Old Pine Canyon

I love to learn about local history. I'm fascinated by abandoned homesteads, historical buildings and old roads. Since moving to Waterville, I've heard quite a few stories about the old Pine Canyon road. People say that it was so steep and treacherous that the old Model Ts had to navigate it backward. Apparently, the cars had more traction when running in reverse, but the most important reason for backward driving was the fact that the gravity feed gas tank was situated behind the engine. If the driver were to go forward up the steep grade, the gas tank would tilt below the engine and the car would stall! That's a bad situation when there's nowhere to turn around!

There are more stories that tell of car races, snow storms and a catastrophic flood; stories which fueled my already overactive curiosity. I became determined to find out where the original road was. I could see parts of it deep in the floor of the canyon as we drove up the hill but I wasn't sure if it was still accessible from the top. Adam and I decided to begin our search on a mystery road, one that I had been curious about for quite some time, and to my excitement, it turned out to be the old highway! We drove until we reached a roadblock and then continued down the hill on foot. It was fun to imagine, as we hiked, the tiny old cars puttering around the hairpin turns, yet it was somewhat sad to see a little piece of history eroding away. We made our way down to where the old road meets the new and upon losing the trail, headed back for home. Now, in order to appease my nearly-satisfied curiosity, I need to figure out how to access the lower portion of the road.