School Cave

[jonb8]

We've been looking for a cave for awhile now that's been lost to time for most people in are area. The cave was used as a schoolhouse by the first settlers in are area around 1818. There's a crack in the ceiling that made a natural chimney and they stacked logs against the entrance and used fabric as a door. There's also stories of farmers hiding there livestock in the cave to keep the armies of the civil war from taking them. We found it on Sunday afternoon, and it was worth all the work lots of history found....

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[4.3LXJ]

Very cool Jon. I love local history. If we ever get together out here, I have a ton of it to share

[jonb8]

Can't wait, I love chasing History. First thing I did last year was go to Donner Pass and Virginia City.

[4.3LXJ]

Did you see the petroglyphs on top of old Donor Pass highway??

[jonb8]

No I just went to the park, wasn't sure if the road was open to the top and I was running solo and didn't know what to expect. I'd like to go this year...

[4.3LXJ]

So, here is the question. Do you want lots of history and some challenging wheeling or some history and lots of challenging wheeling? For instance in one area only a couple of short challenging trails, free camping a nice hydraulic mining area with stacked rocks to play in and five abandoned town sites, or something like Fordyce with one abandoned mine, couple of active ones at the top, one small site with petroglyphs at the top and the abandoned townsite at Meadow Lake?

[bluedragon436]

That's pretty cool to have found... Would be nice if the state would at least put a sign or info board out by it, to inform folks that happen by that area...

[jonb8]

I dig it all but Fordyce on 35's would probably be a stretch of the imagination from what I hear....I don't wanna destroy the jeep either being that far from home....

[jonb8]

Were working on it Bluedragon, trying to get some local history brought back for the future generations..

[4.3LXJ]

I dig it all but Fordyce on 35's would probably be a stretch of the imagination from what I hear....I don't wanna destroy the jeep either being that far from home....

You can do Fordyce on 35s pretty well now. The real nasty spot is winch hill no. 1, which has a bypass now. Besides you can go in from Fordyce lake that puts you in at about 2/3 the way up. But we had a lot of fun while at Downieville and saw lots of real interesting stuff. I have done only half of the trails there. I need to go back. Towns there are very tourist oriented and the trails there are mostly on the Tahoe Forest just like the Rubicon. The Tahoe forest is very friendly to wheelers

[jonb8]

Sounds like a place I need to visit... I've always heard that Fordyce was ugly at best. Good to hear a person can knock it off the bucket list without tearing his jeep into pieces... I need to get to work on the xj...

[4.3LXJ]

You can mark it off your bucket list, but you need to keep your cool. Ran across a guy with a nice Jeep Station wagon with D60/44 on 37s. Wiped out his front axle and hub on winch hill 1. Too much testosterone on that one