Visit to Tikaboo & Rachel
From: Frank Moriarty <frankm@voicenet.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 19:22:28 -0800
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Hi Glenn:
Well, my band-mate Mitchell and I returned to the Philadelphia area last
night after [a visit to Tikaboo Peak & Rachel]. Since we
relied so heavily on your "Area 51 Viewers Guide" I hope you don't mind
a couple of comments/impressions from our visit.
We kept a close eye on the weather situation the night of Sunday 8/10 --
as I'm sure you know there was severe weather in the Las Vegas area, and
we drove through some heavy rains on the way to Alamo in our
newly-rented Isuzu Rodeo. The Alamo/Tikaboo area was dry and remained
so, fortunately -- we took your warning about rain and its effects on
the road to Tikaboo seriously.
We arrived at the Meadow Lane Motel approximately 8:30 p.m. and had a
brief conversation with the woman who checked us in. I noticed a Janet
Leigh autograph on the wall, and the woman told us that she stays at the
Meadow Lane twice a year on the way from LA to a vacation home. She said
the management of the motel never knew this until the woman herself
recognized Leigh, although Janet and her husband have been staying there
for ten years. She also said other "celebrities" stay at the Meadow
Lane, including Adam West!
She then asked us if we were "hunting," and we said we were just
sightseeing. The reply: "Maybe you're hunting UFOs?" She then directed
our attention to a small yellow piece of paper on which several tours
were offered. She told us that "an Air Force officer who works at Area
51 will take you up on Tikaboo when the saucers are flying" if we called
the number on the sheet (702-729-2529). "Tours are offered daily from
the comfort of your own vehicle" the sheet helpfully notes. The Tikaboo
tour was $99.00, and what must be a thrilling tour of the "Black Mail
Box" was $30.00.
We found our room at Meadow Lane to be very clean and very comfortable,
with new air conditioning and plenty of amenities. No complaints at all.
We went to the Highway 375 mile 32.3 parking area for some night viewing
-- cammo dudes were driving around in the valley, and there were some
distant lights flying around but nothing of note and the scanner picked
up little audio traffic. Just after we arrived I saw what looked like a
shooting star in reverse -- a quick flash from ground to air -- in the
distance, but it was to the north of 375 and nothing like that was seen
again so who knows?
But wow! The stars were gorgeous, and when the moon set over the
mountains of Groom Range even more became visible. Other than two or
three cars and one cammo dude Cherokee that passed after emerging from
Groom Lake Road, our solitude was broken only be what appeared to be two
rental cars driven into the parking area accompanied by shouts along the
lines of, "Did you see the road? Or the mailbox?" After a hurried
consultation among themsleves they tore off in a cloud of dust toward
US-93, and later shot back by toward Rachel.
The next morning we set off for Tikaboo via the South Badger Valley
Loop. At the cattle guard at .3 miles, somehow two relatively
intelligent (at least I *thought* we were) people managed to completely
not ever see the actual road going to the right and set off to the left
along a fainter road that soon began a rapid decline in passability. We
eventually made it five miles until all the tracks just disppeared after
we squeezed over/by a large rock and a small ridge. We couldn't believe
the comments in the book about cars making it on the road -- especially
the "we drove up there in a low sports car" part -- so we carefully
backed up until we could turn around and drove all the way back to the
cattle guard where the correct road now loomed before us like the Yellow
Brick Road. Duh! We went back to the highway, re-set the mile counter,
and set off on the correct path.
We had no problems on the drive up to the site -- we passed one Ford
pickup and later a 4WD under a cammo-like covering near the top. We
found the hike more challenging than we expected, especially the last
half of the first main ascent where the footing is especially
treacherous. We could see that people not properly prepared for this
venture could get in a lot of trouble on this climb. But we did find the
trail to be very well marked with the rock cairns (which we a couple of
times added to and once created one in a gap) and the occasional orange
marker making things easy to follow. Near the top we first went left to
the slightly lower peak then went on to the main summit. Yes, it was
cool to see into the base but the view of the natural splendor was what
made the hike worth it all -- just awesome. Found some relics in the
area - a melted T.Rex plastic doll, a rock stating that someone was
abducted by aliens from this spot, and another rock signed by "Kathleen"
who I suppose is the same person who had built an odd little shrine at
the Black Mail Box when I was out there in 1/96. After observing and
dining, we collected our trash and went down and out with no problems.
After eating a more substantial (and quite good!) lunch at the Mex/Amer
restaurant at the Exxon in northern Alamo, we did the Groom Lake Road
thing. The cammo dudes just sat on their little hill inside the border.
We drove back from the warning signs, drove up and around that little
cul-de-sac near mile 12 and then went on for a quick stop in Rachel. The
A51 Research Center was open with a Toyota 4WD in front (yours?) but we
needed to get back to Vegas to get the rental Rodeo home. After running
into another bad storm on 93, we didn't make it in time and got charged
for an extra day so in hindsight we should have stopped in and said
howdy.
We stayed at Vacation Village in Vegas and had a horrible time. When
reserving rooms they asked if we wanted an expensive room near the
casino or a less expensive room away from the casino. With no interest
in gambling, we took the latter and said we required a non-smoking room.
Unfortunately, *both* buildings at the rear of VV are smoking, and they
pump some kind of toxic-smelling disinfectant/deodorant through the
ventilation. When we complained we were told that, although we could
request a non-smoking room, since there were only smoking rooms all VV
would do was accept the request, not grant it since it could not be
granted. This kind of logic seemed highly appropriate in a black budget
kind of way. The room in general was in poor condition -- the TV picked
up only two channels (Discovery doing yet another Shark Week and A&E),
the air conditioning was underpowered, the lights flickered, the shower
curtain pole was wired to the wall, etc.
So all this boils down to the following should you be planning an
updated Area 51 Viewer's Guide:
* We really liked the Meadow Lane Motel, and if it's good enough for the
real Batman it's good enough for us!
* We suggest you add a "turn right at the cattle guard" instruction to
the South Badger Valley Loop directions for dimwits like us
* We suggest you provide a more graphic description of the tricky
terrain and footing that may be encountered on the climb's steepest
sections -- I know you've got a list of "you will die on this hike"
warnings but a few lines on what you'll encounter as you get killed
would be helpful!
* Finally, we don't think Vacation Village merits a mention in your fine
publication.
Thanks for wading through all this --
Frank Moriarty
--
For info on my books and articles, please visit:
http://www.voicenet.com/~portiam/frank/
You'll find things that go fast and make a lot of noise!
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I want to hear and see everything...
-- Jimi Hendrix
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Index: Area 51 Trip Reports
Created: Aug 15, 1997
