After what seemed an eternity, we made our way back down to the entrance to the mine shaft, sloshing through the stream that came from its mouth we now were standing at the top of the tailings pile. One at a time, we slid down the last 200 feet of rock, sand and gravel, hiking towards the camp sites we had seen earlier in the day. We took the first one we came to. Setting up the tent went pretty well considering it was dark! It had been a long day and neither one of us had the energy to build a fire and cook, so we opened up a cold can of chili and split that along with some trail mix and assorted candy bars. We washed it all down with some straight shots of crown royal (strictly as a pain reliever and antiseptic for our wounds, of course). We both slept the sleep of the dead and all to soon it was morning. We were moving pretty slow after beating ourselves up so well the day before. We spent the first hour up taking stock of our injuries. We both had a fairly lengthy damage report. We were most definitely hurting units. The camp site had one of the old mining carts on its side for a fire pit. We gathered up some firewood and got a nice blazer going. Getting some water from a small stream, we soon had it on the boil. Then we began feasting on items from our packs, the more we ate the less we would have to pack back. We soon discovered we had no way to filter the coffee we had brought or anything to drink it from (must of missed those things in the general effort to pack light). We put the coffee in the boiling pot of water (mmmmmm! camp coffee), and boiled it up until it was a nice muddy mixture. Rummaging through our packs, we took two Gatorade bottles and cut them in half, then retrieving my only pair of dry clean athletic socks, I stretched one over the Gatorade bottle top creating a funnel and and filter from the sock. The bottom of each bottle became a coffee mug. Our unique coffee brewing system was great for some laughs and some really good coffee. To this day, we still like to joke around about our Mr. Coffee system. We then dried my wet socks from the day before over the open fire. After drinking a couple of gallons of coffee, we got some more water from the stream to boil up for drinking water. Despite cleaning the pot as well as we could, when the water cooled it had a nice brown tint to it from the pot and plenty of camp fire ash in it. We poured it through the other clean sock into the empty water bottles- it still had a brown tint to it and a nice smoky flavor, mmmmm! Breaking camp, we discussed what our next move should be.

  We where pretty sure the B-17 wasn't up the mountain where we had been the day before. We decided that our directions must be in error and since we had passed a mine shaft on the way up, we decided to hike back down the trail to it and take the other fork in the trail. Grabbing my pack, I threw it over my shoulder..... yeoooww!!! One of my many broken bones is a collarbone and where my pack had been riding on it there was now a knot sticking up about the size of a golf ball. Oh well, I wasn't going to let that stand in the way of a good time, so we started back down the trail. After about a mile, we were back at the first mine shaft, taking the other trail it headed up at a pretty good grade with a switch back about every hundred feet or so looking out over great views. Then we made our way through a rain forested valley, with lots of moss covered boulders.The scenery was really beautiful.

  I was in the lead, when I spotted something shiny about 50 feet ahead of us- down below us in a creek bed it looked like a nacelle. I yelled back to Ed that I found something. I heard a "yeah sure!!!" come back at me through the trees. We were at the crash site!!!!! Hiking on up the trail, we began to see even more pieces of broken and twisted bits of metal. We then came to a swampy area, there was wreckage everywhere scattered in all directions for as far as I could see. We both began to explore the wreckage. I started documenting the crash site on video for an upcoming documentary we are producing on warbird crash sites, that will be for sale next year. Gradually, I was able to recognize the different parts of the aircraft and I began to take inventory of any parts that might be salvaged to keep the 10 remaining B-17 bombers still flying in the world today in the air. This is where it became even more apparent to me that warbird crash sites, whenever possible, should be salvaged and used for parts for still flying warbirds or restoring them to flying condition for museums and not just left to rot.
 

 Since the crash site is just off a main trail, we quickly had company, about 2 groups of 10 hikers. The silence of the mountains was quickly disturbed. They assaulted the crash site like a pack of wild animals, jumping up and down on it, taking rocks and sticks trying to break off any little piece they could, it reminded me of the opening scene of the movie "2001 A Space Odyssey", where the apes are on the rampage. I was disgusted by there destructive behavior, the idiots didn't even know what type of plane this was, that it was a once proud B-17 on a air sea rescue mission when it crashed into the side of the mountain and that 3 of her crew of 8 had perished in the crash giving their lives that others might live. As I explored the wreckage trying to grab what video I could amongst the of pack idiots, I was standing next to one of the nacelles when 3 of them came up and started rolling it around. They knew so little about the history they where destroying that they thought the nacelle was the cockpit, making jokes about whether there were any scalps or bones inside, instead of taking a moment's silence for the brave crew. Reluctantly I made the decision not to take any of their scalps or break their bones. Since the crash site is strewn over a large area, I decided to check out some of the less dense areas of wreckage away from the destructive horde. I came across the flight deck in remarkable good shape. I could clearly make out where the throttles came up through the flight deck and where both the pilot's and co-pilot's seats had been. Once again, thoughts of the brave crew still on my mind as I discovered one of the engines (basically junk at this point).

Checking out the area of the wings, I located both tires. Amazingly enough, the tires are one of the hardest items to procure for groups still flying B-17s today and upon locating the tires one appeared to be nearly brand new. My hopes that these tires might someday finish their flight aboard another B-17 were quickly dashed as I inspected the side walls. Someone had cut about a 4 x 6 inch hole in each side wall for a souvenir, making both tires useless. At this point, I would like to say to those who believe that warbird crash sites should not be disturbed, that these crash sites can not be protected from the public. I can't help but wonder when the last B-17 or warbird has flown its last flight, if this crash site or some other might have contained the parts it needed to keep this living history flying. Having interviewed hundreds of World War II air crewmen and flown as a flight engineer aboard the B-17 (909) and B-24 (All American) I can say without hesitation that most anyone would want to see some part of their once proud bird flying into the next century. Whether these crash sites are on a mountain top or in the depths of the oceans, they do not exist in a vacuum- they are constantly exposed to the destructive forces of nature and the senseless vandalism of man. It is my opinion that these time capsules should not be left to rot and that historical preservation is best served by salvage of still viable crash sites instead of letting them deteriorate into piles of scrape metal, lost forever to history and  generations to come. The pack of fools now headed off and I could not help but wonder how many times this ugly scene has been repeated since this B-17 came to rest here. Once again, I began to video tape, identifying more pieces in this giant jigsaw puzzle. I saw pieces of the tail, the elevators, and even the forward window post to the cockpit. There was a swampy area that had some wreckage in it and up the trail several hundred yards, were some pieces of skin from the wings being used as a roof of sorts over a dilapidated log cabin.

  It was starting to get late in the day (our stock of medicinal crown royal was terribly depleted from treating our various injuries- it was time to leave!), again Ed and I decided we should take one more quick look around and then get down the trail before dark. Taking quick inventory of items that may proudly fly again on a restored B-17, Ed and I started back down the trail, very happy it was mostly down hill. We made pretty good time on our way down, but quickly were reminded that you use a whole different set of muscles going down hill than you do up. About the fourth mile, we broke into a light jog as the sun was starting to get low in the sky. We were more than ready to get back! Nighttime was upon us (we were almost forced to eat our own camp cooking again) as we sprinted  the last 100 yards (packs and all) back to Ed's car (the big white boat). We loaded up as quick as we could (seasoned campaigners know when it's time to leave- well, actually they don't, but we didn't want to make sock coffee again), we started our drive off the mountain thus bringing this chapter of adventure to a close, with many more chapters to live in this odyssey of adventure called life!!! 

                                                                              KEEP 'EM FLYING!!!!!!!! 

NOTES...........
  I have been unable to get any factual information on this crash site. The information that I have been able to get, is either rumor or folk lore. The story goes it was on a rescue mission in the late forties or fifties from McChord AFB when it followed a bent radar beam into the side of the mountain with a crew of 8 (3 fatalities). It is also rumored that the B-17 was mostly intact until the army corp of engineers blew it up in the 50s or 60s (what a waste).
  If you have any information on this crash site, newspaper articles, or know anything about the crew, please e- mail me. Do you know of warbird crash sites or have photos (on land or underwater) that should be included in our upcoming crash site video please contact us.