Visitors to the Bizz Johnson National Recreation Trail will be directed onto a detour around the historic Devil’s Corral railroad trestle during a painting project in July.
Walkers, bicyclists and horseback riders will cross the Susan River on a former highway bridge from July 5th through July 22nd, while workers apply a protective paint coating to the trestle which is about seven miles west of Susanville.
The project will not require closures to through trail traffic between Susanville and Westwood, officials at the Bureau of Land Management said.
The 98-year-old trestle was restored and reopened to the public last October, after a summer-long project to repair extensive damage that occurred during a wildfire in 2000.
This summer’s painting project is the final step of the restoration that was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Spanning the Susan River Canyon at a height of 70 feet, the 270-foot-long trestle is a dramatic vestige of Lassen County’s logging and railroading history. It was built in 1913, and carried logging, lumber, freight and passenger trains until service ceased on the Fernley and Lassen Rail Line in 1956.
Through a Rails to Trails program conversion, the abandoned railroad became the Bizz Johnson Trail about 30 years ago.
