I was out mining aquamarine and amazonite last weekend when I got one of my annual flyovers by the US military. What was different this time is these were the big planes. Usually it's fighter jets coming out of China Lake buzzing very low over the mountain I was on. So I was surprised when I heard a different roar approaching. I fumbled out my phone as quick as I could and got the picture above. Look closely, in the center, BTW Mt. Whiney is in the background. That plane was insanely low. I honestly waited for a minute to see if I would hear an explosion.
Then I heard another roar approaching and recorded this clip.
It was pretty crazy to see these planes flying so low, in between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Inyo Mountains. There were two planes, one about 30seconds to 1 minute behind the other. Then the show was over and I went back to mining this.
I spent the night in town, then hiked up the other side of the mountain to dig a mineral called amazonite.
Then I heard the buzz overhead.
This one was a propeller plane though. I wondered what the difference was, perhaps training the pilots on both planes?
I kind of felt like a character in a movie doing something in the middle of nowhere as a massive war was about to ruin my day. Luckily it wasn't a movie and so I kept mining and had a great weekend.
Anyway, that's it. But, before we go here's another picture from about 4500' high.
Oh, and some more aquamarine.
Thanks for reading!
