Notes and Correspondence 



343 



should undertake without delay, and that is the building of a trail from 

 Hardin Lake on the Tioga Road down into Pate Valley, which is a Yo- 

 semite-like valley in the Tuolumne Cafion about ten miles above Hetch- 

 Hetchy. Cross the Tuolumne River at this point and continue the trail 

 on up to connect with the main Rogers Lake, Pleasant Valley Trail, on 

 the other side of the Tuolumne. This trail is of immense importance 

 for the development of the northern portion of the Yosemite National 

 Park, and now that the Hetch-Hetcliy crossing is to a great extent 

 eliminated and undesirable, it has become doubly important that this 

 trail should be opened up without delay so as to make the northern por- 

 tion of the park accessible, and this will be the shortest route into it 

 from the Yosemite, as well as making the finest portion of the Grand 

 Canon of the Tuolumne accessible. I had intended taking this up with 

 Mr. Mather, but appreciate that it would mean too great a delay. This 

 trail is mentioned on page 251, "National Park Notes," in a foot-note, 



to which note I call your attention. ^7- • , 



^ Very smcerely yours, 



Wm. E. Colby 



Report of Work Done in Muir Trail, 191 7 



After my trip last year with Mr. McClure, the State Engineer, I was 

 impressed with his belief that under no consideration should any but a 

 Class A trail be constructed. 



With this in view, I issued the following to Deputy Supervisor Jor- 

 dan and Ranger Hughes before they entered upon the work : 



"The State Engineer insists on a Class A trail, and you will be 

 governed by the specifications laid down in the trail manual for 

 this type of trail. Tread should never be less than 15 inches, more 

 if necessary to meet the situation. In location work the trail should 

 be laid off in sections of like type, each section measured and 

 numbered, and a record made of costs chargeable to each. Pack- 

 ing, grub and cook costs will be kept separate, to be pro-rated 

 later. 



I want to impress upon both of you the importance of locating 

 the trail properly, and I know that I can depend upon you to turn 

 out a trail that we will be proud of." 



This, of course, was supplemented by a thorough discussion of 

 the whole project, so that we started on the work with our ideas 

 of construction unified. 



The work accomplished, although higher in cost than last year, 

 is of a higher standard than ever before attempted on this forest, 

 and will be, I am sure, a work that will bear the inspection of the 

 most critical. 



COSTS 



As last year we divided construction work into three types, as 

 follows : 



Class A is solid rock, from 10 per cent to 100 per cent slope. 

 Class B is talus, consisting of small and large broken slides, 

 and are at present impassable and require blasting. 



