October 30, 2009 was the 50th Anniversary of Flight 349 crashing into Bucks Elbow Mountain near Crozet, VA. A 50th Anniversary Commemorative Service was held the next day at Mint Spring Valley Park in Crozet just in front of the Flight 349 Memorial dedicated by the sole survivor, Mr. Phil Bradley, 10 years prior. There was a great turn out, I venture to guess around 125 people.

View of Crowd

In addition to Mr. Bradley, there were quite a few family members of the crash victims in attendance. There were also people involved in the rescue effort and the attending physician on duty at the hospital when Mr. Bradley was brought off the mountain.

Mr. Bradley talking to Dr. Frank McCue, the attending physician

Mr. Bradley and Mr. Alvin Toms, helped in recovery and kept guard overnight at the crash scene

It was a beautiful service with prayers said, a talk by Dr. Frank McCue, an Air Force ROTC color guard from UVA, a few words by Hawes Spencer who just recently published a very thorough story about Flight 349 in The Hook magazine, a few words by a gentleman from the Civil Air Patrol who was involved in the search, a talk by Mr. Bradley and what I thought the most poignant part of the service, the reading of the crash victim names by Mr. Bradley’s son Brad.

Mr. Brad Bradley reading the crash victim names.

There were a couple of  TV news crews covering the event from Charlottesville. This link will take you to one of them. About 5-6 lines down you should see a video camera icon with the words “Victims of Piedmont Flight 349 honored”, click on that for a 2 minute video clip.

A photo that we had taken when we originally found the wreck last December 31 and posted to hikingupward, made it onto the October 31, 2009 front page of the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Daily Progress Front Page

I have been in touch with the Bradley family over the past 6 months as they were planning the 50th Anniversary Service. I volunteered to lead a hike up to the crash site after the service.  I was privileged to lead a group of 27 people plus myself to the crash site.

Hike Path - 10/31/2009 (GPS Tracks)

The group included my daughter Abbie, family members of the victims, people from Crozet who wanted to visit the site, a group of Cadets and leaders from the Monticello Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, and various others who had heard about the hike via The Hook and the plug from Mr. Hawes Spencer when he spoke during the Ceremony.

Tough Going on the Trail

At the crash site - Photo 1

At the crash site - Photo 2

At the crash site - Photo 3, Fog rolling in

The trip back down the mountain was pretty treacherous and we did have one injury. Bonnie, one of the ladies who joined us, had a slip near the top and we originally thought she just had a minor cut. Upon further examination she had a pretty good size hematoma on her forearm. Some of the guys went on ahead in order to have an ambulance waiting at the park as we felt her arm needed further medical attention. It took us a little longer to get down the mountain as we were taking turns making sure she did not fall again. My daughter Abbie (12) offered up her rain jacket as a sling as she had just read about doing that in my recent Backpacker Magazine, I guess I need to read it better!!

A big thanks to Mr. Bradley for allowing us to be part of the 50th Anniversary Service. To keep going with Mr. Bradley’s humor, I am not sure I want to return and lead an encore hike for the 100th Anniversary Service!! That is one tough hike and now having done it twice I am ready to retire this trail!!

Mr. Bradley and grandkids

We were not sure if the weekend of Oct 10-11, 2009 would work out in our favor in terms of the weather for our Fall Backpacking Trip. It started out a little rainy but we held out hope that by the time we made camp it would be dry. I was joined on this trip by some friends from church.

Gordon at the top

The clouds hung around for a good bit of the day but even so we had some great views.

View from the A.T. South

We were in for a suprise as we headed on a blue spur trail over towards the Appalachian Trail South. Just 0.4 miles after the A.T. intersection we had the first of 3 additional vistas after Humpback Rocks. The photo above is the first one and the one below was the second. I didn’t even know these views existed.

2nd View

There were stone walls on this part of the A.T., I assume they were part of an old homestead that may have been here prior to the Parkway being created.

Stone Wall

On the way to our last view, which I had been to earlier in the year coming from the opposite direction, we took a side trip to view the wreckage of a U.S. Marine T28 Trainer that crashed in 1964, both pilots bailed out and survived. There is a great writeup posted online by a gentleman I met while hiking a year or so ago, we continue to stay in touch via our blogs. His blog is called Rightside VA.

T28 Wreckage

The debris field for this crash is contained within about a 30 yard circumference area. We lingered around the crash site for about 20 minutes before continuing south to our last view and campsite. It was dry enough by the time we got there that we able to get a fire going.

Campsite

Campsite Fire

After dinner we were priviliged to see one of God’s masterpiece sunsets over the Shenandoah Valley.

Awesome Sunset

We were camping about 30 yards from where we viewed the sunset. On Sunday morning we got a good group photo at the same place we viewed the sunset.

Group Photo

The weather on the return trip to the car on Sunday was just beautiful showing some of the great colors of Fall in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Return Trip - Fall Colors

We had a great weekend for backpacking. This is not the longest backpack but there are some great views and sidetrips on this part of the Appalachian Trail. For trip directions see my friend Tony’s HikingUpward website.

For additional photos of this trip, see my webshots site.

Waldo in the Laundry Room

Waldo, a Guiding Eyes for the Blind (GEB) yellow labrador officially graduated from the GEB Canine Development Center on August 15, 2009. He actually finished his training over the past month with his new owner in New Hampshire. Let me tell you a little about what it took to get Waldo trained and ready to be a working guide dog. First of all, it takes someone very dedicated to doing the initial Puppy Raiser training, ranging anywhere from 14 -18 months. For my family that someone was my daughter Abbie with lots of help from her Mom.

Abbie & Waldo - Oct 2007

Abbie was being home-schooled by my wife and decided she wanted to do a home-school project for the year. She had received an email about doing projects and raising a GEB puppy was one of the ideas. She came to us and asked if she could do this so we let her fill out the paperwork on-line, Julie signed on as an adult sponsor as Abbie was only in 5th grade at the time. Abbie and Julie were soon contacted by GEB, attended 4 sessions of training over 2 months, had a home visit, puppy sat Intrigue for 5 days and then were put on a list to receive the next available puppy. Waldo came into our family on Oct 22, 2007 as a ten week old fluff-ball!!

Waldo & his new Pal Shane

Waldo quickly became friends with our own Chocolate Lab, Shane. They took naps together during the day but Waldo had to sleep in his crate at night and found many positions to get comfortable in.

Waldo - the contortionist...

Over the next 14 months Abbie, Julie and Waldo faithfully attended Richmond Region GEB training sessions every 2 weeks, learning about 35 basic commands such as sit, let’s go, we’re working, stay, stop, kennel, heel, get busy, go place, etc. Reinforcing the learned commands prepared Waldo for his final training in NY. He was also taken for 2-3 mile walks everyday. Waldo was a very inquisitive dog and if he had thumbs I am sure he would have helped Julie:

Waldo helping

Waldo came everywhere with us. He came with us to church but I don’t think he listened to many of the sermons.

Waldo at Church, the kids loved him

We were continually amazed by the different positions Waldo and Shane could get in when they would have their naps:

Nap Time

Abbie and Julie did a great job with Waldo and it was a sad day on December 16, 2008 when we turned Waldo back in to GEB to go back to NY for final training. Abbie was a trooper knowing that this day would come and that she had done all that was required with the hope that Waldo would soon change someone’s life.

Waldo getting ready to go to NY

We learned at the end of June that Waldo would complete his training at the home of his new owner in New Hampshire. Abbie and Julie were invited to visit Waldo at the CDC in early July prior to him leaving for N.H. Abbie was really glad to see Waldo as was Julie. Waldo was also glad to see Abbie and Julie after taking a few seconds to realize who was visiting him.

At GEB CDC Yorktown Heights NY July 8, 2009

Abbie was recently awarded The Presidential Volunteer Service Award at a recent Richmond Region GEB training event for her work in raising Waldo. Julie and I are both proud of all the work Abbie did in training Waldo. I am proud of both Abbie and Julie for all their dedication to Waldo and to GEB.

We were sent a photo of Waldo and recently retired Eben from the new owner, we wish you all the best with Waldo and hope that he is as great a GEB guide dog for you as Eben has been, God Bless – The Allison’s

Waldo & Eben

Footnote: GEB was recently featured on NBC’s Today Show. One of the dogs featured, Alex, is Waldo’s father

Footnote 2: A recent photo of Waldo was sent to us by Kandi on 9/13/2009

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