The 19th century loggers probably never imagined they would one day clear the slopes of the Santa Cruz mountains. Felling a single giant took days with hand saws and axes. To make their job easier, loggers cut waist-high notches, still visible today on some old stumps, where they suspended springboards. By standing on the boards, they could avoid cutting across the wider base, which didn't have lumber quality grain anyway.
Before steam donkeys, oxen dragged logs to the mill on skid roads built in dry creekbeds. The crews used gunpowder to split the 10-foot-diameter trees lengthwise so the logs could be cut with a 5-foot circular blade.
Steam power was introduced in 1900. It replaced oxen teams and horses. Steam Donkey engines created the steam that powered winches. They were used in the early 1900's to yard and load large logs from the woods to the railway landing. They were also used to build bridges. Some were very big, with several steam engines and single large boilers on one set of timber skids. Steam donkeys were replaced in the 1930's by machines that were gas-powered. By the 1950's, steam had disappeared from the forests.
The cache is an ammo can loaded with various goodies, please trade fairly so others might find something nice here as well, GPSr reception in this area varies from poor to non-existant, the coords were taken with a 60 c/s on a 15 minute average, if you get better ones feel free to post them, no bushwacking is required. The preserve hours are dawn until one-half hour after sunset, please respect the posted hours and cache only during these times.