An American River Canyon "Book of Days": 2000

Showing posts with label 2000. Show all posts

January 3 (1981, 1989, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2008)
Big Valley Bluff ~ More on the “Blasted Trail”

January 3, 2021

Several holes, dug through the duff by one of the resident critters... was it fungi or insects it was after? Is this why I am not finding mushrooms in this area? Yep, probably.

“1/3/81 Way before dawn... went to the Bluff* yesterday and hiked down to the edge of the canyon. McClungs, anxious about heights, stayed above. I got hungry for quartz crystals and climbed down the cliff in search of quartz veins; I found many veins but few crystals. Clouds came in while we were there. We left after an hour or so.

It sprinkled lightly last night, the first precipitation in weeks. Incredible weather most of December—sunny, over 70° in the day, above 40° at night.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

*The "Bluff" is Big Valley Bluff, a point on the north rim of the North Fork canyon west of Snow Mountain. It is quite unusual to have been able to visit that spot on January 2nd, since the access road would normally be long blocked with snow by this mid-winter date, being over 6000' elevation. The warm, sunny December he describes in the second paragraph explains how it could be.

View to the east from the Bluff
(Click to enlarge)

View to the west from the Bluff
(Click to enlarge)

View south across to Tadpole Canyon

Straight down over "Falcon Perch" high above the river

Taken August 2, 2008, after the "American Fire" finally died out, from the Iowa Hill Ditch trail near the head of Tadpole Canyon, looking north across the North Fork to Big Valley Bluff—the highest point on the right.

(Click to enlarge)

“January the 3rd, 1989

[...]

I cried while skiing up the meadow and out from my cabin today. It really seemed like good-bye. The water line is frozen, pipes are broken inside the bathroom wall, it is all a mess and a clutter and a thousand memories of so many many prayers for someone to share that incredible beauty with. So many unanswered prayers. And there comes a point when it is just too much, it has gone entirely too far, and yet the sun lights it all up as always and I cry to think of so much loneliness. It is so less than fair. Then for my father to move out there. It's over. I'm gone; if I am seen around here now, it is only my ghost. I'm out of here.

Or so I say.

The sun sets, after another clear day, so blessed after too many storms.

[...] ”

[Russell Towle's journal]

Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 08:39:41-0800
To: North_Fork_Trails
From: Russell Towle
Subject: Blasted Trail? Uhhh ... No!!!!

Hi all,

Terry Davis of the Sierra Club wrote, of Supervisor Rex Bloomfield's proposed Capitol-to-Capitol Trail,

"Bill & Russell & others, I've been horrified by Rex's trail concept ever since he started talking about it a couple of years ago. Wide, even grade, close to the river. He refused to even talk about using existing trails. He seemed to have in mind a mini super-highway, off limits only to motorized vehicles. I think that the Sierra Club, PARC, CNPS, Audubon all need to make it clear that we will not support the trail he has in mind—can you imagine blasting through the Giant Gap and the Royal Gorge? I wouldn't be so sure it's an impossible dream. Once the EIS/EIR is approved by the agencies, the grants will just roll in. We need to strategize on stopping, or modifying, this atrocity. I hate to wait until the environmental docs are out. We need to make this controversial now. Terry"

Now, others on this list have made some inquiries, and been assured by people involved in the actual planning of the trail, that:

1. It will not go through the Royal Gorge.
2. Its actual course has yet to be determined.

Hmmm. Then why did the map in the Bee article show it going right up the river?

I agree with Terry, we need to figure out how to stop this trail.

One thing we can do right now is let District Five Supervisor Rex Bloomfield know we are opposed. Perhaps the simplest message would be, "no new trail in the North Fork American canyon." That is least open to misinterpretation. His email address is:

Rex Bloomfield [no longer relevant]

He gets all these "North Fork Trails" email list messages anyway.

Cheers,

Russell Towle

Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 11:20:12 -0800
To: Deane_Swickard
From: Russell Towle
Subject: Re: Blasted Trail? Uhhh ... No!!!!
Cc: North_Fork_Trails

Hi Deane (Deane Swickard, Area Manager, Folsom Area, BLM),

Thanks for your reply, in which you wrote,

>
>Relax, there is no way a trail is going to be blasted up the North Fork
>American.
>
> First, it will never pass muster on environmental grounds. It's
>inconsistent with wild river management. There will be no blasting a trail
>along BLM or Forest Service land in the wild river corridor. Since most of
>the river is publically owned from 1000ft above the Iowa Hill Bridge
>eastward, a trail within a quarter mile of the river doesn't have a prayer.

Yes, this seems only what good sense would imply.

>Rex has good intentions. Trails are very popular and there is need for new
>trails throughout the state. In this case, he seems limited a bit by his
>knowledge of the geography, the protections afforded wild rivers and the
>difficulty and cost of trail building in steep terrain.

Yes, Rex has good intentions. But the Road to Hell should by no means proceed up the North Fork of the American River!

Although it seems to me that no new trail would be allowed to be constructed within the North Fork American Wild & Scenic River corridor, nor, for that matter, within the canyon at large, this idea has been kicking around for a few years now, has not gone away, and in fact, has attracted a grant of $1.5 million from the CA Resources Agency, and a grant of $400,000 from the Placer Legacy.

It could be that Tahoe National Forest District Ranger Rich Johnson, of the Foresthill Ranger District, has provided encouragement to Rex Bloomfield, about the prospects for building a new trail, suitable for horses and mountain bikes, up the river, within Tahoe National Forest. For, Rich Johnson has said to me personally that he envisions opening up a trail from Mumford Bar, downstream to Italian Bar. Such a trail, I believe, existed in the 19th century, since I seem to recall that, in his diary, I.T. Coffin records going from Italian Bar up to Mumford Bar in 1863, along the river, which would be quite a strenuous exercise without some kind of trail to follow.

So, in this one reach of the river, it could be maintained that a trail already exists.

Similarly for the reach from Euchre Bar, upstream to Italian Bar.

I have been scouting out some of these old trails, now abandoned, but hesitate to bring them to the attention of Tahoe National Forest, lest they become mountain bike trails. I have about had it with mountain bikes in the North Fork American, especially within the Wild & Scenic River corridor.

Thanks again for your remarks, which tend to quiet my extreme terror.

All the best,

Russell Towle

April 7 (1978, 1979, 1984, 1988, 2000, 2002)
Annoying Questions

“4/7/78 morning. the clouds are breaking up. sun shines now and again. snow falls steadily from the trees. i never made it out to ron's or lovers leap yesterday. i did get willy out and aside from the cracks in the welds nothing too drastic seems to have happened.

last night it snowed a little, only down to about 3000' elevation; it had snowed all the way down to the river yesterday morning. a little sunset color and sunrise color were a fine treat last night and this morning. i should go walk around and enjoy the snowy vista while i can. annoying questions plague my mind. why am i here on earth? what is the meaning of life? what do i want? i want to be happy.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“4/7/79 […]

i feel so frustrated that I am not working for the betterment of mankind. that the few conservation issues i involve myself in are almost worthless in terms of really helping humanity. how does the fate of lover's leap compare to the starvation and oppression that remain the fate of many people on this world?”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“4/7/84 ~ A sunny morning. Yesterday I posted letters to Brad Welton and Charlie McClung, outlining the willingness and unwillingness to sell, on the part of the property owners at Lover's Leap.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“4/7/88 Morning, cloudy, cool, hinting of rain; I was awakened early on by the perambulations of seven deer.

Near sunset, clear, breezy. Strolling through the meadow. Gazing at dogwoods from many different angles. Planning to plant Sierra redwoods and nurture them into rapid growth. ...

I made a list of the main trees and shrubs which grow on Ed's property, complete with etymologies of their scientific names (I stretched things a bit to arrive at “bear-clustering bear-berries” for Arctostaphylos uva-ursi).”

[Russell Towle's journal]

About Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Bearberry Manzanita):
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ARUV

Confluence of North Fork American, and Canyon Creek.
April 7, 2000

Russell, Janet and Greg Towle, Gem Wiseman
April 7, 2000

Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2002 06:41:49 -0800
To: North_Fork_Trails
From: Russell Towle
Subject: NCLT hike to Canyon Creek

Hi all,

Yesterday I took a group from the Nevada County Land Trust down to the North Fork via the Paleobotanist and Canyon Creek trails.

There were about ten of us. The day had begun hazy, with a diffuse mass of fog in the North Fork canyon at dawn; by 10 a.m. it had been lifted and evaporated by solar heating and in part, rematerialized as fair-weather cumulus clouds. The day was fresh and cool and lovely. Quite a few species of wildflowers are now in bloom along the trail, tho the peak bloom is still weeks away. Especially nice are the Shooting Stars high on the trail, the Houndstongue, and hundreds of Blue Dicks down lower, past the bridge. Some poppies have appeared as well.

We visited the great dark tunnel of the Gold Run Ditch & Mining Co., twelve feet wide and nine feet high where it debouches into Canyon Creek. We stopped at the first large waterfall for a while; the creek has subsided a bit, with almost no snow left now in its upper basin, but the falls remain loud and pretty. Then it was down to the Upper Terraces Trail, and up the Big Waterfall Trail, where we took a long break, admiring the falls, eating some lunch, and scouting around the strange little polished basin at the base of the falls, surrounded by angular cliffs with massive overhanging rock.

Michael Joyce and others noticed some iron bars set into the cliffs rather high above the creek, say, 50 feet above, and more. I had explained the basic strategy of hydraulic mining, and how the creek had once been lined with huge sluice boxes to re-work the tailings from the mines above, and had remarked upon the importance of keeping the gigantic volumes of muddy gravel and boulders moving through the sluice boxes. As we considered these high iron bars, in positions where one would have had to rope down from somewhere above to drill the holes and set them, I was at a loss to explain their presence. Many such bars line the creek itself and were used to anchor the sluice boxes, under tremendous strain from the tons of surging tailings. But these high bars?

Not until last night did their probable use occur to me. The thing of it is, and I know this from old newspaper accounts of the tailings claims in Canyon Creek and elsewhere, sometimes you simply could not keep up with the volume of tailings, and your sluice boxes would become buried. This probably happened many times in Canyon Creek. Then, confronted with tailings, say, twenty to fifty feet deep, one would have to set new sluice boxes in a higher position, and start to work down through the pile. So, these high bars probably represent some such event.

I also know from the old newspapers that Chinese workers were used to shovel tailings in Canyon Creek. A man named W.H. Kinder once owned this long narrow claim, and the Anti-Chinese Committee of Gold Run approached him, asking him to fire his Chinese labor and hire white labor, in 1877. Kinder lamented that he needed the Chinese for shoveling. Presumably they would work much harder, for much less pay, than the white men; this was usually the case. Charles Crocker discovered this when building the Central Pacific Railroad.

After a time we continued down to the river and took another break. The swirling puffy clouds sometimes blocked the sun and kept us almost too cool. The river was, of course, high and wild. We discussed the tragedy of the young man from Indonesia who drowned last weekend, a few miles downstream, attempting to ford the river. I cannot imagine thinking that this river could be forded, at this time of year. The thing is, nine of his friends did ford it, in chest-deep water! They must have been holding hands. They are lucky not to all have been swept away.

Soon we took the upward angle and slowly, slowly climbed out of the canyon. One of our group was not used to such exertion and just slowed down accordingly. A couple of us stayed back with him while the rest of the group forged ahead. It was nice to stop and rest many times and look around. I believe I saw a pair of golden eagles soaring thousands of feet above us. They were flirting, and I hoped to witness their remarkable courtship flights, which involve dives of hundreds of feet, a sudden spread of wings to shoot straight up, like a little eagle bullet, and then a somersault or two at the top, preceding another dive; but these two were circling, in spirals of opposite senses, coming within a few feet of one another time and again, and insensibly rising higher and higher in the afternoon updrafts, until I could see them no more.

Around 4:30 we were back atop the Bluffs, at our vehicles. Everyone agreed upon the supreme importance of BLM land acquisitions at Gold Run, to secure public access to these wonderful trails and wild canyons.

Cheers,

Russell Towle

March 24 (2000, 2002)
Bridging Canyon Creek

“March 24, 2000
[...]

After a very stormy and wet six or eight weeks, the sun made a strong appearance about two weeks ago and I suddenly decided that at long last it was time to haul my chainsaw down into Canyon Creek and work on the main trail and its laterals. I began Tuesday before last, and have been in there every day but Sunday since. The saw eventually became too dull to use, and some work remains on the very lowest section of the trail, but I succeeded in opening the lateral to Bogus Point, from Waterfall View up to the ridge dividing Canyon Creek from the North Fork, and also, the trail into the Big Waterfall, and into the Terraces, and from the Terraces back to the main trail. So, job well done

Bob & Judy Suter contacted me out of the blue a couple of weeks ago, expressing interest in the Giant Gap Trail idea I had set forth in the DF Community newspaper a couple of years ago. They live out on Garrett Road in a really nice log home with stone floors. They have horses and like riding the diggings. So we’re trying to put together a group to advocate trail issues in the local area, and had a meeting last night at their house. I called around but only managed to get Jim Ricker to come. Since a hike down the Canyon Creek Trail to the river had been planned for this morning (it is 3:30 A.M. right now), and since some of the people I had hoped would come along would have had difficulty with the jump across the creek where the trail crosses, I decided, what the hey, why not go ahead and build a little bridge. So I built one yesterday, managing to obtain a donation of two twelve-foot two by sixes from John Krogsrud of Auburn, a trails enthusiast, and scrounging up enough odds and ends of scraps from around here to complete the thing. So now there is a bridge twelve feet long and eighteen inches wide across Canyon Creek.”

View from Moody Ridge
March 24, 2002

February 21 (1976, 1987, 2000)
Spring. Then again, Winter.

“2/21/76 ~ sunny and bright. wrens chatter from the bushes and many bees buzz the manzanita. wrens, i have seen, lurk in the flowery manzanita and ambush unwary bees. i wonder if they have a special technique of snapping up bees and wasps, based on millennia of trial and error, that prevents being stung...

how the pine needles dance and sparkle in the wind! yesterday i cut one down, about twenty-five feet high, and noted sadly that the needles still danced and sparkled as it lay on the ground, as though they still didn't know anything had happened, but i went about my business, roaring chainsaw in hand and bits of toilet paper stuffed in my ears in the hope of averting hearing damage.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“2/21/87 Saturday afternoon, cloudy, quite brisk and cold, a few flakes of snow wind their lonely way downwards from the sky. [...] Yesterday I drove down to Auburn to check over the timber harvest plans in the Bowman CDF office; talked with Jim Mower; no very radical plans seem in the offing for this area, except, perhaps, some clearcuts near the Cedars.

[...] after picking up some gas for the chainsaw, returned to gather up some modicum of fuel to outlast the oncoming storm, which, they say, for I'm listening to KGO, that is, half-listening, to a talk show about financial matters: which storm is producing thunderstorms, funnel clouds, and already the snow sifts down, and oh dear diary, I wish not to struggle with chains...”

[Russell Towle's journal]

Animated depiction of a portion of the
Northern California Sierra Nevada

Created February 21, 2000 from DEM (Digital Elevation Map) data. North is at the top. Three river canyons are depicted: at bottom, the North Fork American, in middle the Bear River, at top, the South Yuba. Giant Gap and Green Valley are in the lower left corner. In order to highlight relief, Russell included a rotating light source. This is a low resolution internet version of the very finely detailed movie.

June 14 (1978, 2000, 2001, 2007)
East Fork Country ~ Artifacts

“6/14/78 morning. cloud shadows flit across the canyon, as they have for days now.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

File name: rendermap.jpg
File date: June 14, 2000

BVB = Big Valley Bluff; SPF = Sugar Pine Flat.; BGC = Big Granite Canyon; NYC = New York Canyon;
SM = Sailor Meadow; WC = Wildat Canyon; DC = Duncan Canyon; DP = Duncan Peak; LBM = ?

Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 15:22:02 -0800
To: North_Fork_Trails
From: Russell Towle
Subject: Hearing

Hi all,

Good news, the Planning Commission voted 5-2 to uphold the appeal, and deny permission to build a house above Iron Point! Thanks so much to all of you who wrote.

Several people spoke on behalf of the appeal. As the appellant, I was allowed to ramble on and on about the great North Fork, and sat down possessed with all I should have said, but didn't. Then Bill Newsom stepped forward to charm the Commission with his deft humor, and urge protection of the scenic qualities in the canyon. Tim Woodall made a very effective presentation upon the legal issues bearing upon the Minor Use Permit. Marilyn Jasper and Sharon Cavallo spoke well on behalf of the great canyon. And Stephanie Austin-Goodman brought the meeting to a temporary halt by offering to buy the 48 acres from the applicant, Linda Carruthers, while Jim Forman, Commission chairperson, tried to quell her with arms waving. Such an offer was apparently well outside the scope of what the Commission wished to hear.

It is unknown whether Ms. Carruthers will appeal this decision. If she does, the matter will be heard before the Board of Supervisors (I think).

Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 20:41:30 -0800
To: North_Fork_Trails
From: Russell Towle
Subject: Iron Point parcel

Hi all,

[...] if anyone wants to see what an SPI clearcut looks like in real life, Iron Point has a nice view of some a few miles east, up on Sawtooth Ridge. They are about two years old. SPI owns quite a few sections up in that area. These clearcuts can be reached by driving in to Helester Point (from Emigrant Gap) and walking a half mile west.

If anyone else has the sense that TNF may be drastically underestimating the amount of SPI lands (and other lands) it should attempt to purchase, well, maybe we can do something about it. So far as trails go, the China Trail at Lost Camp originates on SPI lands, I believe. I am planning to hike the China Trail down to the North Fork of the North Fork with several people on the weekend of the 23-24. Any of you are welcome. I will provide details when they are known.

More and More Lost Locomotives

[North Fork Trails blogpost, June 14, 2007:
http://northforktrails.blogspot.com/2007/10/more-and-more-lost-locomotives.html ]

Western Azalea
(Rhododendren occidentale)

Wednesday morning Ron Gould and I drove up to Emigrant Gap on I-80, and then in on Forest Road 19 to Onion Valley (a lush wet glacial meadow just below the 4800' contour), hung a left on Forest Road 45, and very soon went right on 45-2. Our objective was the old Bradley & Gardner Ditch, or Placer County Canal. Following it in and out of Monumental Canyon we would reach the East Fork, and in another mile, the "take," where a small dam once diverted the East Fork into the Canal.

There we would find the old riveted steam engine boiler, twenty feet long and four feet in diameter. I had conjectured that this might be the source of the "Legend of the Lost Locomotive," the abandoned narrow-gauge logging engine supposedly hidden away in that remote, many-ravined East Fork Country.

The East Fork of the North Fork of the North Fork of the American River might better be named Azalea Canyon, for the Western Azalea, a species of rhododendron, is in full bloom along the banks of the creek, the large and graceful white flowers sweetly scenting the air. This shrub seems especially common there.

We parked at the end of Road 45-2 and began our hike.

All went as planned and Ron much admired the admirable old rock walls along the Canal, and the fine view of the Monuments, below, on Monumental Creek.

We reached the "take," and the putative Lost Locomotive. Ron has a keen eye. I had examined every exposed surface for some kind of maker's mark, but I found nothing. Ron immediately saw some tiny letters on two of the riveted iron plates forming the giant cylinder; one set of letters was legible, and read "CH#1," the other, longer set of letters seemed to spell "LOCHAIR" but was very faint, and may have had one letter preceding the "L."

Later, from the internet, Ron learned that "CH#1" means "charcoal hammered number one grade." This was a specialty rolled iron used for boilers.

We paused for lunch at the Lost Locomotive (which may well have been some kind of stationary steam engine, and in any case has no running gear or cab), and discussed its position, really right down in the bed of the Azalea Canyon, inches from the water. On the one hand, it might have rolled down the canyon wall: there was some denting to the cylinder. On the other hand, it might have been carried down Azalea Canyon from somewhere above, in a flood event, such as occurred in January of 1997. There are scratches running lengthwise on the cylinder.

Ron felt that, had the tons of metal been carried down the river, it would show more and deeper scratches. I on the other hand, who started by insisting it must have rolled down from some point above, now began to think that it must have been washed down Azalea Canyon to its current position.

We found a number of pieces of strap iron in and around the creek, which seemed to have nothing to do with our lonely Lost Locomotive, and I speculated that they may have been used to tie together the logs of the vanished diversion dam.

I was wrong, however, as will soon be made clear.

After lunch, we climbed to a century-old narrow-gauge logging railroad grade less than a hundred feet above the Bradley & Gardner, and followed it up the canyon, through occasional patches of thick brush. This old railroad grade bade fair to continue up Azalea Canyon for miles. However, in half a mile it turned into a side canyon and seemed to end altogether.

We could see a strange area of raw dirt across Azalea Canyon, and in the course of scouting the forested slopes in our ravine for any sign of our railroad grade's continuation, we drew nearer, and saw that near the area of raw dirt, some cliffs fell steeply to the river. So we made our way back to the river's edge, and saw immediately that a road descended to the river from the Texas Hill side, ending in a huge turn-around and log deck. A very high bank had been left by the big bench cut. So, there was our raw dirt.

Immediately upstream were the cliffs, and we entered a fascinating little gorge within Azalea Canyon, Shoo Fly Complex metasediments carved into pools and rapids. Smooth and rounded rocks along the stream gave way to ragged cliffs of slate rising hundreds of feet above. It was easy going, with the water so low, to ascend the gorge, and shortly we entered a more typical part of the canyon, with White Alders along the banks, and many boulders of glacial outwash and glacial till in the stream.

We rested. The day was quite warm and the shade was welcome. Looking at our maps, we saw that a certain road descended to the river from the north, only a little ways upstream. Ron began wandering up the creek, and soon a shout brought me scampering along after him. He stood triumphantly over a train wheel, which must have weighed hundreds of pounds, lying beside the creek on a bedrock outcrop. Now we must be within an ace of the road-from-the-north, so we forged on up the stream, finding more strap iron, and then, some narrow-gauge railroad track, and then ...

And then we reached the road-from-the-north, which I saw at once was a century-old railroad grade, unusually steep, but Ron kept on finding new and more exciting bits and pieces of old railroad junk down below, and I rejoined him. A little flat at the base of the old road held a sign on a tree reading "Time Bandit Claim." The miner had found many square nails and spikes and whatnot in the course of suction dredging the creek, and these were in a pile. We saw large pieces of old iron equipment scattered beside the creek nearby, and another old railroad grade seemed to climb steeply away on the Texas Hill side. I followed this up a couple hundred yards, where it became indistinct, but did seem to continue, and then struck directly back down to the stream, crossed, and found myself in a vast springy area with an acre of Lady Ferns putting on new growth in the sunshine.

Lady Fern
(Athyrium filix-femina)

I found a squishy path through the ferns and entered the forest above, immediately striking another old railroad grade, which I followed up the canyon a short distance, before it seemed to end. Retreating, I began to see more old metal scattered in the woods, and soon found a cabin site, with pieces of an old cast-iron woodstove, and other oddities, scattered about. Ron joined me, and after looking at the antiquities, we saw a Forest Service sign advising that it was a historic site, and artifacts could not be taken.

Walking down the old railroad grade towards the flat with the mining claim sign, we saw some more old metal at the edge of the large springy area, much obscured by alder trees, and walking over, found a second boiler, like the first, about twenty feet long and four feet in diameter. This boiler had various appurtenances bolted on which were missing from the Bradley & Gardner boiler. Nearby were what appeared to be long sections of riveted light sheet iron smokestacks.

We interpreted this second boiler to be a stationary engine used at the base of a steep, tracked, "incline," although in retrospect I suppose it may have powered a sawmill. But we saw no sawdust pile, no artifacts which could only have derived from a mill.

Seeing all this antique logging gear, scarcely half a mile above the Bradley & Gardner boiler, led me to conclude that it had indeed been carried down the river in a flood event.

After exploring the area fairly thoroughly, we debated whether to follow the road-from-the-north up to where the top of the incline must have been, on the ridge dividing Azalea and Monumental canyons, but decided instead to follow back down the East Fork and look for the base of the Texas Hill Incline.

This historic incline connected the East Fork (Azalea Canyon) to the summit of Texas Hill, and thus to the Towle Brothers Lumber Company's "Burnett Canyon" mill, of the 1890s.

On our way back down Azalea Canyon, we saw more and more old strap iron, and soon enough found long pieces, some still nailed to wooden rails. This was a relatively primitive way of moving logs around; instead of laying "real" railroad track, which is expensive, one used wooden beams or logs for rails, and nailed strap iron on top. Then flat-cars, or log-cars, of some kind, could be rolled down these tracks, using oxen or even mules for motive force. It looks very much as if one of the primitive strap-iron railroads followed right down Azalea Canyon, sometimes directly beside the stream itself, sometimes fifty feet above it. We saw hundreds of feet of strap iron before we reached the Bradley & Gardner.

From the Canal, a few yards west of the "take," we followed an old railroad grade down to the stream, and immediately struck a continuation of the strap-iron railroad. As we followed downstream, crossing from side to side to take advantage of forested flat terraces of glacial outwash, so did the strap iron cross back and forth.

Eventually we reached the near vicinity of the Texas Hill Incline, but frustratingly, could not see it. Trees over a hundred feet high have grown up since then.

However, we did find a cable spool, which may be what was sometimes called a "gypsy head," associated with a stationary engine used for yarding logs, at about where we felt the base of the Incline must be.

Proceeding downstream, a much more substantial narrow-gauge railroad grade replaced our fragile strap-iron line, and this led to a crossing of Azalea Canyon exactly at the confluence of Monumental Creek. From there it was a short but not all that easy scramble back up to Road 45-2 and Ron's truck.

Before returning to the freeway and Civilization, we drove up Texas Hill Road past the spring of that name, and found the upper section of the Incline. However, we could not see all the way down into Azalea Canyon. The exact course of the Incline as it nears the stream will be found on some other trip.

Such was a very interesting day in the East Fork Country.

A reminder:

June 3 (1976, 1988, 2000)
Trail Easements

“6/3/76 as is usual when i camp here, i was awoken by the singing of the black-headed grosbeaks. awoken out of a dream by their sweet clamor.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“6/3/88 morning, after an interlude sans journal, and possibly much of interest to report, if I were able to remember. To begin with I met again with Forest Service officials last night, along with Gene Markley and Mark Faller, re public access to the high country for skiing and hiking, which has become an issue due to increasingly restricted parking and increasingly wide-ranging commercial x-country trails (i.e., Royal Gorge). I was inspired to suggest that all Royal Gorge special use permits be revoked, an idea which fell on deaf ears, or was dismissed out of hand, one or the other. This meeting arose from telephone calls to TNF in December of last year! TNF, although maintaining many trails which traverse private lands without easement, seems to think my concept that all such trails and roads in the high country have been “impliedly dedicated” to the public, uhm, a bit radical and ill-informed.

I've many letters to write to TNF on this and other subjects. [...] Took Bill to see the waterfalls/pools on N. Fk. of the N. Fk. American and he was duly impressed.

Am working on a rustic chair for Ed, made from cedar loglets.

Various storms have brought rain to the area recently, engendering lush growth in the meadow, where bracken ferns seem about to reach record heights, Iris are in bloom…

I am planning to visit the Royal Gorge itself, soon. Bob Pfister and I worked on the Smart's Crossing trail and road again this year. Several years in a row now we have pruned back branches etc.”

Russell Towle's journal

Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 11:14:04 -0800
To: North_Fork_Trails
From: Russell Towle
Subject: trail easements

Hi all,

Dean Decker of the Folsom office of the BLM informed me a couple of weeks ago that the Stevens Trail and Blue Wing/Fords Bar Trail both have public easements on them, as enacted by the Placer County Board of Supervisors. Subsequently I learned that Wendell T. Robie was one of the principal advocates of these easements. Decker was kind enough to supply the date and ordinance number for the two actions by the BOS. The BOS staff in Auburn sent me copies of the two ordinances.

The first ordinance, #301B of May 11, 1953, is a remarkable document. It lists dozens and dozens of trails and roads, referencing them to various U.S.G.S. maps pubished around the turn of the century. It often specifies section numbers and townships. Among the specified trails are the Donner Trail, the Green Valley Trail, the Stevens Trail, the Blue Wing/Fords Bar Trail, and the China Trail from Lost Camp to Sawtooth Ridge. Copies of the maps were filed with this ordinance. The essence of this ordinance is that all the roads and trails shown on the U.S.G.S. maps specified, are declared public roads and trails, and that it is a misdemeanor to block or obstruct them in any way, save for an unlocked gate to limit ingress or egress of stock.

The second ordinance, #312B of January 11, 1954, (Section 1) repeals all of the first ordinance. It then proceeds to state (Section 2) that "All public trails, public hiking trails, public riding trails, public county trails and public roads situated in the County of Placer, State of California, are hereby declared to be County roads, and subject to the following herinafter provided rules and regulations for the use of said trails and roads."

The sections that follow are almost identical to those concluding the first ordinance, forbidding the closure or obstruction of public roads and trails, except by unlocked gates for control of stock, and declaring it a misdemeanor to close or obstruct a public trail.

I am no lawyer, but it seems to me that by repealing all the specific language of the first ordinance, with its long list of trails referenced to historic maps, and only declaring that all public trails and roads are County roads, the BOS managed to sidestep the issue entirely. As much to say, it is not for the BOS to say what trail is or is not a "public" trail. That, apparently, is left for the courts.

So it would appear to me that there is no formal public easement on the Stevens Trail or on the Blue Wing/Fords Bar Trail, or on any of the trails listed in the first ordinance. Too bad.

I wonder if any provision for public roads and trails was made in the legislation signed by Lincoln making the land grants to the CPRR. Since Robie (I presume) made his list of trails for the BOS in 1953, many of the historic trails have been blocked or obliterated by logging and road construction, both on Forest Service land and on the Southern Pacific railroad lands. Today the old railroads lands are mostly owned by Sierra Pacific Industries.

Other North Fork Trails news:

1. We haven't heard anything from the Gold Run Properties people regarding possible purchase of the Canyon Creek Placer Mine.

2. A list of about fifteen trails, with descriptions, was sent to Supervisor Rex Bloomfield. Rex may be able to interest the Placer Legacy in land acquisition around some of these trails. We are starting to amass photographs of some of the trails and of the North Fork American Canyon, for a more polished presentation of our objectives in preserving and enhancing public access to these historic trails.

[I believe this reference is to the document described and pictured in the May 31 entry, here.]

3. I need a good, 3 megapixel digital camera (Nikon 990, for instance) to help forward this work. I have all the tools to make PDF files and burn them onto CD's for distribution to our elected representatives, and to organizations like the BLM, Placer Legacy, Trust for Pulic Land, Forest Service, etc. But I need a good digital camera.

[Long-time local environmentalist and supporter Bill Newsom did get Russell that camera; the first of several he was able to put to good use over the subsequent eight years of relentless advocacy for the North Fork. ]

Cheers,

Russell Towle

June 2 (1976, 1981, 1987, 2000, 2001, 2005)
In Search of the Rawhide Mine ~ Phantom Orchids

Phantom Orchid
(Cephalanthera austiniae)

“6/2/76 […]

the air is preternaturally clear today, every tree stands out in sharp relief in the canyon, even the cliffs at the lower end of royal gorge show good detail, 15 miles east…

grosbeaks have launched a singing episode. saw many nuthatches yesterday.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“6/2/81 a cloudy morning, with a few raindrops. This spring has been positively blessed by a few rainstorms ~ grasses and wildflowers seem much enhanced. I've never seen so many Phantom Orchids.

Later ~ more and more Phantom orchids emerge. I putter about, replacing a gate valve, drain the tank. I need another gate valve in the main line.

sunshine splatters the floor of the cabin. then again, it doesn't.

I have to guess that the spring rains, the rains of May, have triggered an impulse to bloom in the orchid rootstocks. There have been years when i haven't seen a single orchid. i should go get Sam Eastman and bring him out here. He says the phantoms are rare.

The Blue Field Gilias are in full bloom in the meadow, as are the Irises. Salsify. Fireweed getting ready.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“6/2/87 […]

Today [...] I wrote a cover letter for the copy of The Letter of Appeal which is to go to Michael Onewing. Then I began drafting an article, entitled “North Fork American Wild & Scenic Clear-Cut,” the content of which can be surmised. […] and then I drove into Dutch Flat, where I ran into William a Newsom, [...] I unfolded my Five-Year TNF Timber Sale Map; we discussed the prospects of the Corral Springs Appeal and possible legal actions at some length. Bill's sense of things is that Corral Springs has gone too far, having been put under contract, to stop; and he may be right, in fact, I decided to appeal Corral Springs with full awareness that it might well be a futile effort.

[...]

And then, oh finally then, I came home, I rolled a joint, I pounded the keyboard in a blue frenzy, I sat down where I am now and I began to type this message to the future. It is my especial concern that this reach the distant future, this journal, that is.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“June 2, 2000

Warm, sunny, snaky. Was out in the Gold Run Diggings today and saw two garter snakes and a rattlesnake. My hand was two inches from the rattler, which was in the shade beneath a rock. I was peeling layers of clay apart looking for leaf fossils. Didn't see the snake until it turned to go farther underneath the rock.

[...]

Hiked into Big Valley last weekend, Blue Wing Trail weekend before.”

June 2, 2001

Here is a list of fern species I have seen in Canyon Creek:

Bracken Fern, Pteridium aquilinum

California Maidenhair Fern, Adiantum jordani

Sword Fern, Polystichum munitum

Shield Fern, Dryopteris arguta

Gold Fern, Pentagramma triangularis

Bird's-foot Fern, Pellea mucronata

Coffee Fern, Pellea andromedaifolia

Lace Lip Fern, Cheilanthes sp.

California Polypody, Polypodium californicum

California Lace Fern, Aspidotis californica

In Search of the Rawhide Mine

[North Fork Trails blogpost, June 2, 2005:
http://northforktrails.blogspot.com/2005/06/in-search-of-rawhide-mine.html ]

Several weeks ago I made plans with archeologist Nolan Smith of the Foresthill Ranger District to visit the Rawhide Mine. We were to meet June 2nd at 9:00 a.m. at the Alta exit on I-80.

Last night I went to bed early, after a day of struggling though heavy brush on the Iowa Hill Canal. At 3:20 a.m. I got up and made my coffee and checked my email. Two messages from Nolan—one to say he had gone to the Alta exit on June 1st as planned, but I was not there—and then a second to say that he had discovered that it was June 2nd we were to meet, not June 1st. At 7:00 a.m. I chanced a call to his home and we decided to give it one more try. We duly met at the Alta exit and used his 4WD truck to drive out to the Euchre Bar Trail and then on down the Rawhide road.

The Rawhide is a long-defunct hard-rock gold mine in quartz veins in the Shoo Fly Complex metasediments. All kinds of interesting old equipment and buildings are at the place. A historic TNF trail leads up to the crest of Sawtooth Ridge from the North Fork of the North Fork (NFNFAR). This trail has been closed to the public since one Harry Mayo purchased the ~120 acres on the river there, in the late 1970s.

The trail and the mine itself are on TNF lands; some of the buildings, close to the confluence of Blue Canyon and the NFNFAR, are on the Mayo property. I had met Mayo on several occasions in 1979 and 1980, through my old girlfriend Dana Arthur.

Harry Mayo had quite a soft spot, or maybe you'd say it was a hard spot, for Dana. Almost every man who saw her did.

Rumor had it that Harry Mayo wished to sell the Rawhide. Merely because a historic trail passes through the property, I would like to see TNF buy the Mayo land. But the area is rich in historic mining artifacts, why, the tunnel is still open, with ore cart tracks curving out to the dumps. And parts of Blue Canyon and the NFNFAR are on the Mayo property. There are still other trails: one leads up the Lost Camp Divide between Blue Canyon and the NFNFAR, another leads up the NFNFAR to the dam site, where water was diverted to the Rawhide Pelton wheels, in the little powerhouse.

So, there are various reasons why this historic property ought to be purchased by TNF. And there are various problems: an enormous accumulation of just plain junk, for instance. There seems to be a rule that what goes down that tortuous little rocky road, never comes back up. There is a lot of clean-up to do.

The road passes through TNF lands almost all the way down to the NFNAR and the Mayo boundary. About half-way down from Iron Point a heavy gate is reached. We parked there, beside another vehicle, an SUV. A stocky, tattooed man was rolling up his sleeping bag. He seemed eager to make conversation, and identified himself as Wild Bill. Almost immediately we learned of this squatters' camp and that squatters' camp, of how this camp was clean and that other, full of garbage, of drunken threats and loud yelling and gunfire and buying and selling interests in mining claims on TNF land, of purported suicides and more.

Nolan and I walked down to the gate and found that it had a TNF lock on it. We opened it and he walked back up to get his truck. Meanwhile, Wild Bill strolled down, sleeping bag in hand, and went over the same ground again, the bad squatters and their garbage, his four months in LA. At some point I made the mistake of saying that I did not like people living down there in the canyon; that it was one thing to camp out, another thing to actually live there.

Wild Bill exploded in a torrent of profanity and threats. He was whirling in circles while shouting curses. I noticed Nolan flash his truck's lights and wondered what the hell was keeping him. Finally Wild Bill stalked back up the road and I could hear him laying into Nolan with some of the same invective. The truck wasn't moving so I walked back to see what was up.

The starter wouldn't turn the engine over, but the lights seemed bright. Just as I arrived, tho, Wild Bill hopped into his purple SUV and drove it in front of Nolan's truck. Wild Bill insisted upon loosening and cleaning the battery terminals himself. It turned out that in addition to being an Inventor and almost a Movie Star and a Schizophrenic and a Felon, he was also a Master Mechanic. Everything cleaned up and re-tightened, we tried the starter again. Nothing.

We learned again and again of how very unjustly Wild Bill was a Felon; just because he carried explosives into the Placer County Sheriff's office, they got all hot and bothered and took all Wild Bill's guns away! One of the lieutenants was a Jew, and Wild Bill muttered death threats against him while explaining that he, Wild Bill, was not Prejudiced. Schizophrenic, yes; Prejudiced, no.

And not violent, not ever, or, that is, only if you touched him.

But the starter still wouldn't turn over the engine.

So out came Wild Bill's jumper cables, and in another ten minutes we had Nolan's rig running, and in another twenty minutes' Wild Bill's impassioned lectures, repeated over and over and over, on how to avoid shorting out the Bottom Diode on one's alternator, had sufficiently lost steam to allow us to leave.

There seemed no sense in taking a chance on the truck starting up again, later. So the visit to the Rawhide was off.

Up the road we went, Wild Bill following, on his way to set up camp for the summer down by Euchre Bar. A little ways up the road we saw men working and a foot-diameter Douglas Fir came crashing down across the road.

An older man with a Stihl chainsaw had just dropped it, none too neatly, since it hung up in the branches of a Black Oak across the road. This was Harry Mayo. I walked up and introduced myself.

I was met immediately with the standard "What the Hell Are You Trespassing on My Land For" approach with which Harry greets unknown people. But just as quickly I dropped the magic name, Dana Arthur. "Remember Dana?" I asked, "tall, beautiful—she introduced us in 1979?"

Suddenly the cruel and pitiless Harry Mayo was kind. But then Wild Bill came walking up the road. "Is he with you? A friend of yours?" Harry asked, in a low voice, and I answered that I had only just met Wild Bill.

"Stay away from him, he's no good," Mayo advised, and then Wild Bill was upon us, and besieging Harry with stories of his Inventions and Donald Trump and how he wanted to buy the Rawhide just so soon as Trump came through with the Big Bucks ....

Two or three medium-sized Canyon Live Oaks and the Douglas Fir blocked our progress, so I helped throw slash over the side as Harry freed it up with his chainsaw, and Wild Bill explained again and again about the Invention and Donald Trump.

I did manage to get Harry's email address. I had the good sense, or cowardice, not to take up the issue of cutting trees on Forest Service land, trees which in no way impeded travel on the road. Why alienate Harry Mayo? I told him I hoped that TNF could buy his 120 acres. To which he responded, "Do they have Four Million Dollars?"

For that, it seems, is the asking price.

Thirty or forty minutes later we were able to continue up the road. Harry stopped us to tell us of The Pyramid in Green Valley. There are many versions of this myth, which originated with Dr. Wallace Halsey of the Christian Brotherhood. Harry had a new one: The Pyramid was not an Alien Pyramid, but an Indian Pyramid, and that, only six feet high.

This is wildly at variance with the teachings of Dr. Halsey and only goes to show how stories change with the telling.

So, Nolan and I failed entirely, and never even set eyes on the nearest buildings of the Rawhide, not to speak of the mine itself.

One thing, at least, is clear: alcoholic and schizophrenic "homeless" miners are at complete liberty to live down on the North Fork and the NFNFAR. Some of them, like Wild Bill Johnson, are professed "good" homeless schizophrenic miners; Wild Bill, to illustrate this, told Nolan and me about the time he warned a woman from Alta, who he met near the Euchre Bar bridge, never to hike in the canyon, alone. For not all the alcoholic schizophrenics are good, he explained to her.

May 31 (1976, 1978, 2000, 2001)
Guide to the North Fork American River Trails
of the Gold Run/Dutch Flat Region

“5/31/76 early wren shack morning with lovely CLOUDS… clouds which appeared dense last night, heavy altocumulus rolls, and even a few drops of RAIN but not enough to wet the dust… my brother richard came out to canyonland with me yesterday and helped me hassle with dad's ditch-digger, and after a good part of the day we had but twenty-five feet of trench to show for our efforts, and blisters on our hands from pulling the starter rope. so only 330+ feet to go to the Big Black Oak building site ~ and only 100 feet to the Cabañita building site which gives me pause… shall i reconsider Cabañita? i don't think i could build anywhere near as large of a place there. but it has its advantages ~ a nice view, closer to water, no boulders-rolling-down-from-above, and since it would be a Cabañita—a small cabin—it would be easier & less expensive to build. its disadvantages include: visibility from the green valley trail; more shading by evergreen trees; farther from the road. even a cabañita would crowd that little spot ~ and i can't forget the quite healthy and quite leaning digger pine that overhangs the spot.

~ today, with clouds, would be a good one to enjoy out at canyonland digging ditches… oh why won't it rain? lay down that dust? or at least thunder to set my hair standing on end, to get me dancing?”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“5/31/78 […]

it's been a heat wave these past few days, a hundred degrees day after day, it's hard to work.…

the days go by, and I watched the acorn woodpeckers, listen to their screams and shouts and laughter, note with pleasure the presence of bewick's wrens …

venus is paired with another planet in the evening sky.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

May 2000 ~ Russell produced this 8-pg guide to:

Trails in the Gold Run–Dutch Flat Region
of the North Fork American River

http://www.giantgapmedia.com:2082/cpsess980920273/download?skipencode=1&file=%2fhome2%2fgiantgap%2fpublic_ftp%2fRT_FILES%2fRT_31may00_PlacerTrails.pdf

[Some information will have changed since he put this together, but this is a valuable "snapshot" of the N. Fk. trails in the area as of the year 2000. The .pdf file is 2.2 megabytes and can be obtained by clicking here –Gay ]

Russell Towle and his dog Lucky, providing scale for one of the giants at Sugar Pine Pt.
May 31, 2001

December 20 (1975, 1976, 1979, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 2000, 2003) “It's about impossible...”

“12/20/75 still another clear and sunny day. near the solstice ~ soon the days will be lengthening. the solstice is the real beginning of the new year. and christmas is perhaps but a façade for the celebration of the solstice, the waxing of the solar light that nurtures all life; or, more classically stated, the sun that infuses all life with its energy ~ and the earth nurtures that life-energy.

went out to canyonland the day before yesterday ~ it's so beautiful. i feel a kind of desperation, because i want to live out there, and make my home there, but i am afraid of the possible eventual development of moody ridge, and want to acquire as much land as possible, to insulate myself from the sight and sound of that development. my dad horrifies me with casual plans to log as much as he can out there, and even more with ideas of putting in roads here and there, to open up building sites in the canyon. that would be terrible, and if he goes ahead with any of those road-schemes i will be very much at odds with him. now, the optimum reality as i see it now would be for him to trade all of the lower and steeper land—about two hundred and forty acres—to the forest service. the forest service has been studying the canyon in terms of including it in the national wild and scenic rivers classification ~ and if they go that way, they might be interested in trading for my dad's land in the canyon, especially since the green valley trail goes through it.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“12/20/76... so tomorrow is the winter solstice ~ and 'tis very close to new moon as well. interesting that the sun and moon reach conjunction at their most diminished stages ~ on the day of least sunlight (northern hemisphere) in the year, also the least moonlight... [...]

i have a little friend with me right now, a black-and-white kitten. while mushing around in my head the past few days to the effect that i should be more connected to my feelings, and make more effort in relationships, as a kind of symbolical move i've made friends with this little cat. the other night, instead of being hardhearted and putting the cat out before going to bed, i let it stay in, even tho i knew it had fleas and would sleep on my bed somewhere. just as i was falling asleep, and i was mushing along in my head about my feelings, the thought of Kirpal Singh crossed my mind. at that very instant the kitty leaned over my face and began licking my forehead right over my ‘third eye.’ a bit of synchronicity.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“12/20/79 dawn. greg and susan are downstairs, came up a couple of days ago. we [...] went to big valley bluff with neil and susan to hunt for crystals and look at the view. i found some incredible quartz crystals.

[...]

the burn is down to a large scab in the center of the original area. feels a lot better.

what will I do for christmas ~ doesn't matter.

[Russell Towle's journal]

“December 20, 1985

Early morning. I woke to find eight deer resting in the yard below the cabin. Several does and two pairs of fawns. Some of them are still there. I witnessed touching scenes between does and their fawns, the mothers licking and grooming their young, the fawns sidling up close and nuzzling their moms. Two of the fawns are still lying down. The others have begun to forage.

[...]

The work Dave and Al and I have done on the road has been negated by Harry Binder's backhoe, which has rendered into a pile of slushy mud which is nearly impassable to my Toyota. Hmmm, that sentence sure didn't hold together! Neither did the road. [...]

I should do my laundry today, and? Sort out my zonohedra papers and get organized to write. Cut firewood. [...] ”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“12/20/86 Night. A wonderful sunny day; it must be close to the winter solstice now. I watched the patterns of sunlight in the meadow, the stripes. And am very very pleased with having made the decision to go ahead and take out the trees in the Alcove; now I'm becoming more and more tempted to finish the Knoll in one fell swoop.

I would like to see the sunlight patterns now, at the solstice, after the pines up there come out.

[...]

If I could see the patterns now, I would be able to observe the complete sequence between now and summer solstice, which is equivalent to the whole year, and perhaps finalize plans to build an office in the meadow somewhere. An office with telephone and electricity. An office with some degree of solar heating. Maybe in the upper meadow, which is the part affected by the doomed pines on the Knoll

[…]

The marvelously round boulder atop the Knoll has good Stonehenge properties; from the Meadowstone, winter solstice sunrise is aligned with Roundrock; and winter solstice sunset aligns Roundrock and the big cedar, fog shrouded, the Lonecedar at the southern end of the meadow.

Mars has overtaken Jupiter and moved past to the east.

It is already farther away from Jupiter then it was last Thursday.

Yes, to go ahead now and finish the Knoll is extremely appealing. But I have no money, hence no food, hence no gas or oil for the saw, whimper whimper. Or don't I? Could I just pretend I do? I have a little gas, a little oil; my chain is dull; should I go ahead and do it?”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“12/20/87 Sunday morning; cold but clear, and the sun begins to take the chill's harder edges off, within the cabin…

It's been a while, dear diary: I find the previous entry dated 12/12/87, find it concluding that I would walk into Dutch flat in search of Alex, in search of a jump-start for the beleaguered Toyota. I walked… And by happy chance, found Ed & Tina just pulling into Alta; Ed gave me the jump, and proposed that I ride down to Berkeley with them, pick up his secretary's Fiat, and drive it back up here. Which I did. Ed has very generously bought me a car! A '79 Fiat Strada; [...] It is a very clean machine, compared to the Toyota. I hope to keep it that way.

Ed sponsored a few repairs, which dragged on for a few days, so I was down there for a while, watching the 49ers blowout the Bears, feasting my eyes upon the books in Moe's and the Shakespearean bookstore.

[...]

Drove back up on Thursday, enjoying a view of the Crystal Range and other parts of the Sierra crest from as far afield as Davis, and further, stopping to show off the Strada to Alex in Colfax. [...]

The Strada has but a few things wrong with it; a sticking choke, a sagging headliner, a broken seat-lever-thingy; but it is basically sound. Front-wheel drive: so it should do well in the snow.

I am more than a little low on funds at the moment, with six dollars to my name; with some good weather, I will be able to get some [work hours] in.

Later; Matt just stopped by, with a girlfriend… That is, Matt Joyce; invited me out for some cross-country skiing, but I demurred. The day looked too cold and gloomy, for high clouds had swept in after a clear beginning; plus, I have a broken ski-pole basket.

Later; although I dislike bitching and moaning in these pages, contrary to the impressions they might leave upon a given reader, perhaps most or all readers, I must say that I am rather completely fed up with life in Dutch Flat. People of like mind are few; and the beer-swilling, methedrine-popping rednecks and destitute crackers are the predominant social element. Dutch Flat has gone radically downhill over recent years. Add to this the problems presented by having my father as next-door neighbor, and I'm ready to call it quits. I was ready five years ago, but the development of relationships with Bill Newsom and Ed & Tina took the edge off my dissatisfaction.

Now Ed has bought me a car; and my immediate goal becomes to earn and save money; money to relocate. The additional option: sell this property. The bottom line: it's hard to imagine what change could induce me to remain here.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“12/20/88 Morning, dripping, fog-shrouded […] ”

[Russell Towle's journal]

Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 16:43:32 -0800
To: "Ian Baker"
From: Russell Towle
Subject: Re: logging

Apparently the logging in dutch flat is happening... i didn't think it would, but it is...

Yep. It's about impossible to stop a timber harvest on private property. We tried, slowed it down, changed the logging method to helicopter, but didn't stop it.

Have you seen the SPI clear-cuts on Sawtooth Ridge? Very nasty. Undoubtedly many more to come, unless we can get clear-cutting banned in CA.

I hiked into Canyon Creek waterfalls today, very nice. I'd like to get your Ecology Club in there and get you guys to sign a petition asking BLM to acquire the private inholdings etc.

December 19 (1981, 1986, 1988, 2000)
With Grace and Rhythm

“12/9/81 Rainy morning... It's been quite a while since I've written anything. The fireplace was completed by the time the McClungs arrived for Thanksgiving week, thank God. Since then I haven't done a speck of work. But I have gone skiing ten times. [...] Alex and I went the last two days in a row, and I am so sore. The conditions were icy, with moguls on all the steeper runs. I was unable to ski the steeper runs, such as ‘prospector,’ the day before yesterday, but I practiced relentlessly for hours on the easier slopes, and it paid off. Yesterday I tackled Prospector with an attitude of ‘anything goes’ — snowplow, stem turns, parallel turns, and telemarks if I felt like it. And I did it! After a couple of runs during which I gradually gained confidence, I began to stick to telemarks. And though I never once telemarked down Prospecter without a couple of falls, I feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction. The easier slopes now I can telemark with grace and rhythm, and don't need to watch my skis so much.

[...]

I broke one of my ski poles on my very first run with Alex a couple of days ago. In the process I tweaked my right wrist. It's swollen now, but I think it's a sprain, not a break. I am stiff and sore all over, bruised etc. ... Must have fallen 100 times in two days.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“12/19/86 [...]

It has rained on and off for the past two days, and I burned two large piles atop the knoll today. Ideal conditions. Ah, 'tis late, I'm tired, to bed... ”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“12/19/88 Snowy morning on Moody Ridge. [...]

I've been working too much, and feeling cramped by low funds, so what with the demon wind and one thing and another, I am moody, irritable. ”

[Russell Towle's journal]

Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 08:05:40 -0800
To: Eric Beckwitt
From: Russell Towle
Subject: Re: boundary meeting

Eric,

>PS: How extensive was the logging on private lands S. of the river
>before they were acquired?

Various sections along the river were helicopter logged. I haven't seen all the sites, but those I have seen are unnoticeable from a distance and in particular, from the river or the American River Trail itself. At Italian Bar the helicopter logging brought a copter crash which then burned a largish patch of the canyon wall on Sawtooth Ridge.

Incidentally, there are some really nasty recent SPI clearcuts on steep ground in Section 35 west of Helester Point, Sawtooth Ridge, in the canyon of the North Fork of the North Fork. Looks like some kind of herbicide was used which suppressed stump sprouting by the black oaks.

Big Valley Bluff, December 19, 2000

December 18 (1977, 1978, 1985, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006)
“Slinky, carving, fast, smooth” ~ Maori Drill Sergeants

“12/18/77 [This continues from 12/17/77 entry]
and mvp ‘B’ cross the channel near moody ridge road. There also is an anomalous layer of pvp ‘B’ below and to the west of this mvp ‘AB’ band. Hmmm. Some definitions are in order. Very well, beginning with the older and moving to the youngest:

1. Serpentine, abbreviated UB (uitrabasic)”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“12/18/78 snow.

i am reading anaïs nin's lectures. very interesting. i feel a sense of recognition, of here's a person who has struck the same perceptual balance as me; i feel a congruence of ideas that excites me, confirms my thinking on hope and despair and the Path and relationships. without a hint of cultism or neurotic separatism. (this is the way.) (not to say that ‘neurotic separatism’ hasn't had a valid evolutionary purpose & survival value) (but isn't it becoming archaic? life gets better every day)

life does seem quite nice at the moment. feeling good about myself.

a rare version of beethoven's ninth on the radio. the possibility of hydroelectric power generation seems quite within reach, although perhaps not as cost-efficient as a gasoline generator would be. a little pelton wheel down the cliff? i'd sure like to see fred richardson.

rain streaks the big window: it's a somber, messy world out there. snow down to 3000' but too warm now.”

[Russell Towle's journal]

“December 18, 1985

Soon after 8:00 A.M. […] Yesterday I went to Sugar Bowl and got comped by Rich. Fantastic skiing on cold snow with ice and moguls. Windy; easterlies howl over the summit of Lincoln; towards the end of the day, skiing on Mt. Disney, the wind actually carved the loose snow from the moguls and spread it out over the ice in between, so that I made fresh tracks down the mountain on each run. Good telemarking. Skied fast and smooth, fast and smooth, carving, slinky, skidding into mogul tops only problem, the only solution: ski faster, ski the fall line and not the contour line, slinky, carving, fast, smooth…

[Russell Towle's journal]

Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 22:33:32 -0800
To: Eric_Beckwitt
From: Russell Towle
Subject: boundary meeting

Hi Eric,

The boundary meeting at Auburn library went well enough, I guess. Jim Eaton was there to suggest that a larger more inclusive initial boundary was a better strategy, and to cite instances of checkerboard lands and roads and logged areas which have in the past become included in wilderness areas.

On the other hand, John Moore and Eric Gerstung were there, to show timber harvest plans for the SPI lands within the RARE II boundaries, most involving helicopter logging, a few, tractor logging. John suggested that the wiser course would be to define a boundary which included the Forest Service lands south of the river, together with the various sections along the river itself which either were already Forest Service, or have been recently acquired by the FS, or are about to be acquired. John suggested that not only would SPI oppose wilderness designation but that they would refuse to sell their inholdings and would continue their program of timber harvests despite wilderness designation.

I seconded Jim Eaton's ideas, and expressed my strong desire to see Snow Mountain and as much of Big Granite Canyon as possible, to be included, as well as Loch Leven Lakes, portions of Big Valley, and Big Valley Bluff. I have been trying to hold to the 1978 RARE II boundary as much as possible. One area which I had to concede defeat on is Section 5 east of Devils Peak, and Section 9 (tractor logging). South of these two Section 17 has had tractor logging in its north half and this north half likely should be excluded. Cedars lands near and east of Heath Springs must also be excluded.

The meeting did not conclude with an actual drawing of boundaries, but we seemed to come to an agreement that we would make the thing as large as could be, subject to the exclusion of the above-named sections.

Motorcycles on Stevens Trail

[North Fork Trails blogpost, December 18, 2003
http://northforktrails.blogspot.com/2003/12/motorcycles-on-stevens-trail.html ]

Mike Powell sent this about motorcycles on the Stevens Trail:

Hi Russell,

Please pass this on to the keepers of the Stevens Trail as you see
fit...

Last Saturday I decided to solo hike for a few hours mid afternoon on
the Stevens trail. (Note the parking lot had two cars parked when I
arrived. The weather was a bit rainy.)

As I approached the section of the trail which connects to the multiple
use roads, I encounter two guys riding their dirt bikes up the
non-motorized section of the trail toward the trail head.

I stood in the middle of the trail and motioned them to stop which they
did. I proceeded politely explain that they were on a posted
non-motorized historic trail and provide additional detail about the
section of trail which crosses BLM multiple use area. I also told them
the trail section which leaves the road and drops down to the river is
non-motorized as well. They were polite as well and claimed to have
missed the trail signs which clearly state the trail is designated for
non-motorized use. They turned around and took off and I assumed they
understood...

As I left the road section and started down the train toward the river,
I noticed that someone has removed the signage which depicts the trail
for non-motorized use and I also noticed two sets of fresh motorcycle
tracks heading down the trail...as I approached the fork in the trail
which splits to an upper and lower trail across the creek, I noticed the
tracks led down the trail recommended for bicycles and then back out
where the motorcyclist then took the upper trail. I decided to walk the
upper trail in hopes of having another discussion about their use of
motorcycles on a trail which is clearly marked at the fork. Already
small dirt sections of the trail were being chewed up by spinning
tires...

As I was not carrying my pistol this trip and before the second
confrontation, I took out my cell phone turned it on and checked and
verified cell coverage incase a call to 911 was needed. I also took out
my collapsible hike poles and extended both poles to full length...

Before long I heard the distinct sounds of 2cycle engines revving and
getting closer. The dirt bikers had reached the steep section of steps
on the upper trail and had turned back.

Again I stood my ground in the middle of the trail and decided my verbal
and physical demeanor would be that of crazed and red-faced bulging-eyed
Maori drill sergeant. The exchanges started to get a little heated but
at some point they must have figured that not only was I right but I was
really crazy so they piped down said they were sorry...I stepped aside
and let them pass and continued with my walk...

Since I used to ride a dirt bike years ago I can fully understand how
you can miss a trail sign when you are going 20-40 MPM in an area where
you are not familiar or have taken the time to know where OHV uses is
permitted or not. I believe the Stevens trail signs with the
non-motorized indicators are at best minimal and could be improved. I am
a welder and will be happy volunteer material and time to create some
heavy-duty steel and destruction-resistant signs that could be used to
clearly designate the trail as non-motorized.

Regards,

Mike Powell

Well, this list includes the BLM people at Folsom. Better signage sounds like a good thing. And more Maori drill sergeants.

Thanks Mike!

Air & Light & Music & Color & Shadows
December 18, 2006

Date: Sun Dec 18 07:08:57 2005
To: Ron Gould, Catherine_O‘Riley
From: Russell Towle
Subject: Re: sunrise
X-Attachments: :Macintosh HD :18:Eagle_Puke_Moon_1506.JPG
Hey caught a nice view of the moon rising last week, see attached.

The moon itself is over the little "false" point one often hits when trying to drop down from the canyon rim to the Pinnacles. I think that's where you and Peggy hiked down to when you took those photos.

So far as the HOUT we did a bang-up job on getting the slash under control and out of view. Mainly Catherine and Kelly worked the slash. I spent a lot of time trying to improve the route across that talus slide just a couple hundred yards west of Big West Gully. It will be interesting to see how things look this spring. There is a little bit more saw work way in there—near that same talus slide, some bay laurels, and then out on Big West Spur itself, just a patch of brush sitting right on the trail.

About this site ~

On September 20, 1975, Russell Towle wrote in his journal...

“twilight in wren shack, wren shack in twilight. just returned from the north fork land, checking it out. it's beautiful ~ the awesome canyon of the american river, with tinker knob (8900') above all at the canyon's head on the sierra crest. there are acorn woodpeckers, hawks, wrens no doubt, incense cedars & ponderosas, sugar pines, black and canyon live oaks, doug fir, digger pine, manzanita, garrya fremontii, deerbrush; there are magnificent cliffs: and tho nothing is perfect (save the All) (there will be logging soon in a wonderful grove beside the river) (and you can hear the train go by) ~ i look forward very much to living there.”

Thus began Russell's 33 years of observing, exploring, living in, studying, and writing about this fantastical place.

I am Gay Wiseman, Russell's partner of 20 years. I've worked on this project in fits and starts since Russell's sudden death in August 2008. Some of the most recent material was posted on his North Fork Trails blog (link in right sidebar) but a great deal of it has never been shared anywhere before.

Included are portions of journal entries, portions of personal correspondence, formal essays, many photographs and some audio and video recordings, as well as links to external sources and selections from Russell's blog posts that will—over the course of a calendar year—provide a revealing and sensitive portrait of this river canyon at the turning of the millennium; of its geology, its beauty, its mystique; of the natural and human history of the region, and of the ongoing threats to its preservation as one of California's few remaining partially wild watercourses.

I still live in the great canyon. I still appreciate every day things that Russell helped me see and know during our years together. I am ever grateful for his determined and diligent effort over so many years to preserve a record of the canyon marvels he was enriched by every single day. I hope you also will enjoy this unique portrait of the grand and glorious canyon, the North Fork of the American River, in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range; and of life lived within it.

Spend a year with us, exploring and loving this place.