[singpilot]

I went to a housewarming 15 years ago in Sandy Valley for a recently retired friend who bought one of those fly-in homes on a small runway.

You know, garage that faces the runway, attached to a garage that faces the street for cars.

The drive there was thru Columbia Pass, and I really liked the solitude, views and remoteness, yet still close to LAS. There was a single 'Land for Sale' sign at the top of the pass. I stopped, wrote the number, and called a couple of days later. Some poor guy had bought an entire canyon (60+ acres) at a BLM auction, and couldn't get financing. Was REALLY needing to get out of it, or he would lose his 10% down.

I paid him off and took out a signature loan just to secure the deal. Closed 10 hours before it all went poof the next day. Was like $1100 an acre. Almost sight unseen. I had flown over it going in and out of LAS, and had sorta seen it by the plot map.

Typical BLM conditions. Cannot bother the wild Mustangs or Burros. Am required to 'permanently seal' the 17 mines in my canyon. Meant dynamite them after surveying and clearing them of anything living or dead, haha. Yes, they were all spent out. Two silver mines, and the rest were copper and bauxite.

I fenced off the mouth of the canyon, and sold the bottom 6 acres to another retired friend, who built a log cabin kinda thing in the shade of the canyon wall. Elevation at the bottom of the canyon is 3200' MSL. At the top, almost 4900'. Is 15 to 25 degrees cooler than on the desert floor. I allowed a cell tower to be built at the very east edge of my ridge, looking out on I-15, and they pulled the power onto the site. They let me hook my property to their access. Water is from an artesian well at the bottom of the canyon. The quality testing came out cleaner than what comes from the tap in Los Angeles.

The ridge has a lot of ferrous metal veins running thru it, and attracts a lot of lightning strikes. Whenever it actually hits the mountain, it forms a little molten pool, ranging in size from an ounce to a quart. These harden up within an hour or so, and then fill with rain water, and eventually sprout some vegetation. Lots of cactus on the hillsides, and yucca and wildflowers in the canyon.

It is really a spectacular retreat. My only worry is that there are plans to relocate McCarran out to the present Jean airport in the future. The real estate around the LAS airport has gotten too valuable.

Those damn airplanes, just when you think you have found a nice quiet spot.