What I did on my day off…
It’s Easter and I should have been relaxing and working on the little sweater, but instead I headed into the Oregon Coast Range to search out a Steam Donkey.
I had got some information about the location of a couple of donkeys and though it’s been raining on and off the past couple of days, this morning was dry and so we headed for the hills. Once we had left the truck, the trip was completely off trail. We had a compass, a map and some general directions. By dumb luck we stumbled upon the abandoned logging railroad grade and started following it in the general direction given by our informant. Mostly the rain held off, with only a couple of showers, but we were swaddled in rain gear and stumbling through sword fern and crawling over numerous windfalls, but finally crossed a little stream and there stood a little vertical boiler for a donkey. If you look at the above link, you’ll get an idea the relationship of the boiler to the setup of the donkey.
This chunk of cast iron has probably been sitting here for 70 or 80 years. It’s actually a pretty small boiler and considering that we also found two boiler water tanks, we expected to find more. But no further luck today.
Physically worn out and starting to get pretty damp throughout, we headed back out to the truck and came home to dry out and get some dinner. Very pleasant day overall…
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Now that sounds like an adventure. I love a good adventure. The pics are neat.
Sounds like you had a great day. I envy the lushness of your Pacific Northwest woods!
It sounds like your life is getting better and brighter – I am happy for you.
Steam Donkey. Interesting, I did not know such a thing existed. It seems like a good name to fling at my SO sometime.
Steam donkeys were important equipment in the early days of logging here on the West Coast. In some cases donkeys were used into the late 1940’s. While this one wasn’t a rare find (it’s in the middle of a State Forest unit that’s been recently partial cut), it’s unusual to find one that hasn’t been heavily vandalized.