BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

Pinned by a giant boulder, a hiker had two choices: panic or gut it out. He did both.

- Nick Hune-Brown

THE INYO MOUNTAINS rose dusty and jagged into a perfect blue sky as Kevin DePaolo and Josh Nelson set off across the desert range.

That corner of eastern California was DePaolo's favorite part of the country, which was saying something, because the 26-year-old had visited nearly every inch of the United States. Wiry and strong, with blond shoulder-length hair and an earnest way of speaking, the New York-born DePaolo had spent his time since college in search of adventure, impatient for life experiences. For the last few years he'd been a nomad, living out of a tricked-out van he'd christened Vanessa, while doing odd jobs and remote data analyst work from the road. He'd been up to Alaska and down to Florida, and crisscrossed the states in between. But something about that part of California, where you could find both outdoor thrills and a little solitude amid the ancient mountains, had always seemed special to him.

Part of the draw was the friends he'd made there, especially Josh Nelson. The two had met a few years earlier in a coffee shop in the town of Bishop. The men had bonded instantly. In DePaolo, Nelson saw a kindred spirit, someone who wanted "every ounce of adventure he could get." And in the 38-year-old Nelson, DePaolo found an older brother figure-someone who taught him everything from rock climbing skills to where to find deposits of crystals out in the mountains.

That morning last December, DePaolo was back in Bishop. He'd found a perfect spot to go rock-hounding-searching for crystals and minerals-and now he wanted to show Nelson his discovery.

Nelson was feeling under the weather, just getting over a cold, so DePaolo shouldered most of the load shovels, pickaxes-as they walked through sandy gullies and scrambled over boulders. After about an hour and a half, they arrived at a rocky hillside spot. It was just as DePaolo had said-a deposit of "cool rocks" buried just in front of a pair of enormous boulders.