Can’t believe it’s been almost 8 months---well here we go—

Modoc Part 2

Once again Troy, his daughter and I set out from Reno at about 7 AM. Since we “died” at or on the Moran siding during out trip last October we decided to go to Likely to begin both a northbound leg(McArthur) and southbound leg (Moran) of the Modoc Rails to Trails. Heading across the “Karlo Flats” I reconsidered my original plan and decide to enter the trail at Madeline MM 418. We parked near the old water tower, off loaded the side by side and began a northward trek first!

Almost immediately we began ascending the south side of Sage Hen summit. As with the lower part of the Modoc the roadbed is wide, relatively smooth and void of vegetation. The drive was at about 25 mph and we sumitted Sage Hen quickly with nothing newsworthy to note. We did and would continue to encounter cattle gates which we had to open and close. These were relatively new and well maintained. Whoever is steward of maintaining these does a very good job. About halfway down the north side we encountered a cowboy driving about 30/40 head of cattle S/Bon the trail. We pulled over and let them pass. He mentioned to us there were more behind him. We encountered the point rider on the next section of the herd. He asked if we would drive up the hill to avoid spooking this group. Troy drove up a hillside about 200 feet where we could look down on the “drive’. There was nothing “dude ranch” about this drive. There were about 140 head with 5 riders and 3-4 dogs keeping the drive moving and on the trail. Once they past the last rider motioned for us to come down and even closed the cattle gate behind us.

At MM436 we saw the end of a Box car sitting alongside the track near the bullet ridden mile marker—I m guessing there had been a derailment here years ago. We continued north through loops and into the straight away to Likely. Of note it is one thing to see the ”Likely Loop(s)” from a map or US395-It’s another thing to drive through them. Not nearly as acute or dramatic as I would have thought.

Passing thru Likely was uneventful and we crossed US395 and began our final leg to MacArthur (MM 446). We had had to open and close three barbed wire style cattle gates in the first mile. At the fourth one while fighting to close it we noticed a flat tire. As with the October trip it was the right rear. We attempted to air it up but it vented as quickly as we put it in. Out came the jack and spare. A cursory viewing of the flattened tire revealed a substantial gash/slash/incision on the inside. We had no idea what we could have struck that would have caused this type of damage. We decided to forgo MacArthur and returned to Likely where we had lunch and reviewed what we had seen.

We resumed our return trip to Madeline. We found the cattle from earlier scattered near the summit grazing and taking shade in the pines. At some point in what I am sure would have been the Sage Hen siding Troy stopped and backed up. He pointed out a berm that looked like a right- of- away taking off to the left (east). We drove on to it and began to follow. It looked like a right of way as there was no growth on the center part of what we were driving on and trees lined both sides. As we progressed we saw a couple of ties and tie plates pretty much validating this had been a track. As it returned to the area of the siding I realized this must have been a balloon track to turn the steam helpers. My memory must be shot and I can’t find my Tom Dill book—was there a balloon track on top of Sage Hen?

Upon our descent into Madeline we continued south to see how far we could get towards Moran before running back into the monster sage brush that stymied our trip last October. We made it a mile or so before we found a combination barbed wire/pallet gate across the trail. This was not a BLM constructed gate and we were not in the mood to investigate whose it was so we returned to Madeleine for some canned adult refreshments.

It was interesting to note that on this segment of the Modoc (Madeline to Likely) we saw tie plates, j-hooks and spikes on multiple occasions where as on the Wendel to Moran leg we saw none.

To Summarize the Modoc Rails to Trails

2 days to navigate

78 of 88 miles traversed

Day one (OCT 17) Wendel to Moran (MM358 to 408) 50 miles

Day two (June 18) Madeline to 1 mile north of Likely (MM418-440) 22miles
Madeline south 1 mile (MM418-417)

Missing Miles
Moran to south of Madeline ( MM408-417) 9 miles
1 mile north of Likely to MacArthur (MM 440-446) 6 miles

Tires-Two-flattened at Ravendale and Likely

Cattle encountered on right of way of both trips

Memories – forever