Re: One last trek to the Madera Sugar Pine Grades

I'm happy so many are enjoying this thread! We're getting down to the last part..

As I walked back to my truck from the previous photos I spied this old can on the ground:


I think it post-dates the railroad, but it was the type of can that required a can opener to open (no pull tab)...

After this stop, I backtracked to the junction with the other 1919-20 line (no photo) and headed down to the hairpin curve again:


We are looking southwest. You can just see the lower grade on the right hand side of the photo.

Here's a picture I took last summer when I let a friend of mine drive my truck down the lower level while another friend & I hiked about a mile of the grade:


I had discovered what looked like a logging site on Google Earth at the point of the 180 degree turn and wanted to check this out on the ground. I knew there was a spur here as I had explored it last summer, but on Google Earth there was a large roundish are that looked like it might have been where a spar tree had stood.

Here's the spur heading west away from the mainline:


I didn't notice the tie impressions last time I was here. The spur only ran out about 200 feet and had the usual wire rope left behind.
I hiked beyond this to see if there was any other evidence of more logging by Madera Sugar Pine and/or evidence of a spar tree. All I found was slash and old roads indicating post-MSP logging...

To be continued...