RSSPinhole Photo: Middle Basin and Eroded Hills, Death Valley
May 4th, 2008 by laura | Filed under Laura Campbell Fine Art.Last night was a busy night at camp. Unable to sleep in the hot, dry wind at Furnace Creek, we decided to repack both vehicles by moving all of the camera, kitchen, and darkroom gear over to the Landcruiser. It’s a good thing we did because the truck is no longer with us. Early this morning as we were driving down Towne Pass in the mountains coming into Panamint Valley, I smelled burning brakes and pulled over. Upon getting out of the Toyota which I was driving, I looked over at Jim getting out of the truck but couldn’t see his face because of all the smoke that was billowing up from the truck wheel wells. The next thing that I saw was Jim throwing water from a 1 gallon container onto the wheels. The thing kept burning. I ran for the back of the truck to get the dog out to safety while Jim continued his valiant fire fighting efforts. Meanwhile, the motorcycles were zooming by craning their necks to watch the show. Bodie and I leaped down into a nearby wash so I could tie him but all I found were rocks. In a panic I yelled over to Jim to move the Landcruiser further away from the truck. He paused in his vigorous water splashing and ran in flip-flops and a straw hat down to the Toyota. Our audience continued blazing down the hill. With the fire out and no cell signal, we hopped into the Landcruiser and headed for the nearest tow yard, Miller’s, in Lone Pine. There we learned that another couple had it much worse in Panamint Valley the night before. Their vehicle got stuck in the sand out in the bush and since they had triple A, no one would tow them. So they dug themselves out. This put our plight in perspective so we gave a big smile to the tow man and presented our triple A card…
Middle Basin, Death Valley, CA. Zero45, Fuji FP100B with reducing back, and a yellow filter.
Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Death Valley, CA. Zero45, Fuji FP100B with reducing back, and a yellow filter.
