Tbh, this (or Angel Island) has always been where I imagined the Southern Reach books took place.

What just happened? Staring at their dust cloud for several minutes, my mind comes back to that fighter jet. Did they see us and think we were up to something? Did we just get visited by some military spooks in the middle of nowhere?

Yes, I think that is what happened. They thought we were spies.

They're getting into their truck to leave. (They've spent 20 min walking around a place that takes hours get to. Guess they saw what they came to see.)

"Sorry," I say, "I didn't catch where you gentlemen said you were from?"

They look at me for a long second.

"The desert."

And they drive off.

Strange. These guys come straight to the middle of nowhere, walk right up to my experiment like they own the place. Like they know we are there. They don't stop to talk until they've gone straight for the electronics. They allude to something we might have "seen." Who the hell are these guys?

I recall that a military jet came flying through the canyon the day before, presumably on a flying drill. They ask again what our operating frequency is. 50-250 MHz, I say. "Oh," they say. "So you wouldn't have seen anything."

"Was there something to see?"

"Don't worry about it."

Keep in mind, we are literally hours from anywhere, up a remote dirt road in Utah. They look over the electronics, the antenna, and ask one of my students up there some questions. Coming back, they ask me some technical questions about the radio band. "See anything strange yesterday?" they ask.

We deploy on public land, and leave the canyon pristine after we leave. Occasionally there are visitors. So, fun story, midway through a 10-day remote camping trip to set this up, a truck with government plates pulls up. Guys walk right past me and my team, walking straight up to our electronics.