I went to the top of Tikaboo Peak on June 28 and stayed overnight. This was a solo trip.

I arrived at Badger Springs at around 3:00 PM and set off with my two packs (backpack and Canon camera pack). Within a minute of starting a 4WD truck drove alongside and the driver offered to drive me a little further up the road. That seemed like a good idea. The driver, whose name I forgot to ask, lives in Alamo and was out in the area to cut firewood and do other tasks along the road. I had earlier passed him filling one of the cattle water containers (at least I think that is what he was doing).

He dropped me off not too far from the trail. It was a hot day and I was carrying a lot of stuff. It took quite a while to reach the top and it was not easy. Just below the base of the peak I put up my tent and took a nap for a while. I then got up at around 11:00 PM to do a few hours of night photography. At 6:00 AM I got myself ready to take my Groom Lake panorama. Doing the panorama with my Mak 2000mm telescope was really nice. Unlike last year I didn't have any wind to blow the scope around while I was photographing. Once done I quickly packed everything and headed down. Interestingly, near the bottom I ran into Gary of LazyGRanch fame who was on his way up. We talked for about 5 minutes and then I headed the rest of the way to the car.

One thing I should mention is that the 2 miles of road before Badger Spring is in worse condition than it was last year. Water has damaged portions of the road and a few areas made me worry a little for my 2wd vehicle. Fortunately, no harm came and I was able to head back home (Heyburn, ID).

All of this text as well as all photographs including a new Area 51 panorama can be found on my pbase site at: http://www.pbase.com/paulw/tikaboo_peak_2008