This search season has had its share of weather challenges. Other than the first search of the season, which was in golf course weather, the other search days have alternated between pouring rain or blazing hot. Yesterday fell into the hot category.
Summer in Oregon is wildfire season, and there were several active burns to the east and south of Linn County. A red flag warning had been issued earlier in the week, and the day’s high was forecast to reach 95. I arrived at Soda Fork early in the morning and found the timber gate at the boundary of Section 19 closed to vehicle traffic. I hiked uphill along the road to reach the landing. Already well lathered in sweat, I descended the hill and got to work.
My plan for the day was to search that last “checker box” on the upper bench. I wanted to close this area of the hillside out before spending time on the lower slope and lower benches. The last area comprised a rise between the 15 June 2024 search area and the 11 May 2024 search area. The area was a spur between those two low spots, and had terrain varying from the salal covered top of the spur to vine maple and ferns on the slope of the spur.
My approach today was to clear the ground in the low spots and then grid walk the salal at the top of the spur. My thinking behind this is that any remains that may have been on the top of the spur would drift down to the low spots, making the low spots more likely to hold anything. I didn’t want to neglect the top, so I walked the top in a grid, taking a step, moving the vegetation aside to view the ground, then taking the next step.
I walked to the point of the spur and began the hands and knees search up the drainage lines. Once that completed, I moved to the low spots on the south side of the spur. I could see the cedar where I found the bottle on 11 May. Despite not being totally sure or convinced that the bottle is probative, I spent the most time here. I overlapped the search area from 11 May, and then cleared the entire south side of the spur to the dirt and rocks under the leaf litter.
There was a cut cedar stump that had hollowed out with age. In the interest of thoroughness I searched the interior, cautiously, as the last time I did this I found a ground hornet nest the hard way. Fortunately, the stump was hornet free and ultimately, only filled with leaf litter and other natural debris .
After clearing the south side, I took a brief water and food break. The temps were up, and after the hike in from the gate, the exertion of the hands and knees search and the smoke in the air from the wildfires, I was feeling it. After my break, I hands and knees searched the low spots and drainage lines on the northern side of the spur, which went rather quickly. The northern low spots were fewer, less vegetated and I was able to get through them and overlap with the 15 June search area.
Before starting the grid search of the top of the spur, I checked some low spots on the slope down to the creek. There were 3 of them about 25 feet down the hill, and they were good debris traps on the slope. I dropped down and had them cleared in about 30 minutes.
Clambering back to the top of the spur, I grid walk the salal as mentioned earlier. It was methodical- take a step, pull back the vegetation, examine the ground, take the next step and repeat. An hour later I had finished this area. Remy and I finished off the last of our water, and walked back up the hill to start the hike back. Despite the return trip being all down hill, the sun was up over the east ridge line and it was a hot, dusty walk downhill to the truck.
The Search for Karen Jean Lee and Rodney L. Grissom 