Thursday, November 6, 2003- We woke up early to overcast weather, as the weather forecast said it was supposed to rain.  But, it wasn't going to rain on our parade!  

So, after a cold breakfast of vienna sausages, tortillas and oatmeal, it was off to explore the Big Four Mine trail. before the 'wheelin' part, we decided to find a geocache that Jonathan had checked out on the internet prior to our visit.  

We crossed into Death Valley National Park and headed east on Highway 190, keeping a close eye on the GPS. At the spot where the GPS said the cache would be located, we parked the jeep, and headed in the direction that the GPS pointed us to.  After a 2-minute walk, we found it.  Eureka!  This 'cache consisted of a pile of rocks, with little else, and we deposited a fresh rock inside of it to return the favor.

After purchasing ice at Panamint Springs Resort, we headed back to camp to deposit it into the proper place for it, the ice chest. Then, it was onto Ballarat for more geocaching.  

Left:  A postcard view of Panamint Springs Resort.  Right:  Wow!  Look at the gas prices!  The gas has to be trucked in for many miles, which adds to the high cost.

The geocache that we were looking for was supposed to be easy, but after two hours wandering around in various dry washes looking for it, we called it quits.  Our GPS seemed to jump around the spectrum, possibly due to the influence of the Navy radar site only a few miles away.  As an aside, the jets from China Lake Naval Weapons Station repeatedly buzzed Panamint Valley and streaked overhead at very low altitudes; maybe 200 feet or so.  

After not finding the Ballarat geocache, it was back to camp to get ready for the next day.  We also had to do our registration duties at camp.