Perfect day for a hike

I have been planning to hike both Mt Tuam trails for a while and since I had to drive my son to work at 8 am I thought today would be the day.  The weather this winter has been so mild that I knew there would be little to no snow up on top of Mt Tuam.  Here is the trail map I downloaded for the trip;  Mt Tuam.  By the time I found the trailhead it was 9 am.  Glad I left home early, with one little stop at Embe for a coffee and treat (hot out-of-the-oven apple fritter).  The trail up the old logging road was really not that hard of a walk.   I made the first stop at the east navigation light.

20150303_092826

I took this picture and put it on Twitter saying if anyone (except @saltspringsoap ) knew where it was they would get a free coffee.  Of course, Gary @saltspringsoap  tweeted the location.  Gary does a lot of local hiking and never misses a chance to get a free coffee.

hampden cutaway

Farther up the logging road I came across what appeared to be airplane wreckage.  See photos below.  June really despises my liking of the TV show Mayday I’m actually not sure why I like it but do find it interesting.  The amazing thing about hiking on Salt Spring is one usually gets cell phone coverage.  With a quick google I found out about a crash on Mt Tuam but it was not this wreckage I was looking at.  Here is the page I found TSB Aviation Investigation Report the crash site in the report was farther up the hill and not the parts I was looking at.  These parts seem bigger and heavy they might not be airplane parts.   Will have to do a bit more research on this crash which I have done and updated this page.  The parts are from a crash on Oct. 4, 1942­ when P/O Norris Thomas, RAF, (THOMAS_NORRIS age 27 )  died, alone, when his Hampden crashed and burned on Mount Tuam.  Here is a cutaway drawing of a Hampden, note the parts around the motor;  Also during WW2  on Jan. 14­, 1944 – Sgt. Pilot H.C. Birch, RAFVR, (BIRCH_HAROLD_CHARLES age 19) flew another Hampden AN136 into Mount Tuam, this one struck at the 1500-foot level, Salt Spring Island ­within 500 yards of Hampden AN 105.  

I made this video as a November remembrance video for PO Norris Thomas