Yes, I did shoot an awful lot of photos on my hike up the Ecological Staircase at Jug Handle in Mendocino County; I used three different cameras and walked very slowly. And even though several of my images were not good enough to share, that still left me with plenty of pictures I’m quite happy with. Today, I present a series of images showing my progression from the coastal trailhead to the Pygmy Forest up on the fifth terrace. I’ll be sharing more from the Pygmy Forest before much longer. All quotes are from The Hiker’s Hip Pocket Guide to the Mendocino Coast by Bob Lorentzen, Fourth Edition.

Trailhead

Jug Handle Creek

Take the right fork

The Caspar Railroad… ran from the mill at the mouth of Caspar Creek and up Jug Handle Creek in the early 1870s. The first “rails” were made of wood, because there was a shortage of iron after the Civil War. The timber-laden cars were pulled by oxen until 1875, when the coast’s first steam locomotive was brought in pieces by schooner from San Francisco, reassembled and put into service on the wooden rails. The engine, dubbed “Jumbo,” raced along at a top speed of 10 miles per hour, a great improvement over the oxen. In about 1880, after Caspar Lumber Company bought more timber land to the north, they built a huge wooden trestle spanning deep Jug Handle Creek canyon.

Caspar Railroad right-of-way

The trestle, located where the power line crosses today, was 1000 feet long and 146 feet high. At that time it was the world’s largest wooden railroad bridge. It carried many huge loads of timber before folding like an accordion in the 1906 earthquake.

On the third terrace

Crossing the Gibney fire road

Pygmy Forest boardwark and 1969 marker