Greetings From High Rock Canyon

[deveil]

Greetings From High Rock Canyon

This afternoon, Randy and i spent approximately an hour and a half surveying, discussing, chewing and digesting. This is our assessment:

The low-cost option to get the road *passable* would require a work party of twelve to fifteen people *minimum*, putting in a *full* day of busting hump (considering the nature of the work, i thought i’d go with the vernacular). Randy would use the bucket of his tractor to help transport rock from the wall surrounding the field.
Getting anything beyond passable would require additional work hours or we could have about two loads of red dog (shale) hauled in and spread. This would be more durable than any other paving option. Some could also be used on Coffee Pot Lane, which also needs repairs.

The other option would be to have someone come in with a ‘dozer to level and fill. Yep, ‘dozer. As in no bull. If you want to talk wheel barrows, shovels and gravel, well, no need to waste your time with me (thought i’d just cut to the chase). Randy will start this week trying to locate someone who might do the work.

The one is an investment of time, the other an investment of money.
In order to protect either, the culvert above the canyon would need to be replaced. Otherwise the repair would wash out with the next torrential rain, and we seem to be getting them regularly. The repeating severe erosion is due to the demise of this culvert and pipe.

Randy believes that he might be able to use his equipment, with our help, to remove the pipe and clear the channel to facilitate the placement of new pipe, some thirty-six feet. We *possibly* could place the new pipe ourselves. It would make good sense to build up the road immediately below and adjacent to the culvert and do some other landscaping. A metal grate would be placed at the entrance of the pipe to prevent clogging from leaves and debris - Randy could then keep the grate cleared.
If not Randy’s equipment and our labor, then a backhoe and paid labor. We’ll also try to get an estimate on that.

As a perspective for those who did the last repair, we estimate that the amount of work required would be three to four times that.

I thought i'd also mention that Randy has already done a bunch of work repairing the top parts of the road, even though he can access the field from another road in order to do any farming.

gary

[brianvh]

I think Gary's taken a shine to that distinguished service award.

I retract my previous statement about doing a temporary fix, and since it's the Carbaughs I think many people including me would be willing to pitch in some cash towards the cause. I pledge $50.

[deveil]

that was an assessment, this is an opinion (granted, an assessment is an opinion)

if someone foresees being able to put together a work party of sufficient numbers and virility then, personally, i’m all for a DYI approach.

while i’d always rather enjoyed the time spent with others on our frequent work parties, my own days of busting hump are over - my hump done been busted.

the last road repair was spearheaded by Brian and fortunately there was a good turnout. the large rocks that we were able to haul down to the rut using the sledge that i’d made have pretty much survived in place - but only those large ones. the severe erosion has taken placed adjacent to and below that work. if we were able to install a similar base of large rocks, and the whole base of large rocks similarly survives severe flooding, then re-repairing a top, drivable surface might be seen as a reasonable routine maintenance.

the number of man hours would be very significant and getting sufficient people together would be the largest impediment to this approach. someone other than myself would have to be the whip because organizing people is not my strong suit.

again, the duration of any repair could not be gauranteed without repairs to the culvert.

pursuing contractors is real work. real monies, a couple thousand easily, should already be prepared to be spent. i’ll only make tentative inquiries until opinion gels.

ps. i wouldn't really put it that way, brian. i don't like "work" any more than the next person. gawd no. and though i did catch the implied compliment (thanks) i'm also wary of manipulative ego stroking.

[deveil]

i should have probably added a and/or a to that first

[brianvh]

I wasn't so much trying to apply my super-hero mental manipulation powers to get you to keep at it, as just glad someone had stepped up to the plate and taken action. It must have also warmed Emma-Jane's heart to see an old face.

[dbodner]

By way of comparison, the center ramp at the Pulpit Janni spearheaded cost $5,475. The work was done by David H. Martin Excavating in Chambersburg. I have contact information if we want to get a bid.

[markc]

Janni's project involved some pretty serious rock-busting, and the additional challenges of working on a mountain slope. I assume that repairing the road to the High Rock LZ would be quite a bit less difficult, and that the cost would be much lower? Definitely worth getting a quote from DME (although perhaps it wouldn't be a big enough project to interest them?). A couple of K to truly solve the problem, once and for all, might be money well spent.

An alternative would be to involve some pilots with relevant experience, pay a bit less (but enough to make it worth their while), with other pilots providing the labor. I can see pros and cons both ways.

MarkC

[deveil]

Dave always seems to have the pertinent information at hand. i’d been hoping to get the name of the pulpit contractors, i recall Shawn having remarked on their competency (don’t want his contribution to be forgotten).
‘talked with Randy last night and he already has made local connections with guys who will visit the site and see if they can handle the work.
i’m guessing that having a contractor consider doing the jobs of road repair and culvert repair separately would increase the overall cost significantly.

[davidtheamazing1]

Gary, thank you for stepping up, and helping us research the options. We all want to see the HR road repaired, and we want to do it right.

[deveil]

Yo! Dave - check your in box.

[deveil]

update: 'scheduled to meet w/ Martin Excavating tuesday next.

[deveil]

First off, it just might be that Glen will be due free beers for life for his rendition of Stairway to Heaven. i mean, there might be some old old-timer who will whine that it’s not an escalator, but shoot…

Today, Randy and I met with Jeryl, of Martin Excavating - he was the one who handled the job at the Pulpit with Janni. He saw things pretty much the way we did - don’t waste money on the road if you’re not going to do the culvert. One thing he thought to add was a cant to the road so that any water from a deluge would roll off to the side before it could build up momentum and cut a channel in the road itself. The dozer would take care of all the work. Use the rock that washed out, use rock from the rock wall and top it with a couple of loads of shale. re-excavate the whole culvert channel, provide and bury new larger pipe, re-landscape etc.
I was holding my breath, but he said the price should come in right around twenty-one hundred, give or take.
He's sending us a bid proposal. He’s ready to go tomorrow. We know him, he knows us, we like what he did at the pulpit.
Whoever will be officially representing the club should get in touch with me, i suppose. For now he has my address and so will be sending the bid proposal to me.
i await further orders.
your humble servant,
gary devan

[davidtheamazing1]

Gary,
Thanks for your work on this! Send me the quote, along with any thoughts on solving the problem with a crew supervised by Randy. I will start a discussion with the CHGPA & MHGA boards about our options.

[deveil]

"any thoughts on solving the problem with a crew supervised by Randy." not sure what you mean - the only thing for anyone to do will be Randy and i being there while the work takes place. turn-key operation.
also, Randy has already taken care of CoffeePot Lane.
?

[deveil]

email me your address and i'll have the bid proposal mailed directly to you - save time.

(Anne, i'm not seeing that edit button anywhere)

[deveil]

better yet, i left a message to have the bid emailed to me, as well, and i'll kick it over to you, and you can kick it off to whoever needs to see it. save more time.

[mcelrah]

You rock, Gary! - Hugh

[deveil]

just rec'd the bid and will be forwarding it, haven't read it yet, the the price is what he said it would be -$2,097.00.

[brianvh]

When I dropped by Emma Jane this weekend she dropped the exact amount spent ($217?) on buying the shale for Randy to fix coffee pot lane. This is usually a hint that she would like help on it. Just thought I should mention it.

[deveil]

Update: no update

[deveil]

Jaryl just returned from Alaska, 'said he'd try to get us on the schedule for next week. Randy and I spent this afternoon limbing trees to make way for his equipment.

[markc]

That's great news, thanks for taking the lead on this project Gary. It's really amazing when individuals decide to step up and get something done, something which will benefit both the Carbaughs and all of the pilots who fly The Rock. Kudos to you my friend!

For those who haven't flown High Rock in a while.... The washout at the bottom of the access road to the LZ is pretty darn huge. I've got a manual 4Runner, but I wouldn't want to take a chance on those rocks unless I absolutely had to! The photos I saw a while ago simply don't do justice to what's happened. With any luck, this repair project will take care of the flooding problem once and for all.

Please keep us posted about the remaining tasks Gary. You never know, even mid-week you might luck into someone who can lend a hand. Wish I could have done so today, shoot!

MarkC

[deveil]

" I must have been temporarily insane last night when I posted, there's just no way that I'm going to be able to take some time off this week, in the middle of a production crunch. "

thanks for the generous words, it helps the sore muscles. and you probably wOuld have enjoyed doing what we were doing much more than what you had to do. sympathies

[deveil]

we fell off the schedule due to weather or something. whatever. i'm sure it will happen in due time.

[davidtheamazing1]

At the meeting we discussed pushing back HR Fly-in due to the road situation. Any idea when they will come out to fix it?