Monthly Archives: September 2013

Rock slide clearing

Sometime in the spring of 2013 a rock slide blocked the Middle Fork road about one mile before the Hardscrabble trailhead. As explained in the linked post, the USFS is committed to keeping a 40″ wide path open. So on September 18, 2013 a Forest Service crew spent a full day blasting the bigger rocks and rolling the smaller ones to clear the rock slide. This movie was made with two cameras mounted near the the blast site with additional audio edited in from the radios used to coordinate the closing of the trail for safety concerns.

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Before. Tarps covered previously drilled holes drilled in large rocks

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Placing explosives and packing mud

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Packing mud over holes

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Attaching detonation cord

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Pouring ANFO prills into garbage bags

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ANFO/emulex charges sitting on top of smaller rocks

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Shredded tree from second blast

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After, a cleared trail

Couplet culvert completed

After delays to coordinate with patches on the upper couplet and the discovery of a surprisingly large rock, construction of the new culvert on the lower couplet is complete. Notice how deep the concrete culvert frame is and then how little is exposed above the water in the last picture. The bottom is filled with natural stream bed material so fish can pass through easily.

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Crews discovered a very large boulder that needed to be removed to install the culvert.

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Work crews guide the box culvert sections into place


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The work crew guides a cap onto the culvert sections

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The repaired culvert draining on a rainy winter day


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