Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

Haven't paddled lately and too chicken to hike the creeks in this blazing heat, so I checked on status of fr1205. Tentative completion date is March 2012. Should bring some happiness with the spring rains if this is correct..

Chris

Paddled Falling Water in April, and right into Richland. The road still has "under construction" signs up, but we drove on through, they've cleared the landslide and you can go all the way through. Whether you're supposed to or not, that I can't answer.

A bit of an update on the landslide repair.

1) Falling Water road is temporarily blocked by gate at the low water bridge on Falling Water. The gate is locked and the road is closed.

2) The road up from the Richland Campground is also gated, locked and blocked from the campground in the direction of the slide.

3) It is unbelievable how much earth has been moved. The engineers and crew have blasted and removed from the top slope downward. They are in the process of drilling and installing seep catchments to allow the remaining slope to seep and drain through these man made ports. I'm guessing they are only about half done with that work.

4) On the very positive side a lot of the cut from the slide has been used to build up the road bed from the Falling Water bridge down to the campground. You may recall that last steep section of the old road was getting in bad shape as you went off the hillside down to the campground. That section has been substantially built up and improved with fill.

5) The road will still maintain follow the old route through the slide area but I suspect it will be several more months before the road is re-opened. When its open that section of the road from the bridge to campground will be in as good a shape as its been since I've been going there 20+ years.

When you see the landslide area for the first time you'll instantly realize why it has taken so long to repair.

On a somewhat sad note the campground is weedy and overgrown and will take a good brush-hogging to whip it back into a useful state but I'll be glad when its back in service as I'm you will be too.

Oh I forgot to mention. If planning a Bobtail run you will have to run shuttle via Hwy 16 all the way around to the Witts Springs side of the mountain. Better bring an extry gas can because I'd reckon that to be around a 70 mile shuttle if I was guessing.