wearing a T-shirt, sandals and shorts. A walk out would call for protection, changing into long pants, heavy safari shirt and hiking boots. At least I had the boots. Fortunately Lexus makes a reliable little SUV even if it is 10 years old and the trip was made in air conditioned comfort. [He lies, the windows were open] :)

Yet I did something stupid. Why? I don't know it was just a whim and even though nothing went wrong it could have. The Lexus RX300 isn't my Jeep. It doesn't have any self rescue tools, no shovels, ropes or hi-lift jacks. It is an All-Wheel Drive street SUV with no lo-range gears. So driving into trouble doesn't necessarily mean you can drive out like the Jeep can with it's monstrous power and wall climbing drive train. Proper equipment also means a proper vehicle.

My point is we all tend to do dumb things. You just have to realize you are doing them and hope that you are prepared for them when things really do go wrong and even more that you are prepared for the consequences.

In the above photo this touron was found deep in a canyon 50 miles from rescue with a broken front end. We already had a Ford Bronco in tow and informed him we would call the park rangers when we could. That call was made 3 hours later. I eventually found out his rescue took another 6 hours after that call. Note that your rental car insurance does not cover this kind of tomfoolery. Off road tow charges in Calif are $125.00 per hour plus a drop fee.