Friday, January 6, 2012

Old railroad line UNDER Lake Cushman?

I don't know if this area was razed by Simpson or by the City of Tacoma, or both of them working together.  The area was logged right before Tacoma installed a dam on the North Fork Skokomish River that would inundate the forested valley. The Mount Rose Lodge would have been flooded out too, so it was burned down before the dam was build. 

The Skokomish tribe has recently won a lawsuit against the city of Tacoma and now they have to let more water over the dam, this is good for the alsmon and this makes the lake level lower.  The old stumps under the lake are being revealed like never before.  Moss and grass is also starting to grow back in this valley and boat docks are left high and dry.

These stumps have been here since the 1920's but stumps don't rot very fast when they are under water (most wood rotting fungi can not survive under water) and some interesting things can be seen here now, such as stumps growing out of their nurse logs and stumps that had platforms built all the way around them before they were cut.   Also, I seem to have discovered an old logging road or rail road line under Lake Cushman. 

Some of these stumps are massive.  I was surprised to find that quite a few of the stumps still had enough bark left on them to be  identified as Douglas-fir.  

BTW if you own a cabin up there and want to lend me a key to the gate let me know!
It looks like a platform was built all the way around this tree before it was turned into a stump
Stump and its nurse log

Is this an old logging road?

2 comments:

  1. These photos are really cool. If you find any fishing lures in any of those stumps, they belong to me.

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  2. The lighting was terrible and I was very tired from hiking and my lens was wet and dirty. I intend to go back up there just to take pictures in the sweet light some time soon. So many possibilities there. I did see a bobber but did not realize it was yours.

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