DG's Remains

I wasn't even the one who got to go up in the air and still I'm estatic and giddy with wonderment. A helicopter ride is amazing but to see an ariel view of our camp home is indescribable. Google earth gives a little view but nothing like being this close and landing at your campsite, even if it's only from the pictures and videos my amazing husband shared with me.

We left yesterday evening instead of morning like we originally planned so we got into town much to late to try to find a campsite so we just slept in our car. That did not make for restful sleep for any of us and we were awake by 5:30. No good. It did however mean that we had plenty of time to find the heliport and set up camp at sawmill flat. As we were driving out of camp towards our rendezvous point a couple of the search and rescue jeeps were driving to the mine tailing. As we arrived at the top if the dam our jaws dropped to see just how many people they had helping with the search. It was an insane operation in terms of size for what we were expecting to see. More guys in orange kept showing up!

Sergeant CC told us that she was pretty sure they knew where the clothes were but since we drove all that way she'd still send cliff up in the bird. Turns out she was way off and cliff pointed to exactly where we found the items (you could actually see them from the air). Cliff said the pilot was phenomenal and how he actually did a few 'toe touches' (where he puts the toes of the helicopter down to see if landing would be possible) up and down the valley to test places to drop the search crew. That's right, the search and rescue team (mostly volunteers) got flown in!

When Cliff returned from his flight, before the next group left, they let me and the kids come look at the helicopter and take a few pictures with it. The kids thought it was amazing!

They told us we could check back anytime since they'd be there through Monday but we didn't think we'd be taking them up on the offer. That is at least, until the baby fell asleep in the car and our plans all got pushed back so that she would continue to sleep while we drove around.

























We wanted to go to Courtright Reservoir but it was closed so instead we drove across Wishon and discovered the road was in pretty good condition and went pretty far into the other side of the mountain. After being on that side, I can say that the deer ARE mocking you. They just stand there and stare at you. They don't care if you move, shout, whistle, honk.


While checking out the view of Sawmill Flat from this side of the mountain we noticed the helicopter was very active again, but this time it was empty when it went out towards the camps. This, we figured, only met one thing: they found what they were looking for and were coming out.

We finished up and drove back towards the helipad to get an update:
They were very grateful that Cliff was able to show them the exact spot and they took a cadaver dog to the clothing and it picked up on some remains just up the hill pretty quickly. It then led them down by the river (very, very close to where we thought we found a human leg bone 2 years ago) where they found a portion of his skull, a jawbone with 2 teeth, and a few other bones. The Sergeant said they found everything within an hour an a half! This closed up one of only 3 outstanding cases since 1963! And, they couldn't have done it without us reporting our finds, and showing them the exact location.

By then it was about 12pm and we still wanted to take the kid fishing. All the other lakes were closed so we took the kids to Wishon Reservoir along with everybody else who was there. Cliff and I knew we wouldn't catch any fish- no one was having much luck because the water was SO high, but just letting the kids try was the point. Evelyn found great joy in throwing rocks into the water (and trying very hard to get INTO the water). When we just couldn't take it anymore, we packed up the kids and all the gear. Alex helped reel in Isaac's pole (he was floating power bait while Alex had been lure fishing) and managed to snag a beast of a fish in the process! A beautiful rainbow trout! We took a picture and quickly released it since we didn't have anything to cook it with anyway.

We headed back to camp and made an early dinner (BBQ beans, rice, and weenies) followed by marshmallows and smores. I decided to try Reeses Peanut Butter Cups in my smore... it was a let down to say the least. Bed time came early -7pm for EVERYONE.