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T&T Expedition Video |
This first part of the grade did not look like it had been visited
for
ages, and was a delight to see. From Ludlow we were able to drive
alongside the northwest-heading section of the grade on the remains of
an old access road to a point where it curves around to the south and
crosses
a new east-west pipeline road. At this point we did not drive further
alongside
the grade in the interests of Treading Lightly, as there was really not
much sign of a road remaining from there on. You would not want to
drive
on the grade itself in this area because a lot of ties are still in
place
and they would be damaged by driving on them.
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Instead we took the pipeline road east and then turned north to
Broadwell
Lake. Some distance along the next section, historical exploration was
found to be discouraged by BLM "Route Closed" signs placed at one point
across the road paralleling the grade. This segment also had a lot of
ties
and even what appeared to be mileposts in place. Further north, on the
lake itself, the berm showed signs of being used as a road and few ties
remain. We found red "Wilderness" signs in that area indicating that
the
T&T grade and parallel roadway are now classified as "roadless and
untouched by man".
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| Crossing Broadwell Dry Lake |
At the north end of the lake we could find nothing left at the site
of Broadwell (at least nothing more than knee high or we would have
seen
it). From here to Mesquite a dirt road continues north parallel
to
the grade, with sandy side roads periodically accessing it. Most of the
ties are still in place on this section too, and it looks very
unvisited.
Places where the berm has been washed out are punctuated by
accumulations
of railroad ties dozens of yards away from the grade -- evidence of
amazing
flows of water for such flat countryside. The grade can be followed
(paralleled)
to Mesquite Spring by leaving the main semi-graded road and taking
lesser
roads curving to the west.
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From Mesquite north to Crucero we found the berm still mostly visible, but perhaps in slightly worse shape than further south. The maze of dirt roads in this section have deep sandy spots so 4WD is needed. At Crucero, as expected we found there was no longer a crossing over Senator Clark's Salt Lake Route tracks. [This (now Union Pacific) track was in poor shape, with many spikes lifted up. It was lying almost unused compared to the BNSF tracks through Ludlow on which there is an incredible volume of traffic, about a train every 5 minutes].
At Crucero the gravel ballast etc is very steep and angular making
even
a high clearance 4WD crossing tricky, so our solo vehicle status
prompted
us to detour rather than risking the embarrassment of being stranded on
the tracks. Accordingly, we paralleled the Union Pacific for a few
miles
west to Afton Canyon. We returned to the T&T at Rasor Ranch, on the
eastern border of the Rasor OHV area, where the berm has been used as a
road and ATV route (no ties evident). At Soda Springs (Zzyzx) we walked
north along the old grade a fair way out on to Soda Lake. This segment
of course had been flattened out and widened many years ago for use as
an airstrip for Zzyzx, and naturally had no ties on it. About 1/4 mile
out, the desert research folks appear to have put a weather station on
it which might cramp the style of any plane trying to land there now!
It
was dark by then so we walked back and headed north for Shoshone for
the
night.
