Re: Another day on the Madera Sugar Pine Grades COVID-19 edition

Wrapping up my exploration of two weeks ago, here's a map of what I think was going on at the bottom of Crow Peak Incline:


It is very likely that the track plan was changed at least once at the bottom of the incline. I'll be going back again next week and will search the area again for any other grade remnants.

Final photo to share: exploring all of the Madera Sugar Pine grades over the past three years, I've come across numerous black powder cans (probably thousands) used to build the grade. They all apparently came from Hercules Powder Company. Most are partly rusted away, heavily dented, or crushed(or all three). The bottom of the can has writing on it that was hard to decipher due to the amount of rust. On this last trip, I found a can whose bottom looked pretty good, and decided to see if it would clean up well enough to read the writing. I brought the can home, cut off the bottom and spent a little time wet sanding it, then applying Linseed Oil to preserve it. Even though the can looked to be intact and in great shape in the woods, it is apparent that it too was rusting away. However, enough of the writing is left so you can now read it:


Don't think any of the rail construction crew ever though someone would rescue a can bottom and make it into a display piece...

That's all for now...