The Traveling Widower

Tag: Railroad-history

  • Return to Donner Tunnels: 6 miles and lots of street art

    Photo from the Donner Pass railroad tunnels

    Friday’s seem to be my peak boredom day for some reason – once again, I wanted to get out of the house. I was considering heading back to the Donner Tunnels to complete the full hike next week, but it was supposed to be a beautiful day, so Donner Pass beckoned once again.

    Other than completing the full six mile round-trip hike, my goal was to focus on photographing the street art. And whatever else seemed interesting. I had lured a friend interested in photography to come along, so off we went in the morning, with camera gear and lots of flashlights (some with new batteries this time). I did forget one important thing – the 250G SD card for my Sony A7. Fortunately, the camera has two cards, and the second was still in the camera. Near disaster for sure.

    The Donner Tunnels are not just the rock tunnels blasted out by the Chinese immigrants hired to build this segment of the Transcontinental Railroad, the trail also includes long segments of very large, concrete snow sheds. Many of these connect directly to the rock tunnels. So when you are hiking this trail, you spend a great deal of time either in very dark, cave-like rock tunnels, or in the dimly lit snow sheds. Flashlites are a must since the trail is covered with large gravel, with occasional larger chunks of rock scattered about. I would not recommend falling on this trail.

    On my first hike, I covered tunnels 6-8, which included the long, dark tunnel at the head of the trail, and one very long snow shed. The remainder of the trail covers tunnels 9-11, which includes another long section of snow shed, and 2 moderate sized rock tunnels attached to snow sheds. All told, it’s about 3 miles from the parking lot to the end of the last tunnel. Nice, easy walking on rough gravel, with pools of water, and dimly lit trip rocks.

    Since this was a photo-hike, I’ll dispense with my usual endless chatter, and just show a bunch of photos (with captions), starting with some of the exterior photos.

    Tunnel Photo’s

    Wet end to #11
    Big gap between 8 & 9
    Donner Lake, from the end
    The long shed
    Wet tunnel…walk to the light

    And now for the street art. There are some amazing murals throughout the tunnels, almost all painted in the snow sheds. There is a lot of graffiti in the tunnels, but most are just scrawls on the dimly lit, rough rock walls. I was amazed at how high up some of the art and graffiti was upon the concrete walls – a very large ladder would have been necessary to reach that high. Some of the murals must have taken a day or two complete – some had a base color painted across large sections of the walls. The artists clearly had a plan, and must have brought a lot of paint and equipment along, not just a few cans of spray paint. It’s a shame that so much of this work has been covered over with graffiti. You can see that on most of the photos below.

    Street Art Photo’s

    Some simple graffiti
    Example of over-painting

    Most hikers turn back after emerging from the last snow shed – after 3 miles of walking on that rough gravel trail. staring at the ground in front of your feet in the dark to avoid tripping on rocks, and going blind going in and out of dark tunnels to bright sunlight, I had little enthusiasm for wandering down a dusty trail or hiking up higher. I was hoping there would be a couple of big rocks to sit on while taking in the view of Donner Lake, but there was not place to rest other than going back into the tunnel entrance. You’d think someone would have built a few benches! At least there was a path heading into some trees if you needed a bio break. 

    Walking back 3 miles through all the tunnels and sheds was not quite as exciting as exploring them on the way out. I had ditched the GoPro (into my pack) and did not make too many photo stops. I began to fantasize on finding a Dairy Queen close by to where we were parked. I had to settle for an It’s-it from a peculiar grocery store in Soda Springs on the way back to I-80. That hit the spot. 

    Hiking Past Tunnel 11

    FYI – The old railroad grade does continue on for miles, and eventually joins up with the active railroad line which runs through some of the old snow sheds and remaining tunnels (12-15). If you look on Google Maps/Earth, you can find tunnels 1-5 on the active rail line. I would not recommend walking through any of those. Aside from the fact that it is probably illegal, it’s scaring as hell if you are inside and the train goes by. I’ve had the experience in my rock climbing days in Colorado….trust me. Don’t do it.

    One other interesting point about this trail, noted by my friend, was the almost complete lack of trash along the entire three miles. I think I saw maybe two bottles the entire way. Either some group is coming by every now and then to pick up trash, or this hike seems to attract eco-friendly visitors. I even witnessed someone picking up and bagging their dogs poop. Amazing.

    References

    There are lots of YouTube videos and Web sites with information about the hike, including AllTrails. This is a good starting point https://tahoetrailguide.com/hiking-the-historic-donner-pass-train-tunnels-in-truckee-ca/

  • The Donner Tunnels: Hiking, Railroad History & Street Art

    Map of the Donner Tunnel Hike

    The problem with being alone after about 50 years of living with your best friend, is that it’s easy to get bored especially when you have few friends and relatives where you live. Today was one of those days. It’s too frigging hot (100+ F) for outdoor activities, and I did not feel like working out and hanging out at the club. Or walking aimlessly around a shopping mall (have me committed if I ever start doing that). This would be a good day to either be underground or someplace else cooler than anywhere in the Sacramento Valley. What to do. I had been planning to do the Donner Tunnel hike sometime this summer – higher altitude, nice cool tunnels, interesting engineering and history, and less than a two hour drive up I-80. A good choice for a boring, incredibly hot day.

    A bit of history – the Donner Tunnels (15 of them I think) were built in the late 1860’s by 1000’s of Chinese laborers, as part of the Transcontinental Railroad. They had to drill and blast through solid granite, build massive retaining walls, and probably lay the track as well. Aside from the rock tunnels, the railroad also constructed lengthy snow sheds to protect the tracks from deep snowfall and avalanches. Some of these are at least a mile long, and connect to the tunnels – these were originally wood, and were eventually replaced in the 1900’s by massive concrete structures. Pretty amazing engineering and construction techniques.

    Once the rail line was abandoned (1993), the rails were torn out, leaving a very nice place to hike – it has lots of shade for hot days, nice views of the surrounding mountains when you are not in a tunnel/shed, and a nice gravel path that stretches for miles. You do not need a map – no chance of getting lost unless you really want to. The seemingly endless and enormous concrete shed walls became a magnet for graffiti artists, so the walls now have layers of colorful and imaginative murals, as well as the usual scrawls you see in cities. It’s a fun hike – not too strenuous, good place to bring the kids and dogs. And a great place for all kinds of photography. My kind of place.

    I had a nice easy drive up I-80, and the instructions were pretty accurate for where to park – there were quite a few cars already there, and the way to the tunnels was obvious. I loaded up my pack, stuck my GoPro clip on my shoulder strap, grabbed my headlamp, and headed off to parts unknown.

    View from the parking lot to Tunnel #6

    The first tunnel you enter is actually the longest one – Tunnel #6. It is also the darkest since it goes through solid granite. There is a shallow stream running through it to add a little challenge to the journey. This was the only place where you really need a flashlight or head lamp (preferred). The path in this tunnel has a lot of rocks, not just gravel, and it would be a painful and wet fall if you trip on one. There is not much to see on the walls (it’s really dark), so the safest choice would be to look in front of you most of the way. It’s weird that as you get closer to the end of the tunnel, it’s more difficult to pick out what’s in front of you – the light is blinding. It was a bit creepy, but not too difficult.

    After Tunnel #6, it seems like the rest of the rock tunnels are short and dry, and have a snow sheds attached. This is where the graffiti really starts, more so at the end of the tunnels/sheds, but quite a bit through the lengths of the sheds as well. The concrete structures have openings for light and air through the length of each shed, so you do not need flashlights unless you are walking though the attached rock tunnel, and those are short. The openings provided enough light for the graffiti artists, so there is a lot of interesting works along the way.

    This hike is extremely popular – I imagine it is very crowded on the weekends. Lots of families and groups. There were also a few graffiti contributors while I was there. Some families bring a bag of spray paint cans, and let the kids have at it. And then there was one woman with 3 kids, who was also spraying away while I was taking a water break. I of course critiqued her art work, which was just a blob of red paint. She finally gave up on whatever she was trying to create, covered it over in white paint as a canvas, and intended to start over. I applauded her effort. I’ll photograph it the next time I’m there. She’ll be famous then. It’s a shame that there are not enough open walls for the novices to play on – they wind up covering over some really interesting murals, that talented artists created. Somebody should have created a book of the best murals. Too late now.

    Here is a bunch of photo’s of the graffiti and the long snow shed.

    And a couple of more from the outside

    Tunnel #7
    Rock reataining wall

    I decided to call it quits at the entrance to the fourth shed (where the struggling graffiti artist was plying her trade) – I was not tired, I just wanted to get back home at a reasonable hour. I also wanted to try a different way of anchoring the GoPro for the return trip. On the way out, I had the GoPro on a clip attached to my shoulder strap – no matter how much I tried to adjust it, the camera was alway pointing to on side. Heading back, I put my Sony in the backpack to get it out of the way, and just held the GoPro in front of me (while holding my hiking stick in the other hand. The results were much better. The video below starts in a shed, and transitions into the very dark Tunnel #6. I have a few other videos I’ll attach later on, once I do some editing. The first is the walk back through dark Tunnel #6

    The next video shows all the street art in part of the long snow shed, and also how you can go from sunny to very dark…a bit creepy.

    This was a fun trip, quite different from some of the other strange adventures I’ve had this summer. I’m going to try and get a small group together to do the full hike, which is only about 5 miles or so round trip. This time, I’ll remember to change batteries in the headlamp. And bring some spares. You can never be too cautious. 

    If you do plan to try this hike out, here are a few important tips:

    1 – Wear comfortable walking shoes – the trail is gravel the entire way. I guess if you are used to hiking in flip-flops, you’ll be OK. It’s also wet in Tunnel #6.
    2 – Bring a flashlight or headlamp – it’s really dark in that first tunnel, and dim in a few other spots.
    3 – If you really have to add your own art or scrawls, try not to do it on any of the large murals.
    4 – And most important of all – there are no restrooms in the parking lot, or along the 2.9 mile length of the trial. It would also be inappropriate to do it in a tunnel or snow shed. If you need to go, go before you get there.