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MS>        You can't see anything and it feels like you're being
MS>sandblasted. Quite nasty, and if you're trying to go anywhere, you're
MS>going to get lost even with a compass because in the desert, there are
MS>enough magnetic anomalies that you need to sight on a terrain feature
MS>and then do a back azimuth on another in order to reestablish both true
MS>north and the line of declination until you get to the next terrain
MS>feature when you have to do it all over again.
MS>        Best advice is to sit tight where you're at until it's over and
MS>just stay warm and hydrated.
        That's what I try to do in bad weather...sit tight in a place I
        can stay hydrated, that is.  EP
MS>        I tend to carry a lot of gear and that includes extra water and
MS>something to throw over the windshields so that the sand doesn't pit
MS>them, if I'm in a place where it's prone to that. I had a friend who was
MS>caught in a storm like that in the Mojave once, and his car became
MS>undrivable because he couldn't see out of his newly frosted windows.
MS>Those plastic tarps are cheap insurance against that and they don't take
MS>up much room.
        How do you keep the tarp from blowing away, of flapping the
        paint off the vehicle? EP
MS>        Currently, I'm looking at getting one of those Russian copies of
MS>a Primus stove and throwing it in my pack. It'd be nice to get into a
MS>dead spot during one of those winds and brew some coffee. There are
MS>often some rather radical drops in ambient temperature beyond normal
MS>windchill when a wind like that comes up,.........., even in summer.
MS>___
        Let me know how the stove works. I have one of the G.I. triox
        stoves; and a small propane unit; but if it works... It wouldn't
        hurt to carry along a 20 hour candle, as well. A cover of some
        sort (even a snow cave) and a candle will keep you, if not warm,
        at least thawed. I travel "heavy" too. Ernie P.
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 X SLMR 2.1a X I was born free; I WILL die free.
--- Maximus/2 2.02
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