Re: One more day on the Madera Sugar Pine grades....

Heading uphill beyond where the road left the ROW the grade quickly became totally overgrown with brush. The Railroad Fire burned up to the incline grade and no further in this area. I was forced to work my way up through the burned hillside to the right (west) of the grade. A short distance up was what looks like either a skid road, or possibly a short railroad spur of about 200 feet:


At the end of the "spur" I found a donkey engine landing and wire rope. If this was used to load log cars it would mean they were loaded on about a 30 degree slope.

Climbing further up I found where a large tree had burned out, but left the wire rope that had been wrapped around it:

The incline grade is visible on the left side of the photo.

I was now getting near the top of the incline and the route became less brushy so I dropped back down to the incline grade. Here's a photo looking downgrade towards the brushy region (about 500 feet long):


Here's a view looking toward the top of the incline from the same location:


A small area of brush made me head to the right of the grade again. I found this crushed old metal tub just off the grade:


To be continued...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2018 11:11PM by Dave Peterson.