This is the beginning of trail built by the local mountain bike club. It is 2 or 3 miles long and has taken many years to construct. This section goes through a 30 year old logging slash - not easy to build by hand! This section uses a old logging road again about 30 years old. We use this trail at first light. That way we do not put the small dogs in harms way of the fast moving mountain bikes. The club built the trail so we use it at a time of day that we will not conflict the club's fun. After all, they did a lot of work to build this trail. This section is very interesting. It goes through what we would call locally as a cedar swamp. Not swamp by a lot of people's standards but very difficult terrain to build by hand. The logs used for the pathway are the remains of old growth spike top cedars. The rat terriers really enjoy this walk and so do their owners. This section of oversize plank work is about 1/4 of a mile long! Again more of the plank section. The log is a old pine tree. This part of the trail is an old plank logging road built of logs. Not much of this old plank road left now, but it is interesting. The logging trucks that hauled on this road had solid rubber tires. Another section of the trail using a old logging road from the 1920s-1930s. The dogs really like this part as they are never on the trail through this section! This is a part that had to be dug out by hand as it links two parts of old logging roads.
The bike club has recently added this section of trail. They have found an old section of plank road. This type of road comes from the days of solid tire logging trucks; I'm guessing the 30s. The road bed consisted of 4 logs - two lashed together to make one plank on one side. And two more for the other side of the road. The underbrush is so dense, it is hard to get a clear picture. The second set are at the end of the walking stick!
That was a great set of pictures to go along with your story. It's interesting how the logging industry back in the day made things work. I also like how well the forest has regrown in the last 85 yrs. thanks for sharing.
