Question for you guys that live up in that area. Do people ever attempt to walk the woods in that vicinity or metal detect? I assume that most of the land is private land, so a person would need permission. Just wondering if people ever do that?

I grew up on a Civil War battlefield (Battle of Champion Hill) and so I was raised relic hunting and spending hours and hours slowly walking through the woods waiting for that awesome beeping sound. In my life I probably filled up a dozen mason jars with minee balls, but I've also found jacket buttons, spoons, cartridge boxes, US cavalry horseshoes, canteen pieces, belt buckles, artillery fragments, and even a whole cannonball!

So anyways, just wondering if people relic hunt the area along the flight path? I know it'd be a one in a million chance to find anything since the area is so vast, but if we assume he is dead there should be the remnants of the chute, the rig and harness, his belt buckle, any coins he had in his pockets, a cigarette lighter, the briefcase, and maybe even his sunglasses.

A couple of thoughts about PNW folks walking in the woods:

1. Jerry T.

JT says he has walked in the woods a lot, but nobody I know has ever seen him go.  Back in 2008 and 2009 I asked to tag along with him the next time he planned on tramping, volunteered to even camp out, and he said I was always welcome to come along.  But he always backed out of tentative dates to go.  We never did get together for the Washougal experience.

Then, I asked Jerry for some specifics of where he has already gone in the Washougal so that I would not repeat romping in the same places he had already gone when I actually got my ass into gear. Again, he said sure, and then never delivered any maps, nor any specific landmarks, sites, identifying markers - nuttin'.

Does anybody know anything about the Washougal search?  Where the cave is that JT found the old satchel that got Himms all excited and seems to be the launching of their relationship?

Last thing about JT. When he came to the 2011 Symposium he brought along a HUGE scrapbook filled with Cooper memorabilia from the get-go in '71. It had tons of newspaper clipping, but I didn't see one shred detailing his work. I find that odd. Doesn't he record where he has gone? What he has found?  Why not? I know that spelling and grammar are not his strong suits, but still...

2. As for general strolling in the woods, the most comprehensive stuff I know of, are hunters - elk and deer.  That's how the placard was found near Silver Lake. We have lots of wanderers, too - lost souls and homeless guys, but they don't wander too deep into the boonies unless they are making a permanent camp in a hard-core kind of way.

LZ-A is not that primal. Lots of folks around, so I would think that most acreage has been accessed. That said, it is lonely out there, and bad guys know they can dump bodies at just about every forest road dead-end. The feds found two when they went looking for Coop, back in '72.

Yup, I remember JT's fierce defense of the Troutdale fly-over.

Thanks for the Dougan Falls tip. Musta missed it.

You got a problem with that?

smile...