Andrew, Actually the day I found the device ( Thursday last week ) it was a decent day, sunny, with some gusty winds on the first half of my hike (getting less windy later on ). On Friday when they took me up in the helicopter the snow hit our area about an hour after they brought me down, with the sky looking very ominous and dark just before hand. The gusty winds did make for a bumpy ride helping to aggravate my intestinal discomfort :-) About all I can handle at the fair is the Ferris Wheel :-) My brother once went for dual person hang glider ride, and the person who took him up said that around 80 percent of the people get sick to their stomach on their first time up. Well my brother fell into the 80 percent group and had to ralf in mid air. Good thing he was on the bottom side of the harness arrangment :-)
Regarding how long this device may have been sitting at its location, if you saw where it was at, it would be clear how that could of happened. No way to know if anyone ever came across it before.