Rather than walking down a ridgeline from Mt Bliss, today we started a bit North of Mt Bliss. We climbed up and over the first bump at a bit above 3600ft MSL, and found S61:
The day was off to a good start. Contrary to what I suspected, this ridge was still in the 2016 Fish fire zone. I still feel like there was more brush here than in the F-4 area, a few ridges to the South. Maybe. Towards the beginning, the descent looks like this
The brush was heavy in places, but there was some sort of trail for much of the way. Towards the top this was a human route, complete with old brush cuts (firefighters?). Towards the bottom it was deer trails. In much of the area the path of least resistance was to traverse just South of the main ridgeline. Eventually we dropped down to the main channel in this area; the thinking was that this was the debris gully. Plenty of greenery down there, but it's passable-enough, and quite nice.
We found bones too recent to be from AirWest 706:
These antlers (my first matching set!!) are still attached to a skull fragment, and nearby were signs of the possible perpetrator
Today, he stayed low. As with the other channels draining into Fish Canyon from the West, this one too becomes more precipitous and waterfally as you approach Fish Canyon. Right around where the debris were supposed to be we hit a large dry-fall that required a wide and loose bypass. Below are a number of smaller waterfalls that actually contain water
It's a pretty nice area. Steep. The walls have that interesting texture you get in steep canyons sometimes:
I think flat rocks separate away from the dirt on the vertical wall, leaving flat-rock-imprinted dirt; at least that's what appears to be going on. No plane debris, however. I did find something buried in the streambed on the lower end of the gorgy area that was supposed to hold the wreck. After digging it out and cleaning out, it turned out to be some sort of oil pan from the DC9 (presumably). This thing holds 5 gallons of oil.
I walked downstream some more and checked out some adjoining slopes, but found nothing else. Meanwhile, Jeremiah was running an aerial survey of the terrain above, and was thinking that one of the side gullies looked right. I climbed up, and found a trickle of pieces that eventually turned into a massive debris field. There's STUFF here. Initial view:
This is a narrow gully, and you encounter more and more stuff as you walk up. Near the lower end is some steel cable, presumably involved in the recovery effort
As before, you can clearly see the different rust tendencies of various materials. Here's a hinge that looks shiny and new, but is held in place with rusted-out bolts
I'm thinking this is the cargo bay door, but maybe was a bit too small for that. Somebody suggested it was an engine cover that swings open for service. It looks a bit large for that, but maybe. Speaking of doors, this is definitely the latching mechanism for some sort of compartment:
The spike is spring-loaded, and the handle below turns it. So you can close the door without turning the handle, but you MUST turn the handle to open it. A pretty sweet bearing:
There're two wheels here:
No tires, but the second wheel is wrapped by many strands of metal cable. Perhaps this was reinforcing the rubber before it was (presumably) incinerated? That reminds me. Check out all this molten metal
Is this a fuel tank? Should maybe be bigger?
A number of pieces have exposed structural honeycomb
This is cowling for one of the engines:
Some doors:
Windows and a light:
We all know what this is:
This has seen better days, but it's a seat. Complete with an armrest, a recliner mechanism (I think that's what that spring is), and a seatbelt loop.
Here's some sort of tank. Looks exactly like a SCUBA tank, complete with a yoke valve.
This is also some sort of pressure tank? It's amazing! Even has a gauge. What is it?
More and more various stuff:
There's probably more stuff to find here if somebody wants to spend time digging. We felt satisfied, however, so we climbed out to beat sunset. But not before I grabbed my antler trophy.
