On 3/16/45 while on a flight from March Field, to Minter Field, California, the C-47A #43-30676 crashed in IFR conditions while returning to home base after completing a freight run. None of the four man crew survived the crash into the Sierra mountain slope.
My camp spot at the trailhead Friday night. Tom Gossett is going to met me here tomorrow for the hike to the C-47 site. I feel our chances of locating the site are pretty good due to having spotted some of the wreckage from a mountain peak on a hike I did a few weeks ago.
The next morning Tom arrived. We are ready for the hike to the site.
After a short distance we arrived at a lake.
Tom is at the bottom of photo. We climbed up this slope to the low spot. It's a lot higher than it looks.
Looking back on lake as we start up the slope.
One of the four deer we saw on the hike. This shot also shows how steep the slope is.
After hiking up the slope for an hour and a half the top still looked far. The Slope gets really steep near the top. This hike is going to be a lot harder than I expected it to be.
Looking down after climbing over the steepest section. The green area is a grove of aspens just starting to get their fall colors.
Tom with the first piece of wreckage we came upon. We were both happy to find it. Took us awhile to get to this point.
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