The Lyman and Rapallo Viaducts

 I have never spent much time on The Airline Trail. I had a tendency to think of it as a place with a Meaningless Micro Geocache every 500 feet, but a few weeks ago, I was looking for a place to X-C ski, and I found a geocache right on top of it. Boy, what a surprise!

 The Lyman Viaduct. It looks more like something I'd expect to see someplace like New Hampshire or Maine. It was once a railroad trestle, 1000 feet long and 160 feet high-now its filled in with sand, and resembles a dam, but with no lake.

This is how it looked as a bridge. Incredible sight!

This is from the end. Try as I might to take a picture that shows the scale of the thing, it just didn't go. 

I think what's happening is that the Trail brought me to a view that there was no other way to get to. I drive up and down hilly roads, but never see the geography.

Of course, I read all about it, and just had to explore. I found a well-worn trail to the streambed.

I had read that these trails were causing erosion on the fill, and here is some exposed ironwork. I felt a little bad about using the trail after I saw this, but I also saw a couple of ridiculous "scramble" trails right on the viaduct that I didn't use. 

Dickinson Creek flows under the viaduct through these culverts. I saw old photos of these where both were flowing a moderate amount of water, and there was a pool at the outflow. Now, only the left is open, and 3 feet of whitewater comes through.

Ornate graffiti. What looks like sand is actually poured concrete.

I know that graffiti is vandalism, but some of it is so well-done, it almost deserves to be there.

I just had to put my headlamp on & walk through the culvert. The graffiti is a little more "sinister" inside:

Or downright distasteful:

 The view halfway through. It was about 100 yards long.

Almost there. There was only a trickle of water, and it was paved with the same concrete as outside.

The end was dammed, and there was a pool about 4 feet deep. For some reason, I thought that I would be able to walk out & explore some more, but not without wading through icy water.

3-11-21

I returned today to look for a geocache on Dickinson Creek. I had a Hiking Hint from another cacher that included crossing the Viaduct and descending the slope to the other side.

Tried another photo on this sunny day, but I still think it doesn't convey the sheer scale of the thing. 😉

This is the upstream side of the culverts. It would be very difficult to wade through this fast-moving water to enter the left culvert, not to mention the logjam to climb over. Entering the right culvert and wading in three feet of fast water would be foolish indeed.

I also saw an impromptu campsite, with a fire pit and this teepee frame.

The Rapallo Viaduct. I had considered walking the Airline Trail to this site, but it looked too boring, so I looked at the geocaching map, and found a trail from Daly Road. The "trail" was actually an undeveloped work road with lots of logging taking place. 

I guess someone's afraid you'll steal firewood?

Another Smiley. Maybe someone's way of marking cull trees?

At the end of this road, I spotted a very long pipe. It was the Air Line going over the viaduct.

I wonder what this pipe carries?

This is only supposed to be 60 feet high, but it seems almost as tall as the Lyman. View of Flat Brook zigzagging across a marsh:

I crossed the Viaduct, and found an easy trail to the bottom. The brook goes through a single culvert, sort of a "junior" version of the Lyman: