This blog is to give you an insight to the goings on behind the scenes of my Foothill Rails website. The adventures of railfanning in Northern California and beyond for the purpose of expanding my site, the research, the inspirations and the frustrations, and the wonderful people who I get to meet. Also new ideas and any other thoughts that may arise.
Email at norcaltrain@internet49.com
Here Kitty Kitty or Not!
Posted December 31st, 2009 at 07:57 PM by John Barnhill
Tags mountain quarries
With eleven straight days off for the holidays, I had to find something to entertain myself. What better than do some ghost railfanning. I wanted something close by so off to the Mountain Quarries RR I went.
I've probably hiked the length of this line half a dozen times and taken hundreds of photos along the way. I've been toying with the idea of a photo tour of the line for the last few years but keep putting it off till I figure out just how I want to do it.
Anyhow, about two minutes from my place I parked the car at Robie Point and headed down the trail to the roadbed. This trail drops me onto the railroad just downstream or upgrade from trestle 10. I first decided to hike towards the quarry with my turn around point being trestle 13 and the Eagle Rock water tank.
With my camera, I brought my new Xmas gift, a machette, along for the few parts where the trail leaves the roadbed to cross the gullies where trestles had stood. This has long been a rough draft type of trail and these spots were never that great. As it turns out, I didn't need my machette. Seems the group that maintains the trail has done an extensive amount of work. In many spots the right of way has been completely cleared and in the gullies, the trail has been completely rebuilt. Super Excellent Job!!!
There is now even a sign at the junction with the Western States trail marking the Old Roadbed Trail. Very very cool.
With many new photos taken along this stretch, I decided to head back the other direction and see what else has been happening. I soon passed where I had dropped onto the roadbed and headed upgrade toward trestles 9, 8 and 7, the subject of one of my earlier trips.
To my surprise much work has been done along this stretch too with brand new sections of trail in place. Awesome!
Now if you'll recall one of my earlier blogs, someone had cut down several large pines into the cuts between these three trestles which had infuriated me. Well, now this has all been cleared by chainsaw and is walkable once again. Kudos to the trail crew!
It is at this point at a large cut between 8 and 7 that I stopped for a break. Just then, out of the corner of my eye, a cat darts across the trail. So of course I start in with the 'here kitty kitty' bit but soon realize this is not an ordinary cat. Can you say Bobcat!?!? I'd never seen one before in the wild. Neato!!!
Not too much bigger than my house cat but I still was cautious. It was nice enough to pause for a photo too. Sweet! Another great wildlife encounter while railfanning.
A few sprinkles of rain and the time made me decide to head back up the hill but I went by way of trestle 7 first. Man, those guys built an entirely new trail here as well. Fantastic. I'm curious to see what else they've done but it is time to go...
The next day I decide to start where I left off at trestle seven and head towards the remains of trestle five. Most of the area between these two, including the site of trestle 6, has been obliterated when construction was done in prep for the Auburn Dam. There are still a couple little sections if you look hard enough though so I wondered if the trail extended that far.
It turns out the trail turns uphill from the grade near the site of 6 and exits the canyon at the River Overlook. Bummer but it is real rough goin to explore this section anyways. Maybe sometime in the future I can contact the group that has redone the trail and guide them to extend it.
I did go up and around the devastation zone and drop back down the paved road past the Flint power substation to the site of trestle 5 and check it out again. Not much new but photos of everything ensued anyhow. Oh well, time to wrap it up once again.
On the ascent, I took a pause to overlook everything back towards trestle 7 when out of the corner of my eye, yes, another bobcat!! Got an even better photo this time but this one seemed a little more aggresive and I wasn't foolin around. Still, two bobcats in two days for my first time ever seeing them in the wild was mindblowing!!! Super Fantastic.
Anyhow, head over to the aerial shots on my Mountain Quarries page to get a better feel for where these places are.
Hopefully someday, I'll figure out this photo tour thing too and bring you lots of pics.
I've probably hiked the length of this line half a dozen times and taken hundreds of photos along the way. I've been toying with the idea of a photo tour of the line for the last few years but keep putting it off till I figure out just how I want to do it.
Anyhow, about two minutes from my place I parked the car at Robie Point and headed down the trail to the roadbed. This trail drops me onto the railroad just downstream or upgrade from trestle 10. I first decided to hike towards the quarry with my turn around point being trestle 13 and the Eagle Rock water tank.
With my camera, I brought my new Xmas gift, a machette, along for the few parts where the trail leaves the roadbed to cross the gullies where trestles had stood. This has long been a rough draft type of trail and these spots were never that great. As it turns out, I didn't need my machette. Seems the group that maintains the trail has done an extensive amount of work. In many spots the right of way has been completely cleared and in the gullies, the trail has been completely rebuilt. Super Excellent Job!!!
There is now even a sign at the junction with the Western States trail marking the Old Roadbed Trail. Very very cool.
With many new photos taken along this stretch, I decided to head back the other direction and see what else has been happening. I soon passed where I had dropped onto the roadbed and headed upgrade toward trestles 9, 8 and 7, the subject of one of my earlier trips.
To my surprise much work has been done along this stretch too with brand new sections of trail in place. Awesome!
Now if you'll recall one of my earlier blogs, someone had cut down several large pines into the cuts between these three trestles which had infuriated me. Well, now this has all been cleared by chainsaw and is walkable once again. Kudos to the trail crew!
It is at this point at a large cut between 8 and 7 that I stopped for a break. Just then, out of the corner of my eye, a cat darts across the trail. So of course I start in with the 'here kitty kitty' bit but soon realize this is not an ordinary cat. Can you say Bobcat!?!? I'd never seen one before in the wild. Neato!!!
Not too much bigger than my house cat but I still was cautious. It was nice enough to pause for a photo too. Sweet! Another great wildlife encounter while railfanning. A few sprinkles of rain and the time made me decide to head back up the hill but I went by way of trestle 7 first. Man, those guys built an entirely new trail here as well. Fantastic. I'm curious to see what else they've done but it is time to go...
The next day I decide to start where I left off at trestle seven and head towards the remains of trestle five. Most of the area between these two, including the site of trestle 6, has been obliterated when construction was done in prep for the Auburn Dam. There are still a couple little sections if you look hard enough though so I wondered if the trail extended that far.
It turns out the trail turns uphill from the grade near the site of 6 and exits the canyon at the River Overlook. Bummer but it is real rough goin to explore this section anyways. Maybe sometime in the future I can contact the group that has redone the trail and guide them to extend it.
I did go up and around the devastation zone and drop back down the paved road past the Flint power substation to the site of trestle 5 and check it out again. Not much new but photos of everything ensued anyhow. Oh well, time to wrap it up once again.
On the ascent, I took a pause to overlook everything back towards trestle 7 when out of the corner of my eye, yes, another bobcat!! Got an even better photo this time but this one seemed a little more aggresive and I wasn't foolin around. Still, two bobcats in two days for my first time ever seeing them in the wild was mindblowing!!! Super Fantastic.
Anyhow, head over to the aerial shots on my Mountain Quarries page to get a better feel for where these places are.
Hopefully someday, I'll figure out this photo tour thing too and bring you lots of pics.
Total Comments 1
Comments
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Neat stuff. I like the photo tour idea. I've thought of projects like that too, but tough to figure out just how to publish it.Posted January 1st, 2010 at 11:53 AM by campp 
