Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 Repair July 19th & 20th 2019

Use this forum to report and discuss trails in need of maintenance. This will help organizations like TKO and agencies like the Forest Service get the most recent on-the-ground trail conditions.
Webfoot
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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by Webfoot » March 5th, 2019, 8:06 pm

K.Wagner wrote:
March 5th, 2019, 12:20 pm
I do a fair amount of that kind of work myself, on both roads & trails. I guess its the way I was brought up, that if a person sees someplace that they can improve, with the tools & time that they have, they have some obligation to do what they can.
Thank you.

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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by jvangeld » March 18th, 2019, 6:44 pm

Thanks, Kelly. As far as I am concerned, the discussion of how to maintain the forest roads for the next generation is just beginning. I grew up visiting the mines around Silver Star. And I want to share that experience with my son. I mean, I found this photo of CCC men building the roads in Gifford Pinchot. It would be a bummer if we allowed the legacy they gave us to disappear.

Planning for the event this July is progressing. I plan to go to some WTA trail maintenance events this Spring, to learn what it takes to put something like that on. The Facebook Event is getting attention. So I remain eager for feedback from those of you with more experience. How does this draft schedule look to you all? I think we might base out of Sunset Falls Campground.

Friday July 19th:
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Set up camp and lunch
1:00-1:30 PM Brief meeting
2:00-4:00 Brushout Road 41
4:00-5:00 Mark work areas for Saturday
5:30-6:30 Dinner
Evening plans are flexible

Saturday July 20th:
8:00-9:00 Registration and Orientation
9:00-12:30 Road work
12:30-1:30 Lunch and assessment of work
1:30-5:00 Road work
5:00-6:00 Wrap up and return tools
6:00-7:00 Dinner
Jeremy VanGelder - Friends of Road 4109

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K.Wagner
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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by K.Wagner » March 19th, 2019, 5:36 pm

I would love to be a part of your work party, but since I head out that Sunday for a week of hiking & climbing in the Mt Margaret BC, my wife would likely have a few choice words to put in!

I do plan to be on that bottom part of FR41 tomorrow. I plan to see how far I can get on the Summit Springs trail. If the snow isn't too deep, I'll give some feed back about how your work has held up on that big turn.
Kelly
There is no shortcut to anyplace worth going to.

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Skamania 231
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K.Wagner
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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by K.Wagner » March 21st, 2019, 5:46 pm

So I did get out Wednesday, and drove up FR41 perhaps 1 1/4 miles. I parked at the blocked road on the east side of FR41 at 1,600 feet. (across from the 4X4 mud hole). There was still perhaps 50% snow cover at that elevation.

Here are some pictures of the big turn. I thought that it held up pretty good through the winter. It does need a little more of a drainage ditch along the upper edge. Seems to me that it is looking better than previous years.
FR41-1.JPG
FR41-2.JPG
FR41-3.JPG
Now, about those truck eating chuck holes -------
Kelly
There is no shortcut to anyplace worth going to.

PM me about the soon to be released:
Skamania 231
"How to really get off the beaten path in Skamania County"

jvangeld
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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by jvangeld » March 22nd, 2019, 6:11 pm

Thanks, Kelly! It looks like my repairs are holding up on the high side of the road. Though you can see that water is flowing down the ruts and melting out those tunnels. I agree that a permanent fix there would involve a deeper ditch. I was thinking about it the other day. You would probably have to narrow the road by a foot or two to dig deep enough. But then, the road probably widened into the ditch as people tried to avoid the ruts. Narrowing it might just return it to it's original width.

So many forest users have an interest in maintained access. Hikers, hunters, OHVers, miners, preppers. I shouldn't have much trouble finding people to help.
Jeremy VanGelder - Friends of Road 4109

cfm
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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by cfm » March 23rd, 2019, 6:42 am

What's a prepper?

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adamschneider
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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by adamschneider » March 23rd, 2019, 3:15 pm

cfm wrote:
March 23rd, 2019, 6:42 am
What's a prepper?
They used to be called "survivalists."

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retired jerry
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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by retired jerry » March 24th, 2019, 4:28 am

preparer for the apocalypse

Sometimes prepper foods are useful for backpacking. It tends to come in big packages though.

"I thought that it held up pretty good through the winter."

hmmm... maybe something to do with JVGs repairs :)

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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by jvangeld » May 19th, 2019, 2:21 pm

Well, I got out yesterday to take Street View photos of Road 41 and 4109 from Sunset Falls Campground to Silver Star Trailhead. I'll e-mail the ranger so that the engineers can use the photos. You can view them by double-clicking on one of the roads on this map:

https://openstreetcam.org/map/@45.79470 ... 915452,18z

Road 41 is in rough shape again. From the flat spot just beyond where I worked last October, pretty much all the way to the junction with 4109. Potholes develop in all the wet spots, and most of the road gets wet and stays wet. I do believe that adding gravel to that section would help. I think it needs a good course of base rock and then gravel on top of that.

But I don't have a budget for gravel. Now, once Road 41 starts climbing up onto the ridge, I believe that it doesn't need more gravel. The bedrock is much closer to the surface, so it doesn't need a base course. There is gravel slid off into the ditches and rock that slides onto the road from the talus slopes. So up there is where we could make a difference by simply moving rock into potholes. But that first section of road seems to be beyond the help of hand tools.

But brush-out work would still be valuable, along both roads. What do you guys think?
Jeremy VanGelder - Friends of Road 4109

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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Post by justpeachy » May 19th, 2019, 2:59 pm

jvangeld wrote:
May 19th, 2019, 2:21 pm
Well, I got out yesterday to take Street View photos of Road 41 and 4109 from Sunset Falls Campground to Silver Star Trailhead.
I wasn't familiar with that Open Street Cam website. It looks like you walked the road and took 600+ photos? WOW.

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