7 October 2023 Ground Search at the Lee / Grissom Site

After my rest break over the past two weeks, I got back on the search at Soda Fork Rd. After closing out the landing or Alternate Lee site on 16 September, I received word from a very reliable and knowledgeable person that the bone recovered on 17 June 2023 was of animal origin. While that was disappointing to say the least, it reopened the Lee / Grissom site to me. My personal rule is that if I uncover remains, and they aren’t ID’d as animal origin, I stay out of that area to avoid contaminating the scene. Since the site is open again, I went back out and restarted the ground search.

Since we are now into Western Oregon rifle deer season, I have added some blaze orange to my kit. Hopefully this will prevent Cletus from putting a .308 sized hole into my center of mass. I brought my blaze orange TRCP cap and my navigation / admin panel from my SAR load out.

I started the ground search at the same depression where I located the bone last time. I worked my way around the depression, removing debris and clearing the floor of the pit. After finishing that area, I began ground searching to the north.

Based on contemporary news accounts, Karen’s items were found in an area of active logging operations. While searching the forest, I definitely found evidence of prior logging operations in the area.

I located a black trash bag under the leaf litter. I carefully slit the top, but the bag was empty. Based on statements made by Ackroyd during interrogations about the disappearance of Rachanda Pickle, I decided to really search the immediate area around the bag. Despite clearing the forest floor to bare earth, there was nothing of note to report.

I continued ground searching to the north, until I encountered a swampy area that is an intermittent stream that empties into Soda Fork Creek. I spent the remainder of my time exploring the area south of the swamp and along the creek. There is a rather large flat bench that sits about 30 feet above the creek bed, and that bench cliffs out in a steep drop to the water. This bench will form my eastern search boundary, with Soda Fork Rd being the western boundary.

The three X waypoints running across the northern end of the day’s track represent the swamp, with the blue line representing the intermittent stream. The three waypoints running along the east denote the bench that sits above the creek. The bench above the creek will be my next area to search. It is approximately 1/4 mile from the road, and is at the end of a fairly easy line of drift to walk. My plan is to start with my feet hanging over the cliff, and to ground search forward from there.