Redwood Reader

We are awaiting the arrival of another front as I write this. In the period since my last post we experienced near and minor flooding and a high wind event with a 90 mph gust recorded in Eureka. More than two foot of rain has fallen in the last couple of weeks and the rivers reached flood stage. Of course this has played havoc on our landscape with the potential of severe damage to timber, roads and creeks. On the other hand, high wind cleans the forest and thins the weaker trees, puts high energy water into fluvial systems to push sediment downstream and cause pool building if and when the destabilized sediment delivered into the system is less than the amount the stream will move. Winter storms rejuvenate our watersheds and replenish them for the dry season ahead.
This week I drove out to Larrabee Buttes. Here the storm appeared to be just another winter event. I walked over a large chunk of land and found only a few toppled trees, most with the rootball attached and intact. They were mostly tanoak and a few Douglas fir. The only problem on the access road was at a spot on BLM lands that has been slipping for years ever since a private owner decided to cut a driveway in directly above a spring in an area already destabilized by deck building and high lead cable logging. This 100 foot stretch of road has fallen every year since and has fallen at least as foot since mid-November.
We have earlier established that Larrabee is in ggod condition compared to Middle Creek. There is no scarping, deeply cut stream beds or massive surface erosion. Here excess water pops out of the ground as piping in big events. That kind of water moves soil in Middle Creek, but the much less damaged landscape here handles as much water without the traumatic results. Not that we haven’t had erosion from plugged culverts and too much water in the road, but the regarding of the road to rolling dips has been a long term improvement at far less than the 34,000 dollars a mile PL spends building winterized roads. That figure must include engineering studies and rock surfacing and armoring. I also point out that the GRCC rolling dips are less vehicle friendly than those done by Angelini. The big difference being in the far side of the dip where long stretches of graded road flow back to the dip, whereas the GRCC dips are very high directly on the backside of the dip, preventing water from rolling back to the dip within its swale. These high dips are also the main complaint about the job, and we are dealing directly with this as we try to take some firewood out and are learning exactly what the neighbors are complaining about.
I have been informed a fairly substantial slide has occurred on the project road, but in the State Park lands near the beginning of the road. I already reported the two stretches of road in the Park were the only places water continues to run down the road, and that berms and inside ditches had been left in place as the Park opted out of GRCC and also refused to partake or let us operate in these stretches doing fuel reduction for the Fire Safe Council. This is not being a good neighbor. There are also complaints of Park personnel on private land at night.
Humboldt County has paid dearly for the ability to drive through its rugged and fragile landscape. What we are calling roads here are actually marked Jeep Trails on the maps. My experience is that about 90% of my four wheel drive time is on these roads. Most of the rest is just off these roads and associated with land management practices like wood cutting and gathering rock. Much of the year these roads are accessible to two wheel drive vehicles as well. However, there are few more destructive forces than a poor driver and vehicle on a jeep trail. So here are several pointers many of you are aware of. When you begin being responsible for your local road you will want everyone to behave in a manner friendly to making your expensive work last longer. Also, the people that cause the damage are not usually those most affected by it.
While it may be impossible to always make these trips in four wheel drive, it is essential the wheels are not spun. This digs holes in the road surface, a water collection point, a trail for water on the road surface, and destabilizes the roadbed if there is one. A few moments of wheel spinning can close a road and cost hundreds or more to repair. A knowing driver of even one wheel vehicles will choose his times for trips with a weather eye. He will drive slowly in a low gear. If there is a steep climb that cannot be crawled, he will put the car in a higher gear and floor it to get up the grade. One attempt will tell you if you will make it, or need to manage the road by building the spot up, adding traction, or digging, adding weight to the vehicle or abandoning the effort. Repeated attempts only cause more damage and often make extraction more difficult. Usually the stuck party has no interest in repairing the damage they cause.
Use Mud and Snow type tires for better traction. Many folks keep two sets of wheels for easy on easy off between summer driving and winter driving. We have had some success with chains in the mud, only to lose them a little further on due to rock surfaces. Standing water is a problem similar to paved roadways except you are not likely to drown. You cannot judge the depth or solidity of the bottom though, and we have seen many cars stuck in puddles with slick bottoms. Even walking on thick mud may give a false impression of how much weight it will hold.
Lots of folks are used to being the only ones one their road at certain times of the day. As an occasional visitor I keep my headlights on since there are many blind and vegetated corners and bends, and giving the oncoming traffic every chance to see you early is part of Watching Out For the Other Guy. I wish Mobile would update that series of commercials.
For now we are stuck with wheeled transportation. I sometimes wonder about the utility of a mini halftrack, or the 1908 decision to build roads rather than off road vehicles, allowing Henry Ford to produce five hundred dollar vehicles for the masses.
When driving roads like this, public or private, paved or not, your vehicle becomes a rolling repair crew and should be equipped as such. Downed trees are a big part of the story. Bow or pruning saws make excellent alternatives to chainsaws for those uncomfortable with them. Having a saw and a shovel in the vehicle covers most road emergencies. A length of chain will let you saw most of the way through a tree, and drag it out of the way with minimal effort and time. A few other things might be flashlights, rain gear, emergency food and water, and blankets or dry (warm) clothing.