Date Changed 10/24/2005

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This is the memo from Dave on our activities on Keene Ranch during the search efforts.

Mission Recap January 6, 2004

We didn't find Ron, but we identified areas where he "isn't" which is the other coin side of looking for someone. Here is a recap of the effort, which won't begin painting a full picture of this effort.

In mid December arranging with the owners of Keene Ranch to search their extensive property, there were over 30 people signed up for the effort. Billy Gibbons and two others split off forming the nucleus of an adventure racer volunteer team under his GOALS company adding over a dozen additional day searchers looking on the area contiguous to the Keene Ranch, about 10 square miles, where Ron launched, was last seen, and is common for local paragliders to fly. He made extensive and effective use of local well wishers supporting his ad hoc team.

The Ranger Team ended up with 11, including two support staff manning our field base, to search the 13,000 acres, 20 square miles, of the Ranch. Jeff Riley and I originally estimated we'd cover the entire highest probability areas in about 5 days. With the lower number we only accomplished about a third of that plan and none of the technical rockwork.

All the players have their own humorous travel stories getting to and from California in the midst of bad weather, increased security alerts, and the holidays. The Southern California Balloon Association (SCBA) provided the majority of ground transportation of team members to and from the airports. Jeff and DeEtte Riley, Billy, and myself arrived several days early as an advance team coordinating stuff. On Monday the 22nd, Jeffy and I met with the Kern County Sheriff's entire Department of Volunteer Services who gave us a full briefing on their original search. We went there expecting just a handshake and some track data, so their full briefing was much appreciated.

The Disaster Preparedness office at Edwards loaned us two full Temper Tents, lights, and cots coordinated by LTC Mark Stuckey, a para glider and squadron mate of Ron's at Edwards. On Tuesday December 23rd, Croker (Ralph) Jones arrived and he, Jeffy, and I learned how to put up the tents, including pre-fabbing the two ends. We decided on making one large tent out of two separate tent units and loaded it up for the trip to the base camp location. We arranged for an account at the local supermarket for our volunteers to pick up food and supplies during our stay on the mountain. That evening Jeff Smith, Ron's sister Kari, and her beau arrived.

Croker brought enough medical equipment to handle the two and a half Ranger Teams we had originally. Between all of us we had enough technical ropework gear to build the Brooklyn Bridge. Kari brought a diner's worth of cooking and support items and we emptied Fuzzy's hanger, kitchen, and garage. We established sign in\out procedures to meet the landowner's liability and accountability requirements, Smitty created the forms. We had a Class C motorhome stationed at the Ranch house parking area for hot showers, but no one took advantage of it.

On Wednesday we loaded up several vehicles and left to set up the base camp. We had cows for neighbors during the day, they split at nightfall. The base camp consisted of two porta johns, the large temper tent, and two hardshell mini campers for the ladies. We had two jet fuel powered space heaters, three generators, tables and chairs, a CAP donated large camp stove and half of Fuzzy's house up there. DeEtte and Kari spent the day both shopping for food and supplies for the base camp and preparing Christmas dinner. Though we got a late start we put the tent up in less than three hours, excellent since the instructions states it should take about three hours with trained soldiers to put up two of the tents. John and Beth Wirth arrived at Fuzzy Zeller's house while we were on the mountain.

On Christmas we went to the base camp again. On a dry day it takes about 45 minutes to get to the Ranch entrance from Fuzzy's house and the trip up to the base camp another 35 minutes. Since the roads were slick almost the entire time, the trip on the Ranch to camp was an hour each way. Jeff Riley, Beth, John and I did a mini search to a set of high interest coordinates while the others worked on the camp. Billy was basing his effort out of a hotel in the town near their search area and he brought those already in town to Fuzzy's house Christmas evening joining us for Kari's and DeEtte's excellent Christmas dinner. Proving He has a sense of humor, God hit the area with an ice and snowstorm closing the roads and trapping Billy and his team at Fuzzy's. Fuzzy and his friend Bill "Bubba" Francis found local neighbors to put everyone up.

The next day Billy and crew were further delayed leaving and linking up with their inbound volunteers, as the roads didn't open until mid-morning. The Ranger Team was also delayed departing for the field and didn't do so until about 1030. The search area had a few inches to a few feet of drifting snow and the trails to the base camp were covered. We inched our way up to the base camp without our support folks, who were even more delayed. In addition, we had a hanging legal issue to resolve delaying our search start. We finally got going mid afternoon on the 26th and searched ravines close to the base camp. The support folks, DeEtte and Kari, plus three SCBA guys arrived and began turning our mountain tent into a home away from home. Mike Shobee (Kari's beau) and Fuzzy were integrated into our team after they understood and agreed to the legal standards we had to operate under and a bit of on the job training. Both men were outstanding.

We arrived back at camp after dark, which was to be our standard for the week, and were met by what would also become a standard, a spread of munchies, beverages, and a wondrous dinner prepared by Kari and DeEtte. After dinner we had a team meeting in which each person had to come up with something positive and something that could be improved. As the week went on the team clicked so well that the meetings became almost perfunctory. We also had a movie of the night and started off with Young Frankenstein and later in the week Animal House, Dr. Strangelove, and The Nutty Professor.

The SCBA was outstanding in the volunteer support they gave us. In addition to the airport runs they also arranged for daily volunteers in Tehachapi running errands and food shopping for us. We had two rooms at the nearby Best Western to stage team members in and out of and put up the SCBA folks when necessary. On the first Friday, Gary Eaton, Bob Ulloa, and Jodie Smith came to base camp and helped set up cots. Everyone was supremely patient and rolled with the mission generated delays and changes.

The first night we were kept company by Sadie, the landowner's lab, who followed us up to the base camp and ran along with John and I that day (as we hiked in knee deep snow). At 0200 she began barking madly at what we determined to be the local big kid on the block mountain lion. Jeffy and I went out to investigate (properly prepared) and after one more growl (up on the hill) we heard nothing more from it for the rest of the trip, though we saw the paw prints everywhere we went. Then an hour later the two branches of the Keene Coyote Choir began their hour long serenade. We did see coyotes and Billy saw a bobcat during the week. Lots of prints in the snow the entire trip. That night was the coldest of the week, about 10 degrees plus wind chill, and we had decided to turn off the space heaters. That changed the rest of the time out there.

On Saturday we awoke to what became a camp standard, a huge hot breakfast prepared by Kari and DeEtte and a slew of sandwiches and stuff for our lunch. The first full day we knocked out the Keller Valley for three main reasons: it gave us a "tune up" refining search techniques in the local terrain and foliage, eliminated the area of any clues where he would have landed, and had the least amount of snow. James Kelley, late of 1303, joined us mid-day. We arrived at base camp after dark to another wondrous meal, team meeting, and a space heated tent all night. Mike commented at the end of the day how surprised he was at how well we got along with each other, did our jobs quietly and professionally, and how there was no complaining.

James and Jeffy plotted the day's search coverage and worked on the next day's plan. We covered a lot of ground for the size of our team, though I was asked to give more breaks the next day, slave driver that I was. CAWG of CAP provided us with weather briefings each evening on what to expect the next and subsequent days. Mr. Young, the property owner, visited the camp during the day talking to Kari and DeEtte, recovering Sadie. We provided the Sheriff's department with regular updates on the search effort. This was DeEtte's last day as well.

On Sunday we decided to attack the western side of Black Mountain because it had the least amount of snow and it turned out to be the most dangerous of all our days. The introduction to the steepness, footing issues, rocks, and brush was not pleasant. The west side of Black Mountain was broken up effectively into three parts. The top part was hasty searched by James and Jeffy, as had been done before by the local mountain rescue teams in July, there were multiple caves and cracks that we just didn't have the manpower to investigate. It would have required several days of dedicated technical ropework.

The middle third was full of rock faces, ledges with dense vegetation, smaller caves, and huge boulder formations, most with more than a hundred foot of nothing if you fell. Beth, John and I covered every inch of that area at times taking off our packs to fit through man sized passages, caves, and foliage going back and forth finding different ways into an area to get eyes on. Plus, we had the snow and slick footing to contend with. Search interval was minimal because of the snow cover and boulders and we had to make sure each lump between two people wasn't Ron's packed parachute. We went very slow and deliberate and used every bit of our high angle Ranger mobility training.

The bottom third was a mass of woven wooden vegetation on a very steep slope requiring a Herculean effort to plow through, done by Croker, Smitty, and Mike (affectionately nick named Griz). It was just a taste of what was to come. Smitty was the first to lose equipment on the search (except for my cell phone which was run over during our planning visit earlier in the month), his being snow pants removed during his lunch. Our search interval was still hampered by the snow, but our taking more frequent breaks and a planned lunch helped our day long search effectiveness.

We timed the exit of the area correctly as it took time to fight our way through the vegetation, negotiate the very steep hike off the mountain, and hike into camp…arriving again at dark with a Kari driven truck assist. We had two self inflicted wounds, Griz pulled a rock chunk off a granite boulder and hit himself in the head and I slammed my face into my walking stick trying to swing my water tube around. Both times Croker was on the spot telling us he felt our pain and it would leave a mark…excellent Ranger medic bedside manner. Snow packs made excellent blood sponges. The best part of the day was no one was really hurt on a search that was very, very dangerous. Deb Rosepink came up and spent the night with us, helping with dinner and breakfast the next day.

With the week clicking by, we knew we had to begin attacking the higher probability parts of the area and on Monday shifted to the north east side of the Bear Mountain ridge just above base camp. We drove to the top of the hill as far as Griz's truck could take us and stopped due to drifts. We had to hike another hour to our start point. Our plan was to search the top half of the face (really freaking steep, not vertical and not rock, very loose earth under the snow) in the morning and the lower half in the afternoon, bringing us right near to our base camp.

Naturally, it didn't work that way. The sagebrush, scrub oak, and creosote trees were woven into a wall of wood from the ground to usually about eye level. We were on our hands and knees much of the way and trying to just bush whack the rest of the way. The snow was still extensive and all three variables pulled our interval to within feet of each other. The small trees were all bent parallel to the earth's rotational plane or the hill due to annual snow levels and prevailing high winds. In other words, a mess. Regularly we'd plant a foot or leg into a "hole" of wooded branches that locked that limb completely, any fall or twist would have snapped an ankle or knee. It was only because this was a search and recovery with no reason to go fast that everyone took their time and made sure they didn't hurt themselves.

However, that didn't always work. On two of the snowfields between the thickets John and I both took one and a half gainers and slid down the slopes. Actually, just about everyone took an exciting spill at some point, mostly since once you got out of a thicket you were so relieved that you let down your guard. I only had to climb my way back up after my spill. John's was more dramatic, face first and gaining speed towards another thicket. When he managed to stop his slide everything in his pockets flew out, including his cell phone, which wasn't turned on so we couldn't call it to find it. We later saw empty ACME Company boxes so we figured the coyotes were running up his roaming charges. Griz had his pack come open and lost his lunch, hats, and other equipment…well dressed coyotes at that.

At the end of the day we'd only searched the top part of this search grid and with a minuscule interval to boot. Now we had an interesting problem. We were as far away from base camp as we would every be on a search trek, but not far as the crow flies. We were close to the housing development on the top and other side of the mountain ridge. I began coordinating for the local CAP unit to meet us with their 12 pax van to take us back to the Ranch entrance and then to shuttle everyone up to the camp. That would take a full three hours to accomplish and would require night driving on the slick mountain roads, which often had the wrong pitch away from the hill and into nothingness. My biggest fear of the entire trip was a roll over of a vehicle off one of these cliffs.

My benefit and curse was having six other Expert Rangers who all felt confident to give me advice, but not one insisting on their way. Hiking back would be tough, but we should be able to knock it out in an hour and a half, we thought. So that is the decision I made. The initial hike back was as bad as all the searching we'd done all day. There were a couple of very steep grades between us and camp and due to some pleas of no more hills I decided to try to get back via the downhill ravines to the valley jeep trail. Initially that turned out to be great as a nice trail ran through the ravines…only to collide into large scrub brush stands. Then darkness fell.

We had a keen pair of scouts in James and Beth who found game trails through the brush. We ended up taking an azimuth for the last 30 minutes, including hills, and when we arrived at camp had been hiking home for three hours. Everyone was tired, but everyone was safe and we had no vehicle accidents shuttling team members. It was dubbed the "Baatan Death March" for the rest of the trip. No movie that night as everyone was too bushed from 12 hours of hikes and searching. We ate and had a quick meeting. The team meetings had progressed to the point where there was little needing improvement and the team had jelled into an efficient unit. I did get an ear full both at the meeting and privately on the Baatan Death March, though. Beth and John had to bail to meet their travel arrangements. Since we had been pushing for four days, we were going to have some people off the mountain overnight, and it was supposed to rain hard in the morning with hypothermic mid 30s temperatures, it was designated as a sleep in day.

We decided to key on another part of the mountain with less snow and vegetation hoping the rain would melt the snow and make the area covered more extensive. Kern County Sheriff Commander Rocky Lacertoso visited the base camp during the day and talked to Kari and Deb Rosepink. Mr. App, the rancher, and Kari encountered each other down at Mr. Young's house.

The joke that man making plans makes God laugh applied here. It was very windy overnight and the apex vents were open all night, sucking the warm air right out of the tent. We didn't notice that until first light. Also we hadn't staked down the ends of the tent and the difference in pressure pulled the uphill bottom open. We fixed both those items and heat was restored to the tent. So sleeping in didn't really happen. Other than that, no rain, no snow, clear skies. Normal get up was 0600 and by 0715 everyone was up and in good spirits. Smitty left to meet his travel itinerary. Kari got breakfast going and we got started around 1000 that day, covering a fair amount of territory by dark.

Something that complicated our search was the application of contour searching in an area not symmetrically contoured. It caused a bit of confusion in subsequent sweeps that day and the next days. The snow had melted some and the vegetation was (mostly) more open allowing for some increased intervals, except the billy goat steepness of the hills was incredible. The sodden earth gave way with each step and you took several steps to get one full stride completed. We also learned no matter how open the area was in front you at the moment, you just had to wait for the guys tangled in the thickets. Your own opportunity to battle sagebrush would come shortly. Jeff and I had planned on having small strike teams do the thickets while the rest of the team continued, but we didn't have the manpower.

The next day, Wednesday, we hit the area uphill from the previous day's search. It was more of the same with a repeat of the gnarly brush to fight through. Late afternoon James had to bug out to meet his travel connections. Billy was nice enough to call us on Croker's cell phone to wish us a Happy New Year, and that was the last time Croker ever saw his phone. The brush opened up his zipped leg pocket and the coyotes now had two phones to coordinate their lives. He went through the effort to get the phone company to give us a triangulation on the phone signal, and they declined. We called our contact at the Kern County Sheriff's department and asked him about that option as an investigative tool and Sgt. Kirkland told me the phone company requires a court order even if they have a lost hiker with a cell phone and that to only about 100 yards. Guess the phone companies are more interested in selling you a new phone than wasting the effort to find lost phones, can you imagine the manpower to find every lost or misplaced cell phone in America? Croker told the phone company not to turn off his phone so we could try calling it the next day. Yup, they ignored him and shut it off.

The next day, Thursday, was our last search day and we decided to try knocking out some gaps in the earlier search grids caused by the irregular contour searching. There was a perfect triangle at the top of the ridge between the beginning of the ridge search on Monday and the slope\contour searchs the next two days. We drove to the top of the ridge as far as the drifts allowed and then had to hike about 35 minutes to the start point. We were back to hands and knees again but finished that area at the same time Jeffy had to leave to meet his connections. After a half hour hike back to the car, we drove down to link him with Kari and Griz, who spent the day packing up camp. During the day Mr. Young and his wife Betty visited the base camp. The three of us left went out until dark searching another sliver on the southern most side of our completed grids. No movie that night as we spent the night packing. Rain was forecast for the next day and we decided to take the two hard shell campers down in the evening to avoid the slick roads the next day. That was an incredibly smart decision. That evening it didn't rain as forecast, only some snow flakes and a few sprinkles.

On Friday, the local Tehachapi CAP Squadron supplied two folks, Kevin and Tim, to help us take down the temper tent. Griz brought them up by 0800 and with them began the foggy air turned into serious rain. As planned, we were done and pulling out of the camp location by 1000, everything packed into three vehicles. The pooper trailer was attached to the stake truck which was loaded to the gills, with the poopers holding Jeffy's stuff and Fuzzy's TV. We had seats open for five folks, but we had six, so I rode down on the stake truck's running board. I'll bet Griz gave the two CAP guys the ride of their lives down the mountain, his huge truck did some slipping and sliding down the hill. Croker in the 4 Runner told me he hadn't prayed that hard in quite a while, moving at just a half mile an hour sliding most of the way with no way to stop. The choice was a Hobson one, go faster to stop sliding and then have to try to slide to a stop or slow down or just slide and take what it gave you.

Fuzzy and I didn't have that option. We had so much potential energy going down the hill that after just a few hundred yards we slid sideways into a ditch and sunk the rear right tire up to the axle in mud. Photos will be on the website. We were fortunate that at this point it was a cut between two rises and not a slide into oblivion. Had we continued we would either be dead men or had watched the whole train go tumbling 1200 feet down the side. So call it dumb luck, fate, Ron's input, or God's hand we ended up walking down the hill to be picked up near the bottom by the Ranch owner, Mr. Young.

Croker's planned hour jaunt to Edwards AFB dropping off his borrowed medical equipment turned into an hour and 45 minutes and Fuzzy's planned 25 minute flight getting Croker to his rental car in Ontario turned into an hour and a half due to instrument weather minimums at the airport. Did mess up Croker's travel plans. I was the last one out on Saturday and had no problems.

The roads up to the base camp area aren't bad when dry, in fact they get quite hard, and it drains very fast. Fuzzy went up on Sunday and got the truck off the mountain, the poopers he retrieved on Monday.

James Kelly has photos posted on his website, http://www.mrkelly.com/gallery/CA/index.htm and Smitty will post photos on the www.expertranger.com website as they come in.

So what now? Putting another one of these expeditions together to search the remaining parts of the mountain with less than two dozen folks isn't a player and finding a period of time like the Christmas-New Year's break for people isn't realistic. We have a great relationship with the landowners and rancher and they have agreed to allow us to continue searching provided their basic legal requirements and rules are met. Winter is setting in and the ability to search safely is waning. Fuzzy is responsible for coordinating searches by small groups in the remaining areas, focusing on the ravines on the south side of the Bear Mountain ridge. The need to accomplish this in the late winter and early spring before the poisonous critters are active, vegetation blossoms, and the heat returns is imperative. If you find yourself out there in late March to April, let him know. I wouldn't tackle the extensive Black Mountain area without a full 12 man team of Expert Rangers, full high angle technical rescue equipment, and the Kern County Fire Department hoist helo on standby. It is just plumb dangerous up there otherwise.

Words fail me on how proud I am of the Ranger Team and support folks out there. Every push up, pile of crap we slogged through, cuts, scratches, broken bones endured, skill learned and tested on, training weekends, summer and winter schools, SARCAPs and REDCAPs we were ever part of in Civil Air Patrol came together for this extensive effort. The folks who insisted on removing the barbed wire from the OC to be replaced by troop friendly sewer pipes were proven way wrong…we negotiated barbed wire all over and didn't find one sewer pipe to go through. It was winter school of every type ever held, cold, snow, wind, and rain in extremely dangerous and impassable terrain. We never stopped even when our legs, tendons, ligaments, and arms screamed in pain from an incalculable number of equivalent stairs we climbed non stop for 11 hours a day. The wall of vegetative woven wood didn't stop us. The hills didn't stop us. The weather was inconsequential to getting out and searching. The never quit Ranger culture was unspoken and in full play as a synergy that impressed our non-Ranger colleagues to the point they had to comment in amazement. As a famous Navy SEAL once commented, "You don't have to like it, you just have to do it." Pennsylvania Wing Rangers as a 50 year ongoing force in the universe shone as a brilliant light in the effort to recover a fallen Ranger and friend.

Ron will eventually show up - thanks in no small part to the effort of CAP Rangers, CAWG CAP, the July GSAR volunteers, Billy's GOALS volunteers, the Kern County Sheriff's Department, Kern County Fire Department, land owners, ranchers, friends, co-workers, all the support folks and well wishing community contributors.

Davey/93

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