Hike To Stubbe Springs

March 14, 2013

About two years ago I conned Tom Mahood into hiking to the Captain Jinks Mine in the Hexie Mountains at the eastern end of Joshua Tree National Park.  As part of the research for that hike, we identified two other remote mines in that area, the Ruby Lee Mine and the Combination Mine.  We had been planning a stupidly long hike to see these mines, requiring a car shuttle, but the weather has warmed up a lot lately and this one might have to wait until fall.  Still, we had set a day for the hike, so what else to do?

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Cary’s Castle

February 5, 2013

Tom Mahood spent nearly all of last year in New Mexico, so I had a slight respite from joining him on his crazed hikes searching for Bill Ewasko (see posts elsewhere on this blog), but as his time there was waning in late summer, I started getting “I have ideas” emails and he started refering to the coming cooler months as “Ewasko Season.”  Desperate to distract him, I came up with the idea of searching for some of the odder things associated with Cary’s Castle.  He bit, but merely added it to the hiking agenda.  Instead of replacing Ewasko hikes, this was to be in addition to.

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Rescue Near Horsethief Creek

January 1, 2013

RMRU write-up of rescue is here.

On New Year’s eve RMRU was called out to search for a hiker missing overnight in rain and snow storm east of Toro Peak in the area of Horsethief Creek.  Two field teams (Les Walker, Ralph Hoetger, Lee Arnson, and Helene Lohr) spent most the night out in difficult conditions searching for the lost man.  About 10 p.m. a CHP helicopter spotted the hiker, but could not effect a rescue.

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Mud Caves Search

April 11-12, 2012

RMRU got a call from Riverside Sheriff’s Office requesting our assistance with a search in San Diego County.  A young man, Guillermo Pino, had gone missing while camping with friends in the Mud Caves area in Arroyo Tapiado, part of Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  Glenn Henderson and I were the only RMRU personnel available for this mid-week search.  RMRU had brought in Fernando Moreira, a professional tracking instructor, to teach a class the following weekend, so Fernando cam along with us.

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Medics Behaving Badly: Fun With the Mouseketeers

March 22, 2012

I work at a small leased double-wide in an unpaved area of the “Dust Bowl” at Fort Irwin.  Technically, this is called the Rotational Unit Bivouac Area (RUBA) or Logistical Support Area (LSA) Warrior.  There is a different set of medics here each month supporting whatever Brigade Combat Team (BCT) is rotating through Fort Irwin for training.  The BCT is here for about a month, but I am only here fourteen days each month, when the BCT goes into the field, aka “The Box.”

Last night was entertaining.  It is late in the rotation, we have all been working two weeks straight (the medics a week before I got here), and, after sick call was over, it was slow.  Junior enlisted get more goofy than normal when bored, so…

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My Clinic In The Mojave

2 February, 2012

I’m working a kind of odd job doing two-week stints once a month as a contract civilian PA at Fort Irwin supporting Brigade Combat Teams that rotate through there for pre-deployment training.  Not your typical PA job, but the best hourly rate I’ve made since I worked in IT.

I have to admit that it seems a little odd to (knowingly) treat patients carrying automatic weapons.

Aid Station at the Rotational Unit Bivouac Area

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