Sat09Mar : Daniels site maintenance

[markc]

I'll be heading down to Daniels today, to work on clearing the right side of the slot. ETA: 11am.
Planning to put in about 4 hours, and then wrap up before the late-day rain moves in.

[silverwings]

So Mark, did you go and do some work and how does it look???

[markc]

*Major* progress at Daniel's (not of my making!), will post pics and details tomorrow!

[markc]

So, note to self: Keep an eye on the weather forecasts outside of the local area when planning on site maintenance. Particularly in winter.

Duh!

If you've been to Daniel's recently, you likely know about that one part of the road that's gotten really bad, at the point of the final turn-off to the left, leading to properties below launch. With all the rain in 2018, there's a pretty good gully on the left side as you approach that point, and then a second that crosses the road as it jogs back to the right. A lot of water from up-slope flows through the latter, and both have gotten pretty deep. The second can also get very muddy.

I wasn't completely unprepared : I threw tarps and a shovel into the vehicle, serious boots, and picked up six bags of stone at Home Despot before heading out. Figured that I would band-aid the bad spot enough to get by in my Outback, then head on up to get some work done!

What I hadn't anticipated was the amount of snow that the Charlottesville area got, from the same "conversational snow" system that the DC area saw on Friday.

It was a very scenic drive, as this pic atests:

Ditto, turning onto Old Mountain Road:

Hmmm.... KInda snowy here, ain't it? I don't have any pics of the band-aid, but things went as planned. Threw various rocks that were lying around into the second gully, shovelled-in some gravel and dirt, then dumped the stone at a strategic spot. Maybe an hour all-told. Then I lined up along some crests on either side of the left side gully, gunned it, and cut to the right over the band-aid.

Made it! Sweet, I'm golden now!

But just up the slope, well... The snow wasn't melting much. I realized that distinguishing where the gullies (there are two more past that tough spot, though not as bad) and rocks were was going to get difficult. So I stopped and walked up the road another 100 feet or so from this point:

I didn't like what I saw : Solid snow cover, no rocks visible, and it's not like I've got that road memorized. So whaddya do?

You back down the mountain to the point of that last turn-off, crossing the band-aid, get straightened out, and then park the vehicle somewhere along the road. And mostly that all worked out. With the exception of the point where I was laterally sliding down the road through the mud, an OhEffMe moment if there ever was one! Shoulda been running video, woulda been good for beers and laughs for a long damn time!

I dropped the vehicle a good ways down, loaded up with tree-saw, gatorade, etc, and hiked to the top. Conditions on the right side of the slot were (seemingly) unchanged from my last trip:

My plan was to cut another access path along that side, from the point of my last effort, and then carving into the very bottom of the slot. But with the snow and the slippery conditions, I quickly realized it would be hard to cut anything meaningful and then haul it to the slot boundary. Hmmmm.... Then, looking around, I realized that all was not as I left it, more work had been done! So I decided to focus on clearing the worst of the briar patches and vines that I could find, and to make sure that all trees were easily accessible. Here's a pick of one of the thorn/vine piles:

There are still three more substantial nasty-thornyness-es yet to go.

(part two of post to follow....)

[markc]

(post #2 of two)

Cleaning up the access path wasn't as satisfying as my last outing, but given the slippery conditions I can live with it. Here's a pic looking up-slope (sorry that the rendering within this post isn't rotated properly(

As I worked my way downhill, I realized that a decent path had already been partially cleared. And then, at the very bottom.... WOW! Some MAJOR trees have been cut:

There's still a lot to be done, but some mystery pilot(s) have made a major dent in that troublesome right corner. Woo-hoo!!!!

Thank you Mystery Pilots!

I worked for 4 hours up top, and then headed to Prince Michel vineyard. Changed clothes in the vehicle, cleaned up a bit, and then enjoyed a decent glass of Chardonnay. Damn good conclusion of the day!

[silverwings]

We, the pg community did a lot of work on 11/25/18 cutting and clearing and some flew later. There was still some more to do.

[markc]

The latest work by mystery pilots is *way* more recent than November....