Saturday, April 07, 2007
Western North Carolina Search & Rescue Exercise
I really need to spend some time updating this thing. Last week I went to the Western North Carolina Search & Rescue Exercise at Steele Creek just west of Morganton, NC. I went on three night time search missions and was the team navigator on each. The first night it was drizzle and a little cool. We got back at about 2:30 a.m. We did a hasty search along a trail down to Steele Creek. We proved where the subjects "ain't". The second night, We bushwacked across a ridge through thick brush. The dumb lucky team that was a mile or so north of us spotted a campfire from the road
and went up and woke up our sleeping "lost subjects". They sat by the campfire and watched us going across the ridge. We flushed a flock of turkeys off of their roost at about 2:00 a.m. We did find a trail to follow down the ridge a ways and had steep going downhill to Steele Creek. We hiked about a mile and a half downstream along the creek to our pick up point which was on the other side of the creek, of course. There ain't any bridges out there either. The third night, we followed the "Mountains-to-Sea Trail" and checked the perimiter of one mountain top along the way. The weather was clear and the full moon was out. It was beautiful! We got picked up at the same location as the night before but not until we descended a 40 degree slope down for a mile or more. Rubber legs! We forded the same stream as the night before to get our ride.
and went up and woke up our sleeping "lost subjects". They sat by the campfire and watched us going across the ridge. We flushed a flock of turkeys off of their roost at about 2:00 a.m. We did find a trail to follow down the ridge a ways and had steep going downhill to Steele Creek. We hiked about a mile and a half downstream along the creek to our pick up point which was on the other side of the creek, of course. There ain't any bridges out there either. The third night, we followed the "Mountains-to-Sea Trail" and checked the perimiter of one mountain top along the way. The weather was clear and the full moon was out. It was beautiful! We got picked up at the same location as the night before but not until we descended a 40 degree slope down for a mile or more. Rubber legs! We forded the same stream as the night before to get our ride.
The food was good and I slept well in 3-4 hr periods during the day (Couldn't miss the meals)# posted by Bob @ 4/07/2007 03:55:00 PM 
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