http://viewlinerltd.blogspot.com/201...e-railway.html
Mt Lowe has come up again. I highly recommend making the hike to the top. There's a good switch-back hiking trail to the top beginning at the end of Lake St in Altadena plus a stupid-easy fire road to the top beginning in Millard Canyon which if continued up the mountain takes you along the old railway bed (fire road now) all the way to where the Alpine Tavern was up on Mt Lowe. Some tell-tale foundations still remain there as well. There's still plenty of magic in that place. It's a step back in time for sure.
I lived in Sierra Madre for a couple of years and became quite obsessed with San Gabriel Mountain history and lore even to the point of sluicing about 1/2 oz of gold out of the East Fork river over many, many outings. I don't recommend it for profit.
I once hiked straight up the side of the mountain out of Rubio Canyon that was once the path of Echo Mountain's funicular shown in the 1st photo. There's still some concrete footings for the platform in the bottom of the canyon but they're crumbling fast. It was tough, it was steep and there was no trail getting to the top.
I did find some artifacts, railroad spikes etc along the way.
The most interesting and most
disturbing (in hindsight) artifact I found was a small, deflated common helium balloon with a note attached to it requesting the finder to please contact some local school's 5th grade class and declare it's location. At that time I was going through some really difficult personal stuff and I never followed up and quickly lost the note. I wall always regret that loss of a
perfect teaching opportunity.
Here's a Google snap of the incline now. I hope you can make out the resemblance.