4 July 2024 Ground Search at the Lee Site

I took advantage of both the holiday and the “coolest forecasted temperatures” of the long weekend to head to the Lee Site and search an area I identified as part of the preparation for the 25 May 2024 Volunteer Day. It’s a small bench that is more of a depression than a level spot and it is slightly to the north and east of where the volunteers searched. It is also adjacent to where I searched on 15 June 2024, and I wanted to overlap that search.

I decided to search here instead of going downslope of the bottle for two reasons. One, despite it “only” going to 92 today, I wanted something less strenuous in the heat than going up and down the hill on a hands and knees grid search. The second reason is that while my gut instinct and about 55% of my intellect says the bottle is probative to this case, I want to listen to the other 45% that says it might not be. I decided not to fixate on that as a locus to search out from, and instead I’m clearing areas I’ve already identified. I want to be as thorough as possible with this area, and not fixating on one particular zone of interest.

The area I was working today started on the edge of the drop to the creek and was roughly bowl shaped. The search box was the bottom of the bowl, and then a secondary area to the south about 10 m wide and 25m long that bordered the 15 June search box. The bowl itself was filled with vine maple thickets. This posed two challenges, the first being that with the way the trees grow, it would require some contortion on my part to get through the area. The second is that the maples leaves formed thick, now dried mats on the ground, and to remove them was like trying to dig through a sponge with your fingertips.

I followed my now usual protocol of starting at the drop and working uphill, through the bowl. I searched in adjacent lanes, until I hit a maple thicket, then I worked the interior of the thicket however I could before resuming the lane on the other side.

Between the contortions required to get through the maple thickets and the thick mat of maple leaves on the ground, I was reconsidering my decision that this was less physically taxing in the heat. My supervisor was out there with me, and he kept a close watch on my progress.

I finished the day’s work at about 2:15 and the heat was starting to really come on. I have no finds to report, but I cleared another patch of ground at the Lee Site. I have one more area on the upper bench to clear, and then I’ll focus my searches on the downslope to the creek.