Tunnel 15 with Jeffery

After my hike with Brenda, I was more than ever determined to find the east end of Tunnel 15, the trail around it, so we could reach where Brenda and I had been turned around on the outside of the tunnel,and the continuation of the old Storrie Road.  It has been Jeffery's wish to be able to run from Jackass Creek across from Tobin, to Rock Creek, via the old road, which is now more trail than road.  Alas, we found that the work needed to put the old road back into decent shape is too big a task.  But we did find it!!!  Woot woot!  So, here are photos of Jeffery's and my foray, where we learned much, and beat ourselves up completely for only 3 miles on my Fitbit.

There it is!  Lit up by the morning sun.  We had to scramble up a very steep bank to get here from the highway below.

My t-shirt says "I'm not dead yet".

Jeffery by the tunnel, for perspective

Informative signage.  The tunnel is slightly curved, and 3/5 of a mile long (basically) so you can't see the other end.

Jeffery liked the towers for the power lines, and noted that this style of tower means it went out of the Buck's Creek Powerhouse.

Jeffery's art shot of insulators

Skirting the tunnel towards where Brenda and I got from the other end, earlier in the week.

Here's where we "can't" go further from the east. Brenda and I were directly above the large boulder beside the highway when we couldn't go on.   A section of dense busheriy is the only obstacle between the two directions, but a set of loppers would probably clear us a path through.  Another day.

Buck's Creek Powerhouse wasn't spewing, but it was droning a rather loud, annoying hum.

Behind this wall of rock is the train tunnel, yet there is an adit at the base; see it?  It has wood at it's mouth, and water coming from it.  Let's check it out.

There's a pool of clear water with algae outside the "cave"

We each take a turn looking in.

There's water inside, and dripping from the rocks, and we can't figure out where the train tunnel is, relative to this tunnel with a creek in it.

When we get back to the tunnel opening, we hear a train, so Jeffery got up on top to take this photo.

See him on top there?

See him up on the suspension bridge we'd spotted earlier, and which he had to try to reach while I waited atop Tunnel 15 in the shade.

The sun is lighting up the top section of the Buck's Creek penstock as we walk along the railroad tracks east towards Storrie, searching now for the access to the old Storrie Road.

Looking down onto part of the Storrie Retreat

the old tram way down to the Storrie Retreat, which was once a P.G.&E. Camp

zoom up of the cart.

Well!  We found the old road, saw the brushy ravine that cuts it off east to west, and took the un-traveled west side leg, back towards Tunnel 15, only now, a terrifying scramble up a steep hill above the railroad tracks.  We're approaching the Storrie water tank

The road becomes merely a path and then we approach the suspension bridge, which holds up a pipeline

Proof that I made it to this place.  T'was getting mighty warm out.  The Buck's Creek Powerhouse is far below behind my head

Jeffery crosses the bridge, despite my terror.  You can see almost the whole length of the penstock we climbed to the left.

His view of me from the other side.  See me?

His shadow selfie.  Isn't that so him?  It's the hat.

His view from the bridge of the Storrie Bridge on the highway.  Also please note the steep bank we now have to descend to reach the railroad tracks.  I will mostly slide down on my bum, clinging to any green thing or stable rock I can find.  I will be very sweaty when I reach the tracks.

Our 3rd train of the day comes right at the perfect time for a last photo at Tunnel 15

While the train went through the Tunnel, we went and saw if we could hear it from the outside; we couldn't, but if we felt a rock it vibrated, and when I put my ear to the rock, I could hear the train.  Now we're standing in the nice cool breeze that is flowing through the tunnel.  And I'm still not dead yet!

We are about half-way down the bank from the tracks to the highway, when I think to photograph how steep it is.  There is the now familiar Buck's Creek Powerhouse in the background.

Phew!  Went home and had some lemonade, and rested in a cool breeze for a while.