Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

I'll let others give the details, but the gist is this:

1) The road from Ben Hur to the putin bridge is now clear (thanks to some chainsawing paddlers and the forest service)

2) The road from the putin bridge to the North is blocked.

3) The road in from Lurton condition is ??? Dozers are scheduled to clear the road from Lurton to at least the radio tower on the Northern shuttle road, whether they make it to Iceledo Gap or Dickey Junction is unknown.

4) Chances of getting entire shuttle road for Richland cleared tomorrow 0.1%

Lazer, any info as to damage at our cabins? dale

I didn't make it up there, but Cowper did not mention any damage. Said it took them about 2 hours to clear the way in from the bridge to the North Cabin.

Thanks.

Good day at Richland, didn't get to paddle but lots of progress made on clearing the road, much more needed before we can have a clean shuttle.

Dale, check your PM.

11 PM - just getting home. Long day of chainsawing and clearing. Lazer gave the update accurately; we ran out of daylight only 1 mile from Dales going toward the lower. It looked like we were about to start making faster progress up the hill as some of the down trees in that area were pines which cut much easier and aren't as hard to heave over the side of the road. The Forest Service said they were treating the ice storm like a fire, with an incident commander and multiple road clearing crews. But their goal is only to clear to any location that has known dwellings - so my guess is they will clear to lower Richland, but not clear to the Campground until much later. Given that the campground is officially closed, it could be a long time before this stretch of road gets any priority.

SO HERE'S THE PUNCH LINE: Consider coming up tomorrow to help us clear some more! It doesn't matter if you have a saw or not; we need more bodies to drag the limbs out of the road after we cut them. But if you do have a chain saw, bring it!

Cowper, you're right about the campground clearing. From what the FS guys told us yesterday, I understand that clearing to the campground will be last (and they knew you were doing it, so they were less concerned about getting it done). I'm sorry we never got through to the whole group, but perhaps our story will help others who don't drive trucks. We were having trouble getting through on the "cleared" sections. We parked for a while and cleared smaller trees and branches from the road where we thought they might stop cars--anything we could get without a chain saw. On the way back out, we kept stopping to clear . . . . I know we couldn't do as much as the big group, but we did what we could. Thanks to everyone who did the main clearing.

Feb 1, 2009. The last mile to the campground is still blocked. Almost a dozen of us made it 2 miles today. Horizontal trees the whole way. It is unbelievable, but I swear every tree on the hillsides is damaged to some degree.

Big props to all the people that put in work this weekend! Unfortunately I think branches and trees will continue to fall into the road for a while because like Lazer said there is tons of damage out there especially following the next time we get some decent wind or storms.

-Matt

Ya'll are awesome Such dedicated boaters, To spend your weekends helping out, busting your butts to get a job done. Well almost done, Any ways good job, it is much appreciated. Tim muse

just letting it be known - there is a huge landslide that blocked the road.

You all deserve a Thanks!!

shakeyhands wrote:just letting it be known - there is a huge landslide that blocked the road.

I would think you are talking about the road into the campground that runs by Falling Water. That slide has been there a while and the rangers we talked with Saturday said that there was a second one also. Can't remember if there was a second one right after the first one or if this one is new. Either way, two slides on the FW road.

shakeyhands wrote:just letting it be known - there is a huge landslide that blocked the road.

Yep. The road from the South (aka Falling Water Road) has been blocked by a massive landslide for a while. But the campground could still be accessed from the North. The FS people we talked to this weekend said they did not plan on clearing ice damaged trees on the Northern route in until they were ready to tackle the landslide on the Southern route. This would not happen before MAY 09 and likely later than that. So, if you we started cutting our way down from Dickey Junction so we can restore access the campground bridge sooner than later.

Lance, dale, or cowper,

If the roads are this clogged, how bad do you think the creek is?

JB