12 July Site Survey of the Alternate Location

I got out early trying to beat the heat for a more in depth look at the area around 3 Mile Landing, in particular the area where the road ran out past the landing. I brought a silky saw with me to open up passages through some of the deadfall, but that got exhausting quick. I have removed proper place names.

I walked from 3 Mile Landing to the End of the Road, which once I walked past the sea of ferns, was actually a large landing. Large enough to allow an entrained log truck to pull-through and complete a turn-around. I used my GPS to measure the distance from the center of 3 Mile Landing to the End of the Road and it was 155 yards. Doing the math, if LT Martinak crossed 3 miles on the odometer at the first landing, the odometer wouldn’t have turned over yet to 3.1 miles by the time he parked here. 

After I walked the perimeter of the landing, I determined that no-name creek, the hillside to the immediate south of the landing and the most walkable path from the landing all channel foot movement in one direction, to the east-northeast and Named Creek. Walking east-northeast from the landing, there is a game trail down the slope that runs towards the opposite low hill. It’s a very easy walk, unlike the slopes from Landing 2 towards Soda Fork Creek and the draws / spurs across from (presumably) where Rodney’s clothes were found in Section 19. Based on current conditions, I could see a victim in smooth soled moccasins being able to walk this hill. Also, if an offender at 5’10” and 225-250lbs had to fireman’s carry the deceased 128 pound victim down this hill, that would also be very possible here. From the End of the Road, it is 314 yards to the timber boundary. There are two draws around the hill that channel movement to the timber boundary. The one that side hills Named Creek is 176.5 yards to the timber boundary. The draw on the south side of the hill is 218.3 yards to the timber boundary. 

Named Creek is a definite barrier to movement. The V bank is about 30 feet down, across the creek then up a hillside on the opposite bank. It’s a steep bank, and I can’t see either an offender and living victim or offender carrying a deceased victim crossing that obstacle only to keep climbing the other side. 

Each draw that runs towards the timber boundary has benches along the way, so not a pure side hill to walk that way. I marked off areas to run HRD dogs through based on the terrain. I did not grid search this area since I wanted to keep intact any detectable odors. 

I also was able to confirm that the timber harvest in 1977-1982 in this section would have been second growth, which matches all the descriptions of where Karen’s clothes were found. I found high top stumps with buck board notches when this was old growth harvested in the late 1800s to early 1900s.