Has anyone hiked to the little Cessna 172 crash site near San Emigdio Mountain?
Last weekend, I needed a break from all the Waterman missing hiker searches so I went to PMC to try to reach the 2003 Cessa site. I got to about 125' above the site but still could not see it probably because the manzanita has grown to obscure it in past 20+ years.
If would probably be easy, if you drove to where I left the trail but I don't have a 4-wheel drive, high clearance vehicle. So I parked at Apache Saddle, hiked the dirt road (9N34) for about 4.7 miles (1500' gain), then left the trail making a few attempts to get down to it. I quit because it was getting loose and steep not to mention I was solo and it was sprinkling with occasional thunder. Bagged San Emigdio (7492') as well as a couple of small bumps (7092' & 7047') on my trek back.
11 miles w/ 2200' gain for a moderate day.
San Emigdio Mountain (and Cessna 172 Crash)
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RH
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Taco
- Snownado survivor
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Cool shots of the crags on Eagle Rest Peak. A shame about the poor Samsquanch getting knocked out of his post in the tree by that old flying saucer. Happens to the best of us.
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dima
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I haven't been following the small airplane crashes. Is this one special in some way? Where did you hear about it?
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Matthew
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Sasquatch is definitely in the Los padres and you definitely found its nest. These ufos are fucking with nature
stoke is high
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RH
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I've been to the crash sites on Pallett Mountain as well as the little ones on north side of Baden-Powell and in Miners Gulch. Just thought it would be cool to visit another one.dima wrote: Sun Aug 31, 2025 1:08 pm I haven't been following the small airplane crashes. Is this one special in some way? Where did you hear about it?
Nothing special about it other than wreckage is close to trail and looks worth visiting based on pics I saw from a local PMC resident from over a decade ago. I think this is it: https://planecrashmap.com/plane/ca/N7687J/
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RH
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Here's a picture of it from someone else.
Here's a picture of it from someone else.
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Matthew
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Dang that looks gnarly but a big piece of wreckage!
stoke is high
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dima
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Thanks for the link. I checked out a few of the sites that I knew about, and all the locations on that site were wildly wrong. THIS one is probably right though: you can see stuff in the aerials. Are you going to go back?
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RH
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How wrong were the other crashes? I'm sure many of the wrecks slide downhill and break apart over the years but wouldn't think they'd be off by more than a quarter mile.
Here is my off-trail portion trying to locate it. I think what I circled is the wreckage.
How wrong were the other crashes? I'm sure many of the wrecks slide downhill and break apart over the years but wouldn't think they'd be off by more than a quarter mile.
Here is my off-trail portion trying to locate it. I think what I circled is the wreckage.
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dima
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Most of the sites don't have publically-known locations, so I think they're mostly pulling from the ntsb reports, or something; those aren't anywhere close usually. This random one is over half a mile off. There are lots like this one. It says the longitude is 118.150000°W. That low precision tells me that they don't know. But some of these are right, so it's good to know about!