EISPIRATEN

Today I went back to look for the P-38 that went down in 1944 below Mt Yale and Mt Harvard (Mt Wilson area). This was my 5th trip to find this thing, which is a bit ridiculous. The first 3 times I went to look for this thing were back in 2016. I only found a few parts, and some evidence of a salvage operation. So I assumed that the site was picked clean, and moved on with my life. Recently I stumbled on somebody else's photos that showed a more extensive crash site, so clearly there was much more to find. The 4th trip was a few weeks ago. It was a day where nothing went right, and the trip was cut short, and ended at the hospital. I kinda liked the search plan, though, so today I came back to check out the area I planned to search the last time.

I drove to Mt Wilson, biked down the toll road, and stashed the bike near the switchback SW of Mt Yale. Then I traversed N on foot. The idea was to stay at the 4200ft contour (as mentioned in one of Pat Macha's books). Previously I was above that level. The whole thing is a steep slope with lots of brush. Initially it's open enough such that you can make progress reasonably quickly, even though there's lots of poison oak. Then you hit a big gully (Harvard branch of Eaton Canyon), and past that the brush is much thicker. It was really slow going, and kinda unpleasant. Eventually I decided that I was far enough, and that it wasn't supposed to be this much of a pain in the ass. I took a break at my turnaround point



Yeah. Time for a plan B. I did find a few scattered things in 2016, and even though I looked around the area back then (3 different times!) it still made the most sense that the crash site would be close to where I found the parts. So I turned around, and headed back at a higher elevation. And when approaching the previously-found parts, I found the full crash site immediately; no searching required. What's the opposite of beginner's luck?

There's a LOT of stuff here. Full set of photos is on my server. There's lots of honeycomb-like material:



Each tube here is pretty long, so this maybe isn't structural? Some sort of cooling thing, maybe? Lots more brake disks:



This one is noteworthy because the tree at the bottom-right of the photo is growing through it. This was here for a while. Lots of stuff:



There're lots of various body parts, with some looking beefier than others:



Some of this was armored? Stuff, some with part numbers:

















More "cooling" stuff?





Getting close to the engine?



Ah yes. Crankshaft:



The other one is off to the side



Landing gear:



There was a very beat-up antler sitting among the parts, so I was able to bring home SOME souvenir:



Rather than fight the brush, I climbed a rocky gully just S of the crash site all the way to the ridge. This still had some brush, and was somewhat technical, and involved extra gain, but it still saved lots of time. Eventually I was on the ridge:



As I was climbing up, a bird was repeatedly dive-bombing into the canyon next to me. It was impressively loud. Here he is, looking for dinner:



He never crashed, so I didn't have to go find him too.

These are the best pics I've seen of the site. I briefly looked (unsuccessfully) back in '08 when the place was covered in snow.

Looking up ridge towards Yale...Harvard in background on left...

Hospital?

Thanks for the report and pics. Good job! The opposite of beginner's luck is expert's misfortune. But, hey, at least you got some extra exercise.

Looks like hard work, but you found a ton of stuff. Nice!