Message posted by gary on July 08, 2002 at 17:06:35 PST:
Well, "detail" is in the eyes of the beholder. Rebob's info (via the Indian who knew where the crash sites were located) lead me to two wrong roads before I found the right one, though I think I found Tom's lightening strike area (fire road). Once on the right road, the "details" lead me to a drive a wash when I could have driven a substantially better road, or more accurately described, a road that is really a road. [Tom won't tell me why there are two ways to get to the spot, or perhaps better described why the roads form a loop. Tom takes delight in not revealing what he knows. ;-)] In fact, now that I have driven the roads in the area, you probably could get there with a car or van, but I wouldn't suggest it, as the spot is pretty remote. [This in itself is a clue since if you think you need a 4wd, you are probably on the wrong road. A pickup truck would do just fine, and there are no branches to scrap your vehicle when on the correct road.] If you read Tom's account, it is pretty clear you have to park someplace then hike in, so some effort will be required. I didn't discover the F15 crash in the same way Tom did. He spotted the road and drove it to the crash site. That really requires a 4wd, plus a good eye to spot the cactii since the road is hardly ever driven. [And if you fail to stop in time, you would drive over the edge into the wash.] In my case, I just marked the spot on the map from Toms description, plugged it into my GPS, and hiked. I found the debris field with little work. [This gave false confidence that finding the a12 site would be just as easy.] To give a bit more detail, I found a camping site about a mile from where the f15 crash was located, so I figured Tom had printed some misinformation. [If I recall correctly, Tom didn't find this camp site, which would be consistent with driving the road to the crash. The site is market with a pyramid like metal cage for burning trash, plus lots of old corn cobs.] Anyway, I parked at the camp site and hiked towards the F15 crash location as Tom describe it, while following Merlin's rules would have lead me to the road to the crash. Back to the a12, getting the mystery public document is the way to go. It is dead on. In fact, it is so close I suspect the government didn't want it made public. Of course, in the spirit of Tom Mahood, I won't name the specific public document. ;-) In the last few months, some new information has been put on the web regarding the crash site (not by me or Tom). The truth is out there! You really don't need any outside help to find the spot, but it will take some research. I guess the key would be to do the research and see what is not on Tom's or my own website.
In Reply to: Re: The Hunt For 928 posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on July 08, 2002 at 14:15:40 PST:
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