19 August Ground Search at the Lee Site

After last week’s roller coaster, we are back to the slow steady work of searching the Lee Site. It was another early Saturday morning and driving out to Soda Fork I noticed the extreme fire danger rating on the signs for every land manager with an office on US20. Luckily, there was very little to no smoke along Soda Fork.

The day began with me going over the same area where I recovered the animal bone fragment. Since that was where I finished , I wanted to overlap today’s search with that one. I also wanted to make sure in the work to document, photograph and mark the fragment, I didn’t miss anything else in the immediate area. After 45 minutes I was satisfied that the area from last week was clear, and I moved on to this week’s search box.

The area I searched was very thick alder and Devil’s Club thickets to the west, while it was slightly more open to the east, closer to the creek. This search may have been the most physically taxing for me. The ticket was tight enough that walking was impossible, at least if you’re trying to see the ground. I spent most of the day on my hands and knees, with a considerable distance spent high crawling on my stomach under the alders. My forearms are itchy from the natural mild irritant in the thorns of the Devil’s Club, my knees are aching and even my wrists feel the strain of supporting my upper body most of the day.

There were some areas that were relatively open, including one with a large alder. I pay a fair amount of attention to spots like this. Not only is the searching easier in the more open, less vegetated terrain, these also seem like likely areas to leave something. Without knowing what the landscape, lines of drift and “goat paths” looked like 46 years ago, I search these spots like they are potential crime scenes.

My plan for the next search is to go through the thicket that is outlined by the non-searched pocket between the turquoise, blue and purple tracks. That area has exceptionally thick vegetation, and it will be another search like yesterday’s- close to the ground and physically demanding.