Yesterday’s work was the measurement and layout of a grid centered on the marker where the HRD K9 gave his strongest indication of human remains. Based on the terrain in the area, I decided to start with a box 100’x100’, or 10,000 square feet of area. I stopped at the hardware store Friday and bought 500 blaze orange pin flags. I also bought a pack of pin flags in a different color for marking anything found. I packed a 100’ landscaper tape measure, stakes, spikes and other tools into my pack and had an early start.
I arrived at the search site about 8am and rucked the supplies down the skidder track and then down the hill from the End of the Road to the spot Trooper identified. I drove a spike into the stump where he whined and stamped the ground. I looped the tape measure over the spike and walked due north for 50 feet. I placed a pin flag every five feet along the tape until I had the line marked. I wound the tape back onto the reel, and repeated this process in the four cardinal directions.
Once I had the horizontal and vertical centerlines marked out, I then started the process to connect them and form four squares that share a corner on the center stump. I placed a spike at the 50’ mark, turned 90 degrees and ran the tape out another 50’. I repeated this in each direction from each of the four centerlines. This connected lines, forming the aforementioned boxes.
Once the larger 50’ x 50’ boxes were marked, I then subdivided each one into 5’ square grids. I ran a tape from centerline flag to the opposite centerline flag, then dropped flags every 5 feet. I repeated this ten times for each box, creating the grid.
I took me until 2:30pm to complete the grid. My original plan had me starting the grid search once laying the grid itself was done. We had some light rain in the Valley Friday and early Saturday, but those light rains stacked up on the Cascades and I was working in really wet conditions. I was a little too worn out to start the grid search, so that is for next time. We take a step at a time until the work is done.
The Search for Karen Jean Lee and Rodney L. Grissom 