TCT #6 -- Sugar Pine Railroad Grade, Strawberry Branch, Cold Springs

Stroll along the Stanislaus River on Saturday, June 2, National Trails Day.  Discover this attractive trail with something for everyone: water, trees, flowers, meadows.  Tuolumne County Trailhead has registered this hike with the American Hiking Society which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the National Trails Act by improving 2,802 miles  of trail (the distance across the US).  Our contribution will be to pack out our own trash along with any other litter we find.  The hike is 7 miles round trip and considered easy-to-moderate (lessen the difficulty by hiking to your own halfway point and return to the trailhead).

The radio show features catch-up trail reviews of the Melones Railroad Grade hike (4/7/18) and the Preston Falls hike (5/5/18).  Over these two outings, spring exhibited its mercurial nature:  Our April trip occurred the weekend of the "atmospheric river."  In May, conditions were close to perfect -- except for the prolific poison oak which "got" a few of the Trail Heads.  We also prep for our June 2 (National Trails Day) hike on the Sugar Pine Railroad Grade, Strawberry Branch (Fraser Flat trailhead).  We have an extensive conversation with Lisa DeHart, Stanislaus National Forest, Summit Ranger District Archaeologist.  Lisa offers insight into early logging methods and the game-changing introduction of steam -- donkeys and trains -- to the industry.  We also wax philosophical about how this and our hikes coming up in the summer follow a lot of the early emigrant trail -- in reverse.