I met Tractor Guy
Actually, it would be more accurate to call him “Grader Guy” since that is what he was driving.
A couple of springs ago I was dismayed to find that big sections of the trails at Almaden Quicksilver County Park had been heavily graded. The process tears up a lot of vegetation and breaks up rocks and generally makes things look run over.
Last year I realized that the damage pretty much disappeared within a few months and that the “trails” really are dirt roads, and I wasn’t so upset.
Today as I arrived at the parking lot at 7:30 am a guy was starting up his grader and unchaining the gate to the Mine Hill Trail. We talked for a few minutes and he seemed like a nice enough guy. He even promised not to run me over “more than twice.” I told him there probably wouldn’t be much left to run over a third time, and I headed up Deep Gulch Trail.
Soon I arrived at English Camp and spent some time photographing some old buildings there. A few minutes later I heard the grader lumbering up the track from the Mine Hill Trail. He pulled up and stopped. (I learned that the blade makes a great “parking brake.”) We got to talking and he turned out to be a pretty friendly guy. He even apologized for disturbing my solitude. I told that was no problem since I knew of some routes that he wasn’t likely to follow – at least without cutting a brand new road. It sounds like he runs cattle for a living and apparently runs the grader as well. He was planning on driving down to the far end of the park to straighten out a few sections of a trail near the Senador Mine.
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April 2, 2004 -
Posted by gdanmitchell |
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I met Tractor Guy
Actually, it would be more accurate to call him “Grader Guy” since that is what he was driving.
A couple of springs ago I was dismayed to find that big sections of the trails at Almaden Quicksilver County Park had been heavily graded. The process tears up a lot of vegetation and breaks up rocks and generally makes things look run over.
Last year I realized that the damage pretty much disappeared within a few months and that the “trails” really are dirt roads, and I wasn’t so upset.
Today as I arrived at the parking lot at 7:30 am a guy was starting up his grader and unchaining the gate to the Mine Hill Trail. We talked for a few minutes and he seemed like a nice enough guy. He even promised not to run me over “more than twice.” I told him there probably wouldn’t be much left to run over a third time, and I headed up Deep Gulch Trail.
Soon I arrived at English Camp and spent some time photographing some old buildings there. A few minutes later I heard the grader lumbering up the track from the Mine Hill Trail. He pulled up and stopped. (I learned that the blade makes a great “parking brake.”) We got to talking and he turned out to be a pretty friendly guy. He even apologized for disturbing my solitude. I told that was no problem since I knew of some routes that he wasn’t likely to follow – at least without cutting a brand new road. It sounds like he runs cattle for a living and apparently runs the grader as well. He was planning on driving down to the far end of the park to straighten out a few sections of a trail near the Senador Mine.
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April 2, 2004 - Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary