Off the Steamboat Ditch Trail: a once-yellow-painted concrete arrow helped airmail pilots finding their transcontinental route

The history of the Emigrant Trail and the fate of the Donner Party around Donner Lake and Roller Pass south of today's Mt. Judah Loop Trail is well known and belongs to common lore of Reno-Tahoe residents. The above-the-ground version of transcontinental ambitions is much less known: in the 1920s, when transcontinental paths and railroad connections had been well established, U.S. airmail pilots began navigating between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Next to the Washoe County Regional Parks & Open Space Department at Plumas Street in Reno, a plaque marks the site of the Reno Air Mail Field (now the site of the Washoe County Golf Course), which was once operated by the United States Post Office Department Trans-Continental Air Mail Service. The plaque tells us that the first scheduled mail-plane landed there on September 9, 1920. The above picture shows the plaque's relief sculpture illustrating a historic U.S. airmail plane (top picture).

East-pointing arrow with Verdi Range in the background

Such open-cockpit biplanes were typically flown by young, military-trained pilots. A system of concrete arrows and airmail beacons was then installed across the United States [1]. Guy Clifton writes that to help fliers “successfully navigate the route between New York and San Francisco, the arrows (usually painted yellow) and an accompanying tower equipped with a gas-powered beacon were installed at roughly 10-mile intervals across the country.” [2]

Steamboat Ditch Hole and trail ascending to the arrow

One of those ground-based landmarks for flight guidance still exists between Reno and Verdi off the Steamboat Ditch Trail above the two holes in the wall. The right-side picture shows the steep trail ascending from the Reno-side hole to the ridge. Once on top, turn right and follow the dirt-road trail north to its end. While enjoying views of the Verdi Range, Peavine Peak and the Truckee River, you may finally realize you are treading or standing on a concrete slab, unless you already saw it on your approach. That's it: a weathered and cracked arrow (shown above) pointing towards northwest Reno, Elko—and New York. Hikers and mountain bikers are often coming up and meet for a “break at the arrow.” Obviously, there are higher locations all around. But, I guess, the actual arrow-site was chosen to direct planes along a flight closely following the Truckee River Valley.

From the east, planes came via Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, across Nevada to continue to San Francisco, California [3]:

The initial westbound trip was made at the rate of 80 miles per hour and was flown without a forced landing, either for weather or mechanical trouble. The plane carried 16,000 letters, which arrived in San Francisco 22 hours ahead of the best possible time by train, had the train made all its connections.

Like the early emigrants and Pony Express riders, the pioneer pilots had to manage all kinds of weather and sometimes fight a blizzard. Infrequently, the arrows must have been covered by snow and pilots only had landscape features and the beacons to spot for orientation. With the emergence of the radar era, the arrow-beacon system became obsolete.  To commemorate the pre-radar navigation system, the preservation of the slowly sliding Reno concrete arrow—the Steamboat Trail Arrow—would be a nice achievement. Guy Clifton writes about Nevada history buff Marvin Mattson, who likes to see this happen:   

The ultimate goal, he [Marvin Mattson] said, would be preserving a unique piece of Reno and Nevada history. While there are many historical markers and references to the Pony Express route and former stations in Nevada, there is little recognition of the airmail service.

I guess, there is some difficulty in convincing people to preserve concrete slabs. But it should be worth while to keep history visible within our landscape. And outdoor enthusiasts will certainly appreciate a concrete arrow viewing terrace above the Truckee river.

View of the Truckee river from the site of the concrete arrow

 
Keywords: aviation history, air mail, transcontinental flights.

References and more to explore
[1] Concrete Arrows and the U.S. Airmail Beacon System: sometimes-interesting.com/2013/12/04/concrete-arrows-and-the-u-s-airmail-beacon-system/
[2] Guy Clifton: Pointing the Way. Mysterious concrete arrow tells of Reno's airmail history. Reno Gazette-Journal, January 12, 2014, pages 1D and 4D (also see the online update, January 15, 2013).
[3] Air Mail Pioneers: www.airmailpioneers.org/history/Sagahistory.htm.

Walking through time from Kingston Saint Mary to Kilve Beach in Somerset, England

The Quantock Hills, or Quantocks for short, are carboniferous limestone and sandstone formations in southwestern England—at least 350 million years old. These hills at the eastern end of the Exmoor National Park in the county of Somerset exhibit thick sequences of slates and sandstones of Devonian age that were deposited by large deltas that built out into a shallow sea [1]. Today, the Quantocks—with their landscape mosaic of heathland hill tops and valley woodlands—are a great place for hiking, biking and horseback riding, providing views of the Bristol Channel and Wales further north [2].

Over the recent years, the Quantocks have also turned into a hot spot of evotourism. An annual event combines walking, science of evolution and art happenings: a social and evotouristic pilgrimage takes place along the Ancestor's Trail between the village of Kingston Saint Mary and the fossil-rich beach at Klive at the Bristol Channel [3,4]. Inspired by Richard Dawkins' book The Ancestor's Tale, this footpath celebrates the Tree of Life and guides outdoor and biodiversity enthusiasts along a time line from the present day—via “natural selection events”—back to the origin of life; as it currently is scientifically understood.

Jerry Adler participated in such a “reverse re-enacting evolution” walk, describing steps and stages of the metaphorical voyage backward through 3.5 billion years. Adler, a former Newsweek editor, also highlights the contribution of the naturalist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) to evolutionary biology, who so often is overlooked in the history of life science, as only Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is credited for gaining the breaking insight [4]:

Although Wallace's theory was essentially the same as Darwin's, and presented in London at the same time, Darwin is the most famous (and reviled) scientist of the 19th century, while Wallace is known mostly to students and specialists. “I always had a soft spot for Wallace myself,” says [Chris] Jenord [walk leader].  “It's a little bit of the British underdog thing, the question of fair play. And the fact that he achieved so much coming from an underprivileged background”—in contrast to Darwin's country-gentry origins. A day before our hike, the Ancestor's Trail group organized a conference in Bristol commemorating the centennial of Wallace's death, intended in part to raise money for a Wallace statue in the Natural History Museum, a project that had languished for the last hunderd years. 

Finally, a bronze statue of Wallace by sculptor Anthony Smith was installed in November 2013 [5]: the statue depicts the moment when, in the rainforest of the Indonesian Bacan Island, Wallace sees the magnificient male of the golden birdwing butterfly (Ornithoptera croesus)—one of the hundreds of butterfly species he discovered in the Malay Archipelago. Wallace truly traveled through time and space in search of the branches of the Tree of Life.

Keywords: evotourism, time traveling, origins of species, evolutionary theory, biology, palaeontology, history.

References and more to explore
[1] Natural England: Somerset [www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/geodiversity/englands/counties/area_ID30.aspx].
[2] National Trust: Explore the Quantock Hills [www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356397357621/].
[3] Ancestor's Trail: a pilgrimage to the dawn of life [ancestorstrail.net/].
[4] Jerry Adler and photographer Stuart Conway: Time Travelers: Walking the Ancestor's Trail. Smithsonian 2014, 44 (9), pp. 40-47 [Take a Hike on Britain's Ancestor's Trail and Travel Back 100 Million Years].
[5] The Alfred Russel Wallace Website: A Bronze Statue of Wallace: A lasting legacy of 2013  [wallacefund.info/bronze-statue-wallace].

Are there skiing petroglyphs in western North America?

How did skiing evolve? Humans have always been on the move. And through snow, they often moved by skiing—maybe. In various parts of Eurasia, including northern Europe, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and China's Xingjiang Prefecture, wooden artifacts have been unearthed that are providing evidence of early ski design and use. Long before skiing became a winter sport, it probably was part of hunting adventures in the snowscape.

Shan Zhaojian, a Chinese ski historian, is convinced that China is the birthplace of skiing [1]. In the Chinese Altay Mountains skiing is an ancient culture. Mark Jenkins and Jonas Bendiksen have recently presented a ski chronology of archaeological discoveries, illustrating variations in ski crafting and adaption of design for terrain and snow conditions [2]. Early wooden skis typically had bottoms covered with fur. Besides the evidence derived by studying old skies preserved in bogs, researchers have recently found ski petroglyphs in Norway and China. Those petroglyphs clearly show skiers on their gliding boards [2]:

Within the Altay, a handful of petroglyphs have been discovered depicting archaic skiing scenes, including one of a human figure on skis chasing an ibex. Since petroglyphs are notoriously hard to date, it remains a controversial clue in the debate over where skiing was born. Chinese archaeologists contend it was carved 5,000 years ago. Others say it is probably only 3,000 years old. The oldest written record that alludes to skiing, a Chinese text, also points to the Altay but dates to the Western Han dynasty, which began in 206 B.C.

Since North America is rich in rock art and petroglyphs—take, as examples, the Lagomarsino and Thomas Creek sites next to mountain regions with winter snow—one may wonder if not-yet-discovered petroglyphs with skiing scenes exist that record ancient American ski-using cultures. Until new evidence is found, American ski history will be taught to have originated from gold-rush miners traveling and racing on skis in the Sierra Nevada. In the 1860s skiers were competing around Eureka Peak in Plumas County, California, on longboards—12-foot Norwegian-style skis. They reached speeds of more than 80 mph on straight courses and used long ski poles carried between the legs as a brake [3].

Modern skiers chase for fun as well as gold, silver and bronze medailles. How many of them are aware that their sport has such deep roots in human history?

Keywords: history, anthropology, archaeology, hunting, winter activities, snowscape.

References and more to explore
[1]  Dale Atkins: China - Birthplace of Skiing.  Recco Professionals blog, February 28, 2011 [reccoprofessionals.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/china-birthplace-of-skiing].
[2] Mark Jenkins and photographer Jonas Bendiksen: On the Trail with the First Skiers. National Geographic, December 2013, 224 (6), pp. 84-101 [ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/12/first-skiers/jenkins-text].
[3] Plumas-Eureka State Park brochure: www.parks.ca.gov/pages/507/files/PlumasEurWebPDF.pdf.

Archeological discoveries around the Thomas Creek Trailhead southwest of Reno, Nevada

Archeological sites and artifacts, including petroglyphs, are an important legacy of the cultural heritage of the Washoe People and other Native Americans in what is now northern Nevada. An example is a petroglyph boulder that was discovered and removed by archeologists during the construction of the Thomas Creek Trailhead, also a trailhead of the Rim to Reno Trail (Rim2Reno), which—considered as Reno to Rim Trail (Reno2Rim) from this point—leads through the Thomas Creek Canyon uphill toward the Mt. Rose and Bronco Creek wilderness.

A picture of that unique, partially lichen-covered petroglyph boulder can be seen on the interpretive panel displayed within the picnic area of the trailhead. It shows a series of shallow parallel grooves on the left side and geometric images on the right side. The artistic carvings and creations at petroglyph localities are generally thought to have served or guided humans within a ceremonial context. But nothing is known for sure and the great diversity of shapes and symbols—like those at the Lagomarsino Petroglyph Site east of Reno/Sparks (north of Lockwood)—inspire all kinds of speculations.

The Thomas Creek panel has this to contribute to the Mysteries In Stone discussion:

What were the Washoe communicating on these ancient petroglyphs? Archeologists may never know. The carvings may be stylized representations of plants and animals, or perhaphs the images commemorate an important event or religious ceremony. Whatever the message, these petroglyphs show the Washoe's intimate understanding, close relationship, and respect for their natural environment.

Further, the panel summarizes the Washoe-Tahoe history under the title Signs Along The Way: 

For thousand of years, the Thomas Creek Canyon provided abundant plants and animals for the Washoe people as they traveled along a seasonal travel route to Da ow a ga, or Lake Tahoe, the center of their homeland. Traditionally, they spent summers fishing at the lake, then moved to lower elevation valleys during the colder months. The area surrounding Thomas Creek Trailhead was a well used food gathering and processing place.

Have a pleasant trip, respect the signs along the Thomas Creek way and enjoy your passages through quaking aspen groves.

Keywords: history, culture, anthropology, archeology, archaeology, interpretations.

Thomas Creek Trail leading through a golden tunnel of quaking aspens

Quaking aspen trees often grow in communal groves near creeks or streams. Thomas Creek southwest of Reno, Nevada, is such an environment. Easily accessible, nature lovers and recreationists flock to the lower section of the Thomas Creek Trail to enjoy the yellow-golden stands of aspens during the early fall season. As part of the recently established Rim to Reno Trail (Rim2Reno, Reno2Rim, RtR), this single-track way follows the scenic creek upstream through a canyon and across hillsides toward RtR's upper portion to invite exploration of the Mount Rose Wilderness. As you hike and ascend, the shimmering aspen leaves might propel you on and make you forget the many miles you will face to reach the rim.

From various vista points you will see patches of brownish-yellow aspen groves within the forested creeks and valleys of the Carson Range. But walking right through an aspen grove, shedding its golden leaves in fall, is special: you won't see the light at the end of the tunnel—instead, you will see the light in the midst of the tunnel.

The first steps on the Rim to Reno Trail: from the Thomas Creek trailhead to the Dry Pond Trail

The Rim to Reno Trail is a long hiking trail traversing the Mount Rose Summit and Bronco Creek area in the Carson Range, from where it winds down toward Reno's suburbs. The upper portion of the Rim to Reno (Rim2Reno or simply RtR) trail shares its path with the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) to the Tamarack Waterfall and with the Mount Rose Trail—and then continues its scenic miles through the Mount Rose Wilderness west of Church Peak and Alpine Walk Peak before reaching the Thomas Creek canyon. If your goal is to hike up there—planning a Reno to Rim (Reno2Rim) adventure—the 1.5-mile-long section between the Thomas Creek Trailhead and the Reno2Rim/Dry Pond Trail junction are your boastful beginnings.

This section is a popular single-track trail alongside and across Thomas Creek, frequented by dog walkers, hikers, mountain bikers and equestrian users. Along this riparian trail through a forest of Jeffrey pines, white firs and quaking aspens you will hear the flowing waters of the creek competing with the sounds of fellow travelers and occasional motorized traffic using Thomas Creek Road alongside the opposite creek bank.

The trail post at the Reno2Rim/Dry Pond Trail junction (right-side picture) shows you the distance back to your starting point and the distance of three miles to the Whites Creek Trailhead, which can be reached from this junction by taking the route uphill and past the seasonally wet Dry Pond via Dry Pond Trail. The post doesn't tell you the hiking distance to the rim. It is at least seventeen miles, depending on whether you are going to take the North Loop or the South Loop Route. The map of the Rim to Reno Regional Trail System may help you to trace out your route and to prepare smartly, especially during the cold and snowy season.    

Getting to the Thomas Creek Trailhead
From U.S. Highway 395 south of Reno, exit onto the Mount Rose State Scenic Byway (State Route 431). Follow this four-lane highway westbound for four miles and turn right onto Timberline Drive, just before Highway 431 changes into a two-lane road. Proceed all the way to the end of the paved Timberline Drive to from where it continues as a dirt road. Take the bridge over Thomas Creek. There is a parking area to your left next to the river. Or continue straight forward for another 0.1 mile to get to the main parking area with restrooms, equestrian parking, picnic tables and a trailhead kiosk. See the map for trail details.

Keywords: Rim-to-Reno, Reno-to-Rim, Rim2Reno, Reno2Rim, trail network, access to Mt. Rose Wilderness area, Nevada.

The upper portion of the Rim to Reno Trail

The Rim to Reno Regional Trail System includes trails open for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding; while some sections are closed or not recommended for biking and equestrian use. The first four miles of the upper Rim to Reno (RtR) Trail are shared with other popular trails in the Carson Range between Slide Mountain, Tamarack Peak and Mount Rose: the 2.5-mile long RtR section to the Tamarack Waterfall shares its path with the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) and the Mount Rose Trail. At the waterfall, the TRT leaves the RtR to connect with the Brockway Summit via Relay Ridge and Peak and the Slab Cliffs.

Continuing on the RtR you will wander past willows and through low shrubs at Galena Creek Meadows' west side and enter the Mount Rose Wilderness after climbing the path through an open-forest canyon uphill to a ridge, which joins Mt. Rose with the Relay Peak Range. From the trail junction amid whitebark pines on the ridge saddle, the Mount Rose Trail further ascends to your right, whereas the RtR single-track trail winds downhill on the other side of the ridge into the valley of Bronco Creek between Mount Houghton and Church Peak. The trail post informs you, that the RtR continues on to the Thomas Creek Trailhead for another seventeen miles.

The RtR downhill path leads along switchbacks through coniferous forest, almost void of any understory. After about one mile you will pass various conglomerate boulders at the bottom of rugged rock walls on the left side of a meadow. Further downhill, the trail crosses Bronco Creek, next to a fork made by the confluence of two roaring branches. Then, the RtR approaches picturesque rock formations at the bottom of Church Peak (see left-side photo above). Here is where the Bronco Creek trail description in Mike White's hiking guide Afoot & Afield ends, by comparing this remote spot with the hustle and bustle of the Mt. Rose trail [1]:

Hundreds of weekenders may be struggling toward the summit of Mt. Rose along the much more popular Mt. Rose Trail. However, along Bronco Creek, your party should have the fun of the basin, where the rock faces of Church Peak and Mt. Rose provide a dramatic backdrop to the verdant grasses of the green meadow, despite the extremely poor condition of trails in this part of the Mt. Rose Wilderness.

Concerning the RtR route, the trail conditions in this part of the Mt. Rose Wilderness are excellent today. And if your condition is too, you may want to scale the “rock levee” that comes in sight after following the trail along the rock wall and talus slope.

Now, your descend to Reno is coming to an end for a while. You will begin your ascend along switchbacks through pine forest. Once you are leaving the switchbacks behind, the trail traverses open, west-facing slopes providing grand views of nearby Church Peak (top picture), the meadows downhill in the Bronco Creek valley (picture just above), and—across the creek—the slightly curved and ascending Relay Ridge. The Pacific Crest is shaping the western horizon. 

Miles and miles of the upper RtR portion are still ahead of you. The RtR trail leads over chaparral-like hillsides of mountain mahagony. The trail then bends westward, leading—again through forest—to a chain of rock outcrops, which are marked in the map by the 9730 ft pointer.  The well-graded trail passes by rock heaps and will finally get you to another vista point from which you can scan the landscape to the northwest, viewing over the Truckee river canyon and Verdi Range to the Boca and Stampede Reservoirs.

The RtR trail continues north for about two miles until it reaches the junction, at which you are free to select the shorter South Loop Route or the longer North Loop Route, both taking you downhill into the Thomas Creek canyon.   

The total RtR trail is not a typical day-hike trail. It is a great trail for backpackers in search of remote places. For outdoor enthusiasts enjoying alternate up- and downhill hiking with varying scenery, the upper portion of the RtR trail allows for exciting, individually designed out-and-back trips—leaving the crowd of Mt. Rose summit pilgrims behind. 

Getting there
Get to the Mount Rose Summit Trailhead at the Mount Rose State Scenic Byway (Highway 431) between Reno and Incline Village. My post Tamarack Peak Waterfall at Galena Creek's upper end summarizes the first 2.5 miles of the RtR trail as well as hiking options past the trail junction at the waterfall. Notice that certain distance values for trail sections given at signposts differ slightly from those given in the map.

Keywords: Rim-to-Reno, Reno-to-Rim, Rim2Reno, Reno2Rim, trail network, Bronco Creek, Mt. Rose Wilderness area, Nevada, solitude, attitude, altitude.

Reference
[1] Mike White: Afoot & Afield. Wilderness Press, Berkeley, California, 2nd printing 2008; pp. 250-251.