Re: Another day on the Madera Sugar Pine Grades

Here's a view looking to the west from the bottom of the incline:


Chowchilla mountain ridge is the first high ridge when approaching from the west, so it has a fantastic view towards the west. On a clear day you would be able to see the coast range.

Next, we'll explore the spur to the left of the incline. Here's a view looking down the spur:


The grade is approximately 4%. The spur travels for about 1.5 miles, We drove down about 3/4 of a mile before the brush got too thick to penetrate, then hiked the rest of the spur.

There were several log loading points on the spur. Here's some ubiquitous wire rope at one loading location:


This was wrapped around a tree at one point. The Ferguson Fire burned out the tree stump, leaving the cable.

Next to it was what looked like a choker:


This choker would have been wrapped around a log then attached to a hook to lift it up. I always wonder how much strength it must have taken to weave this cable into itself.

To be continued...