Re: One last trek to the Madera Sugar Pine Grades

Thanks for the encouragement!
I've wanted to visit the Madera Sugar Pine woods for nearly 40 years. Every time a group of us would venture down to Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine to ride the train I'd think about what might be left out in the woods. By the time we were done at the railroad, there would only be time to visit Sugar Pine logging camp before heading home. The 2017 Railroad Fire made me realize that many of the areas I had always wanted to see had been burned over for the first time since they were logged and a short window would exist to find the grades and artifacts before brush and new growth obscured them again. Thus I've made 9 trips down to the area in the past 6 months.
Who knows, if the weather holds, I might make a 10th trip. Anyone who's able to go is always welcome...

Continuing our journey: As I headed back up the incline I saw this tree just off the incline that had been burned, but still had wire rope wrapped around it:


The incline is to the right. There's also another barrel hoop (a pretty common artifact for this era)...

Almost next to this was a pile of wire rope:


Looking around I spotted another spur that curved around from the southeast and ended just before the incline:


We are looking to the northwest towards the incline.

And here's an intact tie still laying on the grade:


I realized this was the railroad grade that I found the previous time I went looking for the top of the incline. It stopped only about 20 feet from the incline. If I had explored a little more the previous trip up here I would have found it then...

Between the spur and the incline grade was this depression:


The incline is on the left (the rocks piled up on the left are on the edge of the incline). The spur is behind me to the right. This sort of looks like a skid road. I didn't follow it as it was pretty brushy, but there was a flat area behind me next to the spur that might have held a donkey engine.

To be continued...