astrobaja - 1-27-2010 at 08:38 AM
Hi all,
Good to hear the 1 is starting to flow, maybe that means we can get some road crews up here!
From what I understand our road is passable by 4WD up to Meling, but after that all bets are off. The wash after Meling is supposed to be full of
sand.
If anyone is able to do a scouting mission past Meling that would be great. The wonderful volunteers from Racers and Ranchers are going to try to get
to our place this weekend, but there are still 10 people trapped at the park.
If anyone is able to alert roadcrews to inform them of the damage to the park road please do so.
[Edited on 1-27-2010 by astrobaja]
David K - 1-27-2010 at 08:41 AM
Hang in there Mike!
rts551 - 1-27-2010 at 08:57 AM
Keep us informed pls. As we pass through The SQ Valley maybe we can divert with needed supplies.
guereja - 1-28-2010 at 02:21 PM
The park must be beautiful in the snow.
ELINVESTIG8R - 1-28-2010 at 02:45 PM
Astrobaja I am with you in spirit and ask that you please take care of yourselves up their. Stay put until they get there this weekend. That said, if
anyone in Baja can notifiy someone who can help Astrobaja please do. Thank you!
Edit: Re-Write!
[Edited on 1-28-2010 by ELINVESTIG8R]
TMW - 1-28-2010 at 06:18 PM
It was my understanding from talking to one of the guys that works the telescopes that the Park people had their own road clearing equipment and had
supplies to last for a month or more since they go thru this almost every year. The guys that work the telescope trade out every three weeks. It's
been a few years since I was there but they had a lot of heavy equipment in there large machine shop buildings. Maybe things have changed.
Or are you talking about people at a lower elevation where you enter the park?
BAJACAT - 1-28-2010 at 09:59 PM
Tw is right I saw a dozzer, small equipment and a scavator, maybe they where there for the work on the road or maybe they belong to the park..
astrobaja - 1-28-2010 at 10:27 PM
Yep the observatory crew have lots of good heavy equipment, a D9 dozer, snowplows, etc. But they all evacuated before the big storm hit so now they
are working their way back up. A neighbor from rancho potrero stopped by today (Pibbi) to se how we were making out. He told us the road from Meling
to here is passable (wish our road was!)
Pibbi thought it would be a while before big equipment could pass on a float so its up to the observatory bunch to work their way down the mountain.
I tried today to do some detours past some bad 15 foot wide gaps but the ground is still too soggy, I almost got stuck even with a 4WD tractor.
TMW - 1-29-2010 at 08:26 AM
Thanks for the clearification. Makes sense now. Be careful on that tractor something that heavy on unstable ground could be bad.
astrobaja - 1-29-2010 at 10:01 AM
TW: I know what you mean about the danger of working near a unstable edge. It freaks me out enough that we will not take the risk. Our 1st bad washout
is a good 15 feet to the other side of the road and a good 12 feet deep with parts of it undercut by the water which makes it especially dangerous.
What we are doing is getting an old culvert in there lowering it by winch from a safe distance. And then I'll dump fill near the edge and backfilling
it by hand until its more stable.
We found a backhoe near the staging area for the observatory road construction, the contractor who owns it has been told and hes sending up a driver
next week! Be just the thing for safely filling in big holes!