B-17 Bomber hiking and
camping at Cowboy Camp
Tells Creek
El Dorado National Forest
Camp elevation approx 6,500 ft
On October 31st, 1941, a B-17C, Tail No. 40-2047, also known as the "Flying Fortress," started a routine flight for a change of their No. 3 engine from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Sacramento, CA. After a two day stopover in Reno due to bad weather to the west, they departed late on the morning of November 2, 1941 on an instrument flight to their destination. After passing Lake Tahoe, the plane entered into the overcast sky. Then, after several minutes, the radio begun to static, and communications were down to the point where they were unable to check it at Donner Summit.
Attributing the loss of radio functions to a temporary static condition, the pilot, 1st Lieutenant Leo M. H. Walker, continued on the Sacramento via a more southerly route. Then, at that moment, the No.1 supercharger began to have problems maintaining pressure. With the vehicle in a climb towards 14,000 feet, the co-pilot, 2nd Lieutenant John R. Mode, attempted to manipulate the supercharger controls to add additional pressure to it. Being partially successfully, the pressure continued to change, but not lost entirely, the flight continued onward.
Then, after 45 minutes of flight, the flight indicators all ceased working. With the vacuum pumps having problems, and the pilot tube heat being turned on, no clear cause could be determined for this difficulty. The pilot and co-pilot decided to head back to Reno. Throttling up the engine RPM to climb to 18,000 feet, the aircraft pulled to right. The flight crew, trying to hold the B-17 in a straight line of flight, cut the engine power to try again.
After a more successfully attempt, the pilot and co-pilot realized they were having serious troubles controlling the airplane, the pilot ordered the crew to don parachutes as a precaution, and be ready to bail out of the ailing aircraft.
With their bank-and-turn instrument being the only functioning guide, the aircraft seemed to be handling fine. Then, the nose rose slightly, the pilot compensated by pushed the controls downward. Lt. Walker, attempting to level off the aircraft's descent, realized that flight controls had been lost. He attempted to pull the controls back to regain attitude, but the aircraft then rolled over onto its back, righted itself for a brief moment, and then plummeted into a spin. Of the nine-person crew, eight survived. Only the plane's pilot failed to escape.
We were going for a quick Saturday/Sunday trip, but with triple digit temps for the last few days, I knew that our little Shirley Scamp was going to be hot! The fridge is convenient, but not the most efficient, especially when it's hot. I picked up the trailer Friday in order to plug it in to get a head start on cooling things off.
102 in the fridge and 101 in the trailer. May take a bit to get down to 34 degrees...
Saturday morning we rose early, packed the truck and trailer, loaded up Michael and his friend Alyssa and headed out for a fun weekend!
From Highway 50 to Ice House Road, then turning onto Tells Creek Road. Such a pretty area.
We made our way to Tells Creek Equestrian Campground which we have stayed at a couple of times before. It is conveniently located at the Bassi Falls Trailhead, but there are also other campers as well as quite a few people with horse trailers and horses.
We spotted this secluded camp while driving and made our way the 1/2 mile back and set up camp here. We had this whole area to ourselves.
The Van Vleck family used this area as a large cattle ranch from the 1860 to the 1960's. There are many remnants from this time as well as an old bunkhouse that is maintained by the Forest Service and reservable. Our camp was located near an area that had a cattle loading ramp and an obvious corral area.
The logs were cut out like lincoln logs and still in pretty good condition. All we needed was a tractor and we could stack them into a cabin. The kids had all kinds of ideas of what to make out of them.
More fencing.
And because of the history of this area, we have deemed our camp "Cowboy Camp".
We had beautiful skies and mid 70's. A perfect way to escape the triple digits at home.
It was also perfect bug weather. The mosquitos were crazy!
We were all covered in bug spray, but they still managed to make a meal out of us all.
Camp was all set up and it was a great time to hang out for a while before we head out on the trail.
We are all set to find an airplane!
The first of several water crossings.
They are eager to find the crash site. We had to practically job to keep up with these kids.
There had been a recent wind storm and LOTS of toppled trees. This was one of the biggest.
Can't even imagine what this must have sounded like when it fell.
Gorgeous day on the trail.
The ferns were so green they were glowing.
We continue to make our way down the well maintained portion of our journey.
We will soon be off trail and bushwhacking through the woods.
Check out that huge tree in the background...
And this is what off-trail looks like.
And then before we knew it, we were able to locate the crash site. With all the downed trees, this was a little easier to find this time around.
This crashed 60 years ago. It's amazingly well preserved.
After we all got a good look and plenty of pictures of the wing, we decided to set out on finding other items. We don't have any hard directions, but Chris has some tracks and vague descriptions from someone on AllTrails who had recently found a few other items.
First thing to do was to cross the creek. It's hard to see,
but we had to go through the bushes and cross on a log.
Michael spotted this sitting on a log. Not sure what it is, but an obvious part of the plane.
We continued on...
Bushwhacking and climbing up the side of the mountain is hard work and we are over 6,600 feet. Occasional breaks are needed.
There is more out here somewhere...
Michael spotted this. Mom, look to your right! Yep, a wheel. Part of the landing gear.
That stainless steel is in amazing shape for being 60 years in the elements.
Apparently Gum-Dipped tires last a very long time.
Firestone
We hiked around for a while longer trying to figure out where the fuselage might be,
but kids are getting tired and this may take all day...
May have to save that for the next trip.
Time to head back to camp. It was about 4 miles round trip and about a mile of that was bushwhacking and climbing up and over logs, etc.
And as soon as we got back to camp, it was nap:30.
For not being used to hiking or camping, they hung in there for longer than even I anticipated.
They earned this nap.
After nap time, we enclosed the easy-up with bug nets and had a great place to hang out and enjoy some burgers and macaroni and cheese. Wonder who set the menu for dinner... haha
After it was dark, we all sat inside around the propane fire since campfires are not permitted right now. We played a few games of UNO, heads up on the iPhone and then spent so much time playing funny and terribly inappropriate songs. It's a good thing we decided not to stay in camp. We were laughing so hard. Fun times.
They stayed up talking and talking and then silence.
I think camping and hiking must be tiring.
We awoke the next morning to a much cooler day. Decent winds have also picked up.
After a hearty breakfast of Pancakes and Bacon, we decided to break camp and head home.
What a great weekend. It's great to get everyone away from technology for a while and enjoy nature.
Just a little injury report...
While hitching the trailer on Friday, I had a wasp come out of the hitch and attack me right on my knee. OUCH. It immediately turned red and was burning fire.
It's hard to tell here, but the redness travels about 8 inches up my leg from the sting site.
24 hours later after our hike, my knee is swollen like a softball. Apparently, I'm somewhat allergic to wasps. Thankfully, by the third day, the swelling has gone down and although still very red and extremely itchy, it's getting better. This is the second time in two weeks that I've been stung hitching up the trailer. After this happened, Chris sprayed wasp spray into the tube area of the hitch and 10-12 wasps came out. Apparently we had a wasp nest in the trailer. They got mad every time we were moving things around. Hopefully we are done with wasps for a very long time. This was no fun.
Other than that, we had a great weekend!
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