Mt Harvard, Mt Yale and the search for 44-24918
Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:34 am
Last week I blatantly copied Missy, and bought "Historic Aircraft Wrecks of LA County" by G. Pat Macha. Haven't looked through the whole thing yet, but it describes a LOT of crashes. Yesterday I wanted to go do something short and sweet in the mountains. The book mentions a 1944 crash on Mt Yale. I've never been to Mt Yale before, and it's easily accessible from a drive to Mt Wilson, so I lazily got my stuff together, and started walking down the Mt Wilson Toll Road at 1PM.
The gate up Mt Harvard was open, so I just walked up the road to the towers. It's really not a very exciting peak. Past Mr Harvard is an old fire break down to the Harvard-Yale saddle and beyond. Sometime in the past there were power lines here: there are many power tower stumps and cable-less guy-wire supports. Now there are just signs to talk to the power company before digging.
I followed the ridge to Mt Yale, and found the benchmark:
(excuse the shitty photos; my camera battery was dead)
The book isn't very specific about the crash location. It's supposed to be somewhere around the 4300ft level on the West face of Mt Yale. Here:
I looked around with binoculars, but found nothing obvious. I dropped futher down on the ridge until the correct level, and cut across to traverse through the brush. This area is very brushy and very steep. I cut all the way across Mt Yale without finding anything made by humans. On the way back, I stayed lower to cover new ground. Eventually I found this odd piece of metal:
It's about 1ft across. Nearby was some sheet metal:
Not clear what either of these are, I investigated. There was nothing above. A ways below was another one of these rings, and further down, deep in brush I found a homemade sled:
It's a pair of old downhill skis (Fischer Superglass) connected together with crossbars, a towrope on the front, and a sheet of plastic covering the bottom. The plastic has long ago shattered, but the chunks were scattered throughout. This isn't my plane, and I really don't know what Doug Walsh's sled is doing on a very brushy slope that never sees any snow.
I didn't find the plane. Just did a web search, and someone who did find it says it's on Mt Harvard, not Mt Yale. So maybe I simply turned around too early. Will try again at some point.
The gate up Mt Harvard was open, so I just walked up the road to the towers. It's really not a very exciting peak. Past Mr Harvard is an old fire break down to the Harvard-Yale saddle and beyond. Sometime in the past there were power lines here: there are many power tower stumps and cable-less guy-wire supports. Now there are just signs to talk to the power company before digging.
I followed the ridge to Mt Yale, and found the benchmark:
(excuse the shitty photos; my camera battery was dead)
The book isn't very specific about the crash location. It's supposed to be somewhere around the 4300ft level on the West face of Mt Yale. Here:
I looked around with binoculars, but found nothing obvious. I dropped futher down on the ridge until the correct level, and cut across to traverse through the brush. This area is very brushy and very steep. I cut all the way across Mt Yale without finding anything made by humans. On the way back, I stayed lower to cover new ground. Eventually I found this odd piece of metal:
It's about 1ft across. Nearby was some sheet metal:
Not clear what either of these are, I investigated. There was nothing above. A ways below was another one of these rings, and further down, deep in brush I found a homemade sled:
It's a pair of old downhill skis (Fischer Superglass) connected together with crossbars, a towrope on the front, and a sheet of plastic covering the bottom. The plastic has long ago shattered, but the chunks were scattered throughout. This isn't my plane, and I really don't know what Doug Walsh's sled is doing on a very brushy slope that never sees any snow.
I didn't find the plane. Just did a web search, and someone who did find it says it's on Mt Harvard, not Mt Yale. So maybe I simply turned around too early. Will try again at some point.
.
