Hi Bill, you wrote,
The historic trails can and should be protected from project effects under
NHPA. Do you have any particlar concerns within the Blue Canyon Project
area?
Yes, as mentioned in my recent letter, to District Ranger Vivian Kee, of about May 15. I mentioned the China Trail, the Bradley & Gardner Ditch, etc.
As to historic trails not in project areas, but that are being impacted by
various agents, we do have a responsiblity to address those situations. I
would like to get map locations of the trails you are concerned with and
work w/David Michaels to try and address the problems you are bringing to
our attention. From a heritage resources persprective it would be
important for me to get the historic trails on our hertitage resources
atlas as a first step in trying to protect them. David might be able to
get out in the field with you.
Most of these trails are depicted on your own TNF maps! This partly why my friends and I are so amazed and horrified by the *complete obliteration* of one trail after another! And, so far as timber harvests on private lands, you guys at TNF review and sign off on every such harvest plan within the broader outlines of TNF, right?
I would be more than happy, I would be ecstatic, to help identify these absolutely precious, historic trails. My friends and I sometimes GPS these trails. I can draw many of them in on maps. Heck, many are already on the TNF special 7.5 minute topographic maps. These once formed a large interconnected network of trails. Don't forget, among all these many historic trails is the one which goes through the Rawhide Mine up to Sawtooth Ridge. Suppose this one trail was still open to the public, as it should be. One could walk from Iron Point to Big Valley Bluff, Loch Leven Lakes, Devils Peak, and on to Cascade Lake and Soda Springs--that is, if the intervening trails had not been obliterated.
Currently we are working on trail development in Burlington Ridge area. We
are developing RR grades and ditches as trails. What has happened is that
members of the public have pioneered bike and motorbike trails, some of
which have impacted the grades and ditches, or are poorly engineered, and
we are trying to get the situation under control. Also we are planning
alterations to Loch Leven Trail. If you have concerns in these areas let
me know. I realize this is a different issue than the one you raise about
historic trails.
I absolutely hate the new Loch Leven Trail! What was wrong with the old one? The new one is in extremely bad repair, and is even dangerous to walk on in places; I was on it Monday, to my regret. I refer to the section between old Hwy. 40 and the railroad.
Thanks so much for taking the time to consider these issues, Bill, I greatly appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Russell Towle
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Public Access: Lost?
For several years now I have been urging Tahoe National Forest to try to acquire the private lands at the head of the trail from Lost Camp down to the North Fork of the North Fork American. This trail, in Section 23, T16N, R11E, quickly passes onto TNF lands as it proceeds south to the river. It is sometimes called the China Trail, or the China Bar Trail. It used to continue up the other side of the North Fork of the North Fork to Sawtooth Ridge, with one branch bearing east to Burnett Canyon, the other south to Helester Point, I believe, but over the past thirty years that area has been heavily logged, and that part of the old trail destroyed.
It is still intact on the Lost Camp side of the river.
This trail is depicted on the 1962 TNF map of the Foresthill and Big Bend ranger districts. It is also one of the sixty-odd trails declared to be public trails in the famous 1953 Placer County Board of Supervisors' ordinance. The Lost Camp part of the trail is also shown on the USGS 7.5 minute Westville quadrangle.
I am not aware that Forest Supervisor Steven Eubanks has ever responded to my letters regarding this trail.
Today I learned from someone who hiked the China Trail last year, and tried to reach the trail today, that the road down to Lost Camp and the trailhead is now gated closed.
This, if true, is intolerable.
I wonder whether, when CDF approves timber harvests, or TNF plans and approves timber harvests, which absolutely ruin and obliterate historic trails,--I wonder in what way such actions can be considered consistent with NEPA or CEQA.
It is still intact on the Lost Camp side of the river.
This trail is depicted on the 1962 TNF map of the Foresthill and Big Bend ranger districts. It is also one of the sixty-odd trails declared to be public trails in the famous 1953 Placer County Board of Supervisors' ordinance. The Lost Camp part of the trail is also shown on the USGS 7.5 minute Westville quadrangle.
I am not aware that Forest Supervisor Steven Eubanks has ever responded to my letters regarding this trail.
Today I learned from someone who hiked the China Trail last year, and tried to reach the trail today, that the road down to Lost Camp and the trailhead is now gated closed.
This, if true, is intolerable.
I wonder whether, when CDF approves timber harvests, or TNF plans and approves timber harvests, which absolutely ruin and obliterate historic trails,--I wonder in what way such actions can be considered consistent with NEPA or CEQA.
Public Access: Lost?
For several years now I have been urging Tahoe National Forest to try to acquire the private lands at the head of the trail from Lost Camp down to the North Fork of the North Fork American. This trail, in Section 23, T16N, R11E, quickly passes onto TNF lands as it proceeds south to the river. It is sometimes called the China Trail, or the China Bar Trail. It used to continue up the other side of the North Fork of the North Fork to Sawtooth Ridge, with one branch bearing east to Burnett Canyon, the other south to Helester Point, I believe, but over the past thirty years that area has been heavily logged, and that part of the old trail destroyed.
It is still intact on the Lost Camp side of the river.
This trail is depicted on the 1962 TNF map of the Foresthill and Big Bend ranger districts. It is also one of the sixty-odd trails declared to be public trails in the famous 1953 Placer County Board of Supervisors' ordinance. The Lost Camp part of the trail is also shown on the USGS 7.5 minute Westville quadrangle.
I am not aware that Forest Supervisor Steven Eubanks has ever responded to my letters regarding this trail.
Today I learned from someone who hiked the China Trail last year, and tried to reach the trail today, that the road down to Lost Camp and the trailhead is now gated closed.
This, if true, is intolerable.
I wonder whether, when CDF approves timber harvests, or TNF plans and approves timber harvests, which absolutely ruin and obliterate historic trails,--I wonder in what way such actions can be considered consistent with NEPA or CEQA.
It is still intact on the Lost Camp side of the river.
This trail is depicted on the 1962 TNF map of the Foresthill and Big Bend ranger districts. It is also one of the sixty-odd trails declared to be public trails in the famous 1953 Placer County Board of Supervisors' ordinance. The Lost Camp part of the trail is also shown on the USGS 7.5 minute Westville quadrangle.
I am not aware that Forest Supervisor Steven Eubanks has ever responded to my letters regarding this trail.
Today I learned from someone who hiked the China Trail last year, and tried to reach the trail today, that the road down to Lost Camp and the trailhead is now gated closed.
This, if true, is intolerable.
I wonder whether, when CDF approves timber harvests, or TNF plans and approves timber harvests, which absolutely ruin and obliterate historic trails,--I wonder in what way such actions can be considered consistent with NEPA or CEQA.
Glaciers; Another Abandoned TNF Trail
On Sunday I joined a field trip led by geologist Allan James ("AJ") as part of the INQUA 2003 conference in Reno. INQUA stands for INternational QUAternary Research Association. Members are engaged in active research bearing upon Pleistocene glaciations and climate fluctuations. The Pleistocene is considered to have begun around 1.75 million years ago, and to have ended a scant 12,000 years ago. Quite a number of glacial advances and retreats occurred. Then the climate warmed, the glaciers receded, and all this warmer period down to the present time is called the Holocene. Since there have been many such warm spells during the Pleistocene, there is nothing to suggest that the cycles of glaciations have actually ended; we are likely just in one more "interglacial" period.
At any rate, AJ has been mapping glacial moraines and till deposits in the upper Bear and South Yuba river basins for the past ten years. He is a professor back East and comes out here every summer to camp up in Rattlesnake Canyon, north of Cisco Grove, and wander the hills, GPS unit in hand, recording glacial features. The most easily recognized of these features derive from the last major glaciation, which in the Sierra is called the Tioga episode.
Around thirty-five people from all over the world were on the field trip. We began at Big Bend, then stopped at a hilltop overlook near Nyack, with fine views of Bear Valley and the Yuba Gorge. From there we drove west to Drum Forebay and caught the old Pacific Turnpike, a road from Dutch Flat to Virginia City, and followed it east into Bear Valley, stopping to examine a moraine deposit which AJ considers to predate the Tioga.
Now, I happen to disagree with AJ about the extent of the Tioga ice; he imagines Tioga ice to be smaller in areal coverage, and thinner, while I see it as somewhat larger and thicker. At every stop we would pile out of the vans and SUVs and AJ would explain this or that. Then I would sidle forward and disagree with most of what he had said. He tolerated this with amazing good grace.
We visited the Yuba Gorge, where the divide between the Bear and South Yuba has been reduced to a low ridge of polished rock of the Shoo Fly Complex. Here, as in many other places, ice from the South Yuba basin overflowed to the south, and broke down the dividing ridge. We then drove up to Rattlesnake Canyon and on to Fordyce Summit, where we visited a moraine AJ regards as especially significant. I offered my usual rebuttal, and then a thunderstorm drove us into the cars. It evolved into a knock-down, drag-out storm of epic proportion, lightning striking everywhere, deafening thunder following immediately after the brilliant flashes, and a truly torrential downpour of rain and hail, which made instant rivers of the dusty roads.
We waited it out and found another high vista point as the skies cleared a little and sunshine broke through. We could see the Sierra crest from Castle Peak down to the Crystal Range, Devils Peak, Snow Mountain, Duncan peak, Cisco Butte, Black Mountain, etc. etc.
We then enjoyed a picnic of wine and beer and crackers and cheese, high on the slopes of Red Mountain; conversation intensified, and debates ripened. I met many geologists, from Germany, Sweden, China, and elsewhere, and was able to learn a little about their own special areas of research. It was a great day.
On Monday I met Ron Gould for an attempt to find and follow an old Tahoe National Forest trail, from Big Bend to Devils Peak and Snow Mountain. We were hoping for a repeat of Sunday's rain, but, although cumulonimbus clouds did blossom, rain was confined to the crest and points east.
We popped into the Big Bend Ranger Station for a quick look at a 1916 map of Tahoe National Forest, which shows many but not all of the historic trails, and marks out areas as "Good Camping Ground" or "Deer" or "Grouse." Among the trails is the historic public trail from the Old Soda Springs Road down the North Fork to Heath Springs.
We had great difficulty, in fact, we failed, in locating the line of the trail on the north, Big Bend side of the railroad. We stumbled along, sweating, on a possible route, littered with logging slash, on an eastward bearing, and as we drew near to the tracks a lone duck appeared. We climbed to the tracks, crossed into a valley leading to a pass we saw as the most likely route, and began scouting back and forth, high and low, for the old trail. After perhaps twenty minutes we found it, marked by blazes on the trees. Soon it became quite well-defined, with many blazes and ducks, and the occasional brushy areas were usually easily passed.
The trail climbed in switchbacks across an open area of glaciated granite, where some blasting had taken place, way back when, to construct or improve the trail. It was by all appearances a large trail, a major trail. It looked as though it had seen fairly heavy use by horses and pack animals, long ago. However, when it passed east into Section 35, T17N, R13E--presumably, being odd-numbered, an old "railroad" section, part of the many many thousands of acres of public land given to the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s--the trail became almost impossible to follow.
It was the same old story: heavy logging, with bulldozers scrambling every which way across the terrain, had utterly obliterated the trail. Most of the trees which had borne blazes had been cut down. With great difficulty we continued east, often losing, but always eventually regaining, the line of the old trail. We saw signs, high on the trees, marking the Royal Gorge Co.'s ski trail to Rainbow Lodge. Everything seemed to suggest that this Section 35 was a railroad section which had passed into the ownership of the Royal Gorge Co., but, strangely, it is marked as TNF land on the "big" TNF map. On my special TNF 7.5-minute quadrangle, however, it is marked as private land. Neither map depicts the historic trail to Devils Peak from Big Bend.
At a certain point the trail coincided with a logging road, as evidenced by occasional blazes on roadside trees. This road-with-blazes led us to the northeast corner of Section 35, and into the southeast corner of Section 26 to the north, where two small glacial ponds are nestled in the forest. Continuing, we passed into Section 25 to the east, and stopped for a rest.
I suggested that a side trail must have led more to the south, into a pass between the South Yuba and North Fork of the American, where Nancy Lake is located. This pass is one of many carved by South Yuba ice flowing south into the depths of the North Fork canyon, here, by way of Big Granite Creek. We scouted east through rather hopelessly torn-up terrain, the legacy of logging, without finding anything.
On the way back we were able to recovered a few new strands of the historic trail, including its exact approach to the railroad, but lost it again as we traversed a high knoll of granite, somewhat over 6200' in elevation, due east of Big Bend. We were puzzled by two half-inch cables running up the north face of the knoll. Reaching Ron's truck, we had tallied up something like seven or eight miles on our hike.
However, the story of this old trail continues.
On Tuesday, I visited Eric and Paula Peach in Auburn, and asked Eric about some trails depicted on the "big" TNF map, in the North Fork canyon, near Lake Clementine, Ponderosa Bridge, and points upstream. Eric has a fine collection of maps. As he pawed through his neatly-rolled trove, I spotted an old-style TNF map, and pulled it out.
It was the 1962 TNF map of the Foresthill and Big Bend ranger districts. And there, plain as day, was the old trail from Big Bend to Devils Peak. It showed that, while crossing Section 35, the trail followed a slightly higher line than the road we had walked, and turned south into, and then north, out of, the very pass inhabited by Nancy Lake, before climbing to join the line of the road leading south to Devils Peak from Troy, at the north boundary of Section 6, T16N, R14E.
The map also solved the mystery of the half-inch cables on Knoll 6200; a tiny ski area had been there.
I immediately began poring over this 1962 map with a magnifying glass. I believe I once had my own copy of this map, thirty years ago. Some very intriguing trails were depicted, which I had never realized existed. Like the Big Bend-Devils Peak-Snow Mountain Trail, these trails no longer appear on TNF maps. One such followed the historic Iowa Hill Canal east from Beacroft Trail, past Tadpole Canyon, to the very terminus of the ditch. Another showed a variation upon the route of the Wabena Trail; rather than crossing Wabena Creek and following the east bank down to the North Fork, the trail was shown following the west bank down, and then paralleling the North Fork itself for a mile or so to the west. This lower reach of the trail is exactly that which Ron, my son Greg, and I followed on our recent visit to the Royal Gorge.
This 1962 map also showed the very same historic public trail registered on the 1916 map, from Old Soda Springs Road down the North Fork to Heath Springs. This wonderful trail has been closed to the public (illegally, I would say) for quite a few years now. I had the good fortune to hike it once, in 1979.
Eric kindly provided me with a copy of this 1962 TNF map.
At any rate, AJ has been mapping glacial moraines and till deposits in the upper Bear and South Yuba river basins for the past ten years. He is a professor back East and comes out here every summer to camp up in Rattlesnake Canyon, north of Cisco Grove, and wander the hills, GPS unit in hand, recording glacial features. The most easily recognized of these features derive from the last major glaciation, which in the Sierra is called the Tioga episode.
Around thirty-five people from all over the world were on the field trip. We began at Big Bend, then stopped at a hilltop overlook near Nyack, with fine views of Bear Valley and the Yuba Gorge. From there we drove west to Drum Forebay and caught the old Pacific Turnpike, a road from Dutch Flat to Virginia City, and followed it east into Bear Valley, stopping to examine a moraine deposit which AJ considers to predate the Tioga.
Now, I happen to disagree with AJ about the extent of the Tioga ice; he imagines Tioga ice to be smaller in areal coverage, and thinner, while I see it as somewhat larger and thicker. At every stop we would pile out of the vans and SUVs and AJ would explain this or that. Then I would sidle forward and disagree with most of what he had said. He tolerated this with amazing good grace.
We visited the Yuba Gorge, where the divide between the Bear and South Yuba has been reduced to a low ridge of polished rock of the Shoo Fly Complex. Here, as in many other places, ice from the South Yuba basin overflowed to the south, and broke down the dividing ridge. We then drove up to Rattlesnake Canyon and on to Fordyce Summit, where we visited a moraine AJ regards as especially significant. I offered my usual rebuttal, and then a thunderstorm drove us into the cars. It evolved into a knock-down, drag-out storm of epic proportion, lightning striking everywhere, deafening thunder following immediately after the brilliant flashes, and a truly torrential downpour of rain and hail, which made instant rivers of the dusty roads.
We waited it out and found another high vista point as the skies cleared a little and sunshine broke through. We could see the Sierra crest from Castle Peak down to the Crystal Range, Devils Peak, Snow Mountain, Duncan peak, Cisco Butte, Black Mountain, etc. etc.
We then enjoyed a picnic of wine and beer and crackers and cheese, high on the slopes of Red Mountain; conversation intensified, and debates ripened. I met many geologists, from Germany, Sweden, China, and elsewhere, and was able to learn a little about their own special areas of research. It was a great day.
On Monday I met Ron Gould for an attempt to find and follow an old Tahoe National Forest trail, from Big Bend to Devils Peak and Snow Mountain. We were hoping for a repeat of Sunday's rain, but, although cumulonimbus clouds did blossom, rain was confined to the crest and points east.
We popped into the Big Bend Ranger Station for a quick look at a 1916 map of Tahoe National Forest, which shows many but not all of the historic trails, and marks out areas as "Good Camping Ground" or "Deer" or "Grouse." Among the trails is the historic public trail from the Old Soda Springs Road down the North Fork to Heath Springs.
We had great difficulty, in fact, we failed, in locating the line of the trail on the north, Big Bend side of the railroad. We stumbled along, sweating, on a possible route, littered with logging slash, on an eastward bearing, and as we drew near to the tracks a lone duck appeared. We climbed to the tracks, crossed into a valley leading to a pass we saw as the most likely route, and began scouting back and forth, high and low, for the old trail. After perhaps twenty minutes we found it, marked by blazes on the trees. Soon it became quite well-defined, with many blazes and ducks, and the occasional brushy areas were usually easily passed.
The trail climbed in switchbacks across an open area of glaciated granite, where some blasting had taken place, way back when, to construct or improve the trail. It was by all appearances a large trail, a major trail. It looked as though it had seen fairly heavy use by horses and pack animals, long ago. However, when it passed east into Section 35, T17N, R13E--presumably, being odd-numbered, an old "railroad" section, part of the many many thousands of acres of public land given to the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s--the trail became almost impossible to follow.
It was the same old story: heavy logging, with bulldozers scrambling every which way across the terrain, had utterly obliterated the trail. Most of the trees which had borne blazes had been cut down. With great difficulty we continued east, often losing, but always eventually regaining, the line of the old trail. We saw signs, high on the trees, marking the Royal Gorge Co.'s ski trail to Rainbow Lodge. Everything seemed to suggest that this Section 35 was a railroad section which had passed into the ownership of the Royal Gorge Co., but, strangely, it is marked as TNF land on the "big" TNF map. On my special TNF 7.5-minute quadrangle, however, it is marked as private land. Neither map depicts the historic trail to Devils Peak from Big Bend.
At a certain point the trail coincided with a logging road, as evidenced by occasional blazes on roadside trees. This road-with-blazes led us to the northeast corner of Section 35, and into the southeast corner of Section 26 to the north, where two small glacial ponds are nestled in the forest. Continuing, we passed into Section 25 to the east, and stopped for a rest.
I suggested that a side trail must have led more to the south, into a pass between the South Yuba and North Fork of the American, where Nancy Lake is located. This pass is one of many carved by South Yuba ice flowing south into the depths of the North Fork canyon, here, by way of Big Granite Creek. We scouted east through rather hopelessly torn-up terrain, the legacy of logging, without finding anything.
On the way back we were able to recovered a few new strands of the historic trail, including its exact approach to the railroad, but lost it again as we traversed a high knoll of granite, somewhat over 6200' in elevation, due east of Big Bend. We were puzzled by two half-inch cables running up the north face of the knoll. Reaching Ron's truck, we had tallied up something like seven or eight miles on our hike.
However, the story of this old trail continues.
On Tuesday, I visited Eric and Paula Peach in Auburn, and asked Eric about some trails depicted on the "big" TNF map, in the North Fork canyon, near Lake Clementine, Ponderosa Bridge, and points upstream. Eric has a fine collection of maps. As he pawed through his neatly-rolled trove, I spotted an old-style TNF map, and pulled it out.
It was the 1962 TNF map of the Foresthill and Big Bend ranger districts. And there, plain as day, was the old trail from Big Bend to Devils Peak. It showed that, while crossing Section 35, the trail followed a slightly higher line than the road we had walked, and turned south into, and then north, out of, the very pass inhabited by Nancy Lake, before climbing to join the line of the road leading south to Devils Peak from Troy, at the north boundary of Section 6, T16N, R14E.
The map also solved the mystery of the half-inch cables on Knoll 6200; a tiny ski area had been there.
I immediately began poring over this 1962 map with a magnifying glass. I believe I once had my own copy of this map, thirty years ago. Some very intriguing trails were depicted, which I had never realized existed. Like the Big Bend-Devils Peak-Snow Mountain Trail, these trails no longer appear on TNF maps. One such followed the historic Iowa Hill Canal east from Beacroft Trail, past Tadpole Canyon, to the very terminus of the ditch. Another showed a variation upon the route of the Wabena Trail; rather than crossing Wabena Creek and following the east bank down to the North Fork, the trail was shown following the west bank down, and then paralleling the North Fork itself for a mile or so to the west. This lower reach of the trail is exactly that which Ron, my son Greg, and I followed on our recent visit to the Royal Gorge.
This 1962 map also showed the very same historic public trail registered on the 1916 map, from Old Soda Springs Road down the North Fork to Heath Springs. This wonderful trail has been closed to the public (illegally, I would say) for quite a few years now. I had the good fortune to hike it once, in 1979.
Eric kindly provided me with a copy of this 1962 TNF map.
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