Detail: Ida C. Welter Property
Approaching the Welter Cemetery
I walked over that bridge myself yesterday! ... I walk these old areas and the curiosity overwhelms my soul. What these places used to be, the history and beauty of it. I hope some before pics can be found.
It was notable that we found amphibians on land but not the sensitive stream amphibians such as Coastal Giant Salamanders, Columbia Torrent Salamanders, and Coast Tailed Frogs. Despite the stream’s beauty, there was a lot of mud and sediment in its flow. I explained to the group that the extra sediment was likely a result of development and logging in the hills above the stream, and made it difficult for stream amphibians to survive.
Eastbound, past the cemetery and waterfall, this is the most destroyed abandoned fragment that I have found so far! Slide after slide has buried much of the old highway along this stretch.
However, there is old pavement under there... Often, very far under there. I debated whether or not marking this in red instead of yellow, but the old pavement is still out there, so...
Hopefully my photos from 2014 turn up. I really don't look forward to making this bushwhack again!
Looking at the lidar images above of the unmaintained section, I find myself wondering if my memories from March 2014 are a bit exaggerated. Perhaps, a bit, on the number of BIG slides, though I do remember that 400-foot plus one well (it's tall, too!). However, mostly I remember following a vague deer trail through wet and cold brush and a lot of deep mud.
What I do remember is a lot of smaller washes and slides over the old road. Where the big slide was something like 20 to 40-feet in height, the smaller ones were only a few feet deep, over and under a tremendous amount of duff.
I do want to get back there this winter, and am rather looking forward to it, unlike what I wrote above back in 2020. Hopefully after a mid-winter dry spell!
South end of the Welter Fragment, Westbound View
Google Street View Imagery Date: July 2018