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.
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.
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