As you approach this cache, pull off the highway immediately at the
end of the guardrail. You can park in the wide gravel turnout and
walk the short distance to the cache, or follow a dirt road right
to it. The cache is a small container with log only, maybe room for
very small trade items & trackables. The log is printed on
water-proof paper that can be written on even if wet, but it can
only be written on with a ball-point pen...be sure to bring one
along. Be VERY CAREFUL re-entering the highway when you leave.
The California Trail followed the north bank of the Humboldt
River through present-day northeastern Nevada, to the Humboldt
Sink. At Humboldt Bar, the trail diverged, with the Truckee River
Route crossing the western edge of the Forty-Mile Desert to the
Truckee River at Wadsworth. It then followed the river to Donner
Lake, over Donner Summit, and ultimately ended at Sutter's Fort,
near Sacramento, roughly the same route followed by Interstate 80
today. In all, some 250,000 people would use this trail from the
late 1840's until the introduction of the railroads in the late
1860's.
Marker T.R.R. 9 ~Little Meadows~
This is a B.L.M. trail marker - my other caches in this series
are located at Trails West markers. Consequently, the marker
numbering sequence gets out of whack here.
I've been unable to find any historic information on Little Meadows
other than a brief reference to the area in an 1862 description of
Washoe County, which states:
"10 miles below the big meadows are the little meadows of the
Truckee, consisting of a few hundred acres of good land..."
I would speculate that this was the next decent area for emigrants
heading west on the trail to camp, following their departure from
the Big Bend of the Truckee, near Wadsworth.
Also of historic interest in this area...The small flat area
south-southwest of the trail marker, between the marker and
existing railroad maintenance road, was the railbed of the Central
Pacific (there's an old tire sitting right in the middle of the
railbed, just below the marker). If you look to the southwest from
the trail marker, you will see a cut made through a small rock
outcrop for the railbed. The tracks were moved to their present
location during the 1902-1908 Harriman realignment.
The next closest emigrant trail marker is located at GC1946V
(Red Bluff).
