Re: One last trek to the Madera Sugar Pine Grades

Before we move on from Camp 2, it's time to show a little different perspective of the area. On Saturday, Oct. 27, I flew down to the MSP area to get a bird's eye view.
Here's a picture of the Camp 2 area:


The view is looking southeast. Camp 2 was located around the green clump of trees in the lower center of the photo. The road leading from it to the left is the railroad grade heading up towards Big Sandy. You can get an idea of the damage the Railroad Fire caused in this area.

Here's a view of the upper end of the incline going to 1924 camp:


We are looking southwest. The right hand side straight part of the dirt road in the bottom center follows the incline and you can see it continuing past the road up the hill on the edge of the forested area.

Here's another view of the 1924 incline looking west:


You can clearly see the incline heading up to the top of the hill in the bottom right center. You can also see to the right of the incline where logging practices from nearly 100 years ago left scars on the land. Madera Sugar Pine was not known for environmentally sensitive logging (nor were most other loggers of 100 years ago...)

Here's a photo of the same general area looking east:


The 1924 incline ended on the extreme left side of the photo. The bowl in the center left had several logging spurs none of which are visible from the air. In the upper center is the top of Speckerman Mountain. Fresno Dome is just visible behind Speckerman .

I flew down hoping to see if the area beyond the 1924 incline was burned off by the fire so hiking would be easier. It appears as if most of it was not touched heavily by the fire. The fire damage is very patchy in this area.

I apologize that my photos are not the best. The website limits resolution to 1.2 MB and I had to fly while trying to take pictures (no passenger). I may have to go back again. It's only a 45 minute flight versus a 3.5 hour drive to get to this area...

To be continued...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2018 09:11PM by Dave Peterson.