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Date:         Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:19:48 -0800
Reply-To:     Jeffrey Vickers <jeff@VICKERSDESIGN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeffrey Vickers <jeff@VICKERSDESIGN.COM>
Subject:      Re: How not to explore the back roads of Death Valley
In-Reply-To:  <20091212050156.B08816995D7@izzy.vickersdesign.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

I was there in Striped Butte Valley in February where that family were eventually found. I don't think they came in from the Goler Wash / Mengel Pass side though - there's no way a minivan would have made it to Striped Butte from that direction. It was rough going in a modified Syncro. I think they must have come in off the West Side road through Warm Springs and then to Striped Butte. The article that I read said that the bones were found 5 miles from the Geologist's cabin near Striped Butte - not Goler which is many miles west of there closer to Ballerat.

I'm sorry those poor kids had to suffer and die because their father had seen too many westerns on TV back in Germany and decided to cross over to Panamint Valley the "Cowboy Way". I mean, if you're starting out from Vegas you'll know how insanely hot it is out there when you step outside your motel in the morning. They may have actually made it the east side of Mengel Pass, trashed the minivan and then turned around and limped back to Striped Butte before the minivan crapped out. What I don't understand is why they didn't take shelter in one of the four cabins up there. Stella's Cabin has a spring running into it with water all year round. With water they could have lasted up to a week waiting for someone to come through from the Warm Springs direction and in the middle of summer it might have taken that long or longer for someone to be crazy enough to head that way and find them.

Maybe rental cars should come with "dirt road detectors" that shut the vehicles off after 5 miles on non-pavement. Nothing else seems to deter some knuckleheads from driving their rental cars out there. We ran across a couple in Saline Valley who were camped in middle of the road (another wise tourist choice) waiting for someone to come rescue them from LA because the guy decided to impress his girlfriend by driving over Lippencott Mine Road in their rented Lexus "crossover". He told us had gotten two miles up Lippencott and the Lexus' automatic transmission had started slipping so he turned around coasted back down. He had cooked the tranny in a rental car whose contract specifically prohibits the renter from driving off road. I can't even imagine what the bill for that transmission was going to be. I'm also guessing that the tow from there was about $1K back to Lone Pine. We shook our heads as we drove away and sure enough, about two miles up Lippencott was a puddle of tranny fluid followed by the tire tracks of a vehicle turning around followed by a trail of tranny fluid back down the mountain. Doh.

Jeff

On Dec 11, 2009, at 9:00 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> > Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:21:44 -0800 > From: Bernie <berniej@GMAIL.COM> > Subject: How not to explore the back roads of Death Valley > > In 1996 a family of four from Dresden, Germany went missing in Death > Valley. > With very little water and food in their rented Pymouth Voyager Van, > they > tried > driving down a road marked clearly as a " 4 wheel drive only" that > would > take them over the Panamints and through > Megel pass. Two children were with the couple, they were age 4 and 10. > This was in summer of 1996 with summer temperatures ranging from > 120 to 124 degress. > They were never seen again. > An extensive search coordinated by the Nevada Division of > Investigation had > turned up no hints as to the travelers' whereabouts since their car > was > found abandoned with three flat tires in a ravine off Anvil Spring > Canyon in > late October. > In November and December 2009 bones have been found in Goler Wash > which > would seem to > solve the mystery. > It doesn't take too many poor decisions in that kind of climate > before the > desert exacts > a tragic price.


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