One of the more harmless passageways in this region is Mount Bullion Cutoff in Mariposa County. The 3 1/2-mile patch that runs north-south (and at times east-west) between California State Routes 49 and 140 leads to and around the Mankins ranch.
This is where Logan Mankins grew up, where he became a man; a 6-foot-4-inch, 307-pound mountain of a man who one day would be a first-round draft pick of the New England Patriots. It is also where he would face more pain than he likely will ever see on a football field.
It was a warm summer day in 2000, a few weeks before Mankins was scheduled to enroll at Fresno State, which to his surprise had offered him a football scholarship.
As Logan and his younger brother Morgan made their way down Mount Bullion Cutoff, Logan at the wheel, something happened. Probably a busted tie rod on the front end of the pickup truck.
The steering wheel locked. Logan lost control. The truck went airborne.
Logan and Morgan -- neither wearing a seatbelt -- went airborne.
Into a bank -- down a hill -- two brothers and a truck.
The sun was up, but Tim Mankins was home, anyway. Rather unusual for the hard-working rancher, who taught his three sons that as long as there is work to be done, one must work.
''The boys have always worked hard," Jill Mankins said of her children. ''There weren't any allowances for them. They had to earn it."
From the time they were old enough to take to a horse for a full day (about 5 years old, their mother estimates), Logan and Morgan Mankins tagged along with their father as he baled hay, repaired fences, rounded up cattle, and performed other assorted jobs on his and other nearby ranches.
On this August day, Tim Mankins's work was closer to the house, and his two oldest boys, Logan, 18, and Morgan, 15, were in a truck on Mount Bullion Road.
When a neighbor pulled up and yelled at Tim Mankins to dial 911 because there had been an accident, Mankins had no idea anyone he knew was involved.
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