July 30, 2019 Earth Shattering

The Liberty Gazette

July 30, 2019

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Ever camp out near a rushing river? Parts of California’s Kern River have Class VI rapids, the highest rating on the International Scale of River Difficulty. Those are death traps for rafters or swimmers, but where the water flows slower, Class I through III are easily enjoyed by the average person.

Lake Isabella

I don’t know the class of the rapids closest to the airport’s campground—maybe Class VI—but about 500 yards from our tent, it sang us to sleep. It was delightful!

Everything about coming to Kern Valley Airport was delightful. I loved the approach to the airport from the south. Just around a mountain, Lake Isabella came into view. Surrounding mountains reflected in her mirrored surface. With the lake off our right wing, we descended into the valley. On the left, and all around the runway, the mountains kept us from flying a wide pattern to land. The visual cues while descending with high terrain all around is fascinating and seems somewhat movie-like. It’s certainly 3D at its best!

We secured the Elyminator with tie-down ropes, set up camp and cooked primitive-style with the latest equipment from REI. The airport’s grassy area caters to fly-in campers in a way every non-airline airport should do. Since there are about 600 airline airports in this country, and about 17,000 non-airline airports, we need the other 16,950 airports to look to Kern Valley as an exquisite example.

Camping at Kern Valley Airport

The entrepreneurial veteran who shuttled us to town for a sunset dinner brought us back later to settle in under billions of stars. Coyotes and jack rabbits ran by in the cool evening, probably wondering who invited us.

The next morning, July 4, we began packing our gear and loading the airplane in preparation for some sight-seeing. I’ve always wanted to fly the Owens Valley, Mike has talked about it so much, as it was part of a route he used to fly regularly. As we were at the baggage compartment, Mike on his knees, stuffing the sleeping bag in, me standing next to him, handing him stuff, suddenly, I felt funny. Surely, I wasn’t getting dehydrated, was I? Maybe I was, I thought my head felt kind of funny, and I wasn’t used to the dry heat.

But no, it wasn’t that at all. A few seconds later, Mike yelled, “Earthquake!”

So, I wasn’t getting sick after all! That was my first earthquake, and now I know how disorienting they are! It wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. Not like the drama Hollywood has produced, although I’m sure they can be that devastating. One of my sisters was living near the epicenter of the Northridge quake in 1994. There were 57 fatalities reported from that one.

But we were not near any buildings, just mountains and lake. We didn’t know where the quake’s epicenter was, or the magnitude. The runway looked fine, so we took off over Lake Isabella. Come back next week and we’ll fly the Owens Valley together.

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