The Crown Valley Cabin

The Crown Valley Station log cabin that we stayed in was quite nice. Its features were:

1. Hot and cold running water. (We never got the hot water heater connected up, but it was there!)
2. Three double pane windows. (Only the movable half of one was broken.)
3. Screens on two of the three 2' by 4' windows.
4. A double tub sink with adequate working space on both sides of it.
5. A four burner propane stove with an oven that we didn't use. (We used the burners but not the oven.) (Ours was similar to the one on the left) The actual stove and area around it.
6. Two five pound propane tanks. (Approximately full)
7. One thirty pound propane tank. (Approximately full)
8. Two bunk beds. (Room for four to sleep in. Each bed was about 7 and a 1/2 feet long and 3 1/2 feet wide.)
9. Large cache of "tree work" tools:
   1. Two man crosscut saw "Huson" with one middle tooth broken off. It had been sharpened by someone without the skill of Dolly. (A similar two man crosscut saw.)
   2. A full sized double bit axe. (A similar double bit axe.)
   3. A pulaski. (A Pulaski)
   4. Three McLeods. (A McLeod and another one. These are always pronounced "Ma-Cloud". )
   5. Four or five shovels. One had its handle cut short and there were at least two different varieties. None of them were "flat" shovels. (One or two were firefighting shovels, the others were normal round point shovels.)
   6. A digging bar.
   7. A 4 foot peavey pole. (A Peavey Pole)
   8. Several bow saws, with spare blades. (Bow saws)
   9. Steel and plastic wedges. (These were similar to all three wedges in this picture and they are visible on the left of the second shelf from the bottom here.)
   10. 8 lb. sledge hammer. (A sledge hammer.)
   11. Two loppers. (Somewhat smaller than this lopper.)
10. A bunch of plates, bowls and cups.
11. One working propane lantern. (And one that we never got working.)
12. A gasoline Coleman lantern. (With an almost empty gas can. So we never used it. Used the gasoline to help start the nightly fire.)
13. One three "D" cell flash light with a bunch of good batteries.
14. Many cooking utensils. (More are inside the cabinets.)
15. Many shelved tools (and, and), (This is the area behind the door to the left as you enter.) including:
    1. Crescent wrenches.
    2. Pipe wrenches.
    3. Hammer.
    4. Some open wrenches.
    5. Three "Fence" pliers. (A fence plier.)
    6. Some hacksaws.
    7. Nails, etc.
    8. Several spray bottles.
    9. A socket and ratchet for putting up signs.
    10. Three or four carpenter's hand saws.
    11. Several files.
    12. Post hole digger. (A Post Hole Digger.)
    13. Leaf rake.
    14. A set of Vise-Grip pliers.
    15. 6 and 8 inch slip joint pliers.
    16. And a bunch more tools.
16. A dead marmot. (Must have come in sometime since the cabin was last used and fell into an open 55 gal. drum and couldn't get out.)
17. A 55 gal. drum about 1/3 full of oats.
18. Three first aid kits, two for humans and one for horses.
19. A couple of buckets with misc piping and other metallic stuff in them.
20. A cast iron stove. We only found three legs for it but we didn't search too hard. There was no vent pipe to connect to the ceiling.
21. Two wooden and four metal folding chairs. (There was an additional broken chair and one of the metal chairs was about 1/2 broken.)
22. A wooden work table.
23. A medium supply of food.
24. About 3/4 gal. of Clorox.
25. (Then there was one container that we never opened.)
26. A wooden floor and galvanized and corrugated steel roof. In some places on the floor there was what looked like old linoleum.
27. Log walls with some of the "chinking" missing so that we could see daylight through the logs in several places.
28. At least one mouse (?) that ran around at night. (I never saw it but I did hear it.)

The cabin layout. This is what I remember, and estimate, it to be. I think that the bunk beds are about seven and a half feet long and about three and a half feet wide. This is because I am 5 ft 11 in high and I never got close to hitting the head and foot of the bunk at the same time. Also I am somewhat wide and there was plenty of room on both sides of me. The windows are centered on the walls and the resulting shape "looks" good. The "C"s in the diagram stand for cabinets of which we had six and two more under the counter.

The cabin was made of logs about ten inches in diameter. In this picture Tony is holding my shovel. On the handle the yellow marks are one foot apart. This is where I got my estimate as to the diameter of the logs. In this picture a problem with the cabin is apparent in that you can see "dry rot" in the log under the front door and again on the second log up on the right hand corner. About 5 to 10 percent of the logs in the building have some level of "dry rot" showing. An idea of the roof construction shows that heavy "beams" (logs) are used to hold up a roof of wooden shingles covered over with corrugated iron.

General view to the right as you enter the cabin. (After we removed the two 55 gal. drums and the water heater.)

The water system consists of galvanized 3/4 inch iron pipe coming from a covered spring which is about 60 feet higher than the cabin. (It is about 100 yards away and is on the right side of the trail as you are going up it.) Near the spring there is a union that was intentionally undone so that there was no water in the pipe. When the water was first connected up, there was a lot of rust in the water. We left the water running all night long and that reduced the rust in the water, but didn't eliminate it. All water that we used for drinking was either boiled or filtered before use.

Here Karl is removing a valve on a short pipe to fully drain the system just before we left. In this picture the cold water line is shown. The valve that Karl is removing is intended to supply water to the hot water heater. The hot water heater sits on the shelf on Karl's right. Another view of the piping and the hot water support. The outside shower shows the hot water heater support platform in the back and more of the piping. All of the equipment, including the heater, appeared to be on hand to connect everything up. The only missing thing I noticed was "pipe dope" for the threaded pipe connections.

The septic system consists of a pit latrine with a stainless steel throne (it has a nice fly proof lid, it also had a nice view but no door) about 50 feet down hill and to the right hand side of the cabin. Disposing of "gray" water was to drain it out about 50 feet directly behind the cabin down the hill.

Some missing things at the cabin are:

1. There is no way to make cold. There is no refrigerator, or equivalent. Nor is there a screened food storage area.
2. The cabin is well shaded by large trees and sits in approximately a north-south orientation, i.e. the only door is on the north end. Thus there is no practical way to add solar power by putting solar cells on the roof.