Appliance pickup.

A crew was in the gorge this morning picking up appliances dumped there many years ago. This was along the River trail.

BIG thanks to Mark and Adam who cared enough to come out and hoist
 this garbage out.

Was Mark really picking them up having just got out of Ernie surgery?? :-)

It was a load!

Special announcement.  

On Tuesday at 730 am at the fairgrounds, we are loading our 1st bridge beam and hopefully tow it down.   We could use more hands and eyes for the shuttle down.  Could you help?    arlyn.aronson@gmail.com  or 370-2911

Trail clearing began in earnest

A wonderful team of people spent Saturday morning widening out the corridor starting from the chalet gate to the T intersection at the gorge edge, then west to the sand pit.   This was to allow room to start bringing down the bridge beams this week.

Interesting artifacts were found.  Was a Chevy here?

Not pictured here was Gromit.  
This section was done up nice and ready to go.

More moved! Now ready for beams.

A little update here.   Andre, Mark and myself moved more gravel today.  With only minor work remaining, soon we will load and be rolling bridge beams down.  We have tentatively scheduled to do this the week after the fair.

Mark is testing the handy, dandy compact tractor out.

With his BIGGER tractor, he moved sand in to smooth
the middle bridge's approach.

He did the same at Sisu bridge seen here.

Lunch!  We never miss that.  Seen here on new bridge decking.

Being done in the gorge, Mark makes his way out.

Man-o-man he made things look better.
This is to assist us with moving bridge beams down.

Now he's loading gravel.

This is our secret stash Pat T helped us find.

Oh ya.  How would we have got this done without this trailer?
This was purchased with a grant from Shopko.
Thank you Shopko and Candi! 
(Candi is a KNSC board member)

Some fine, fine material here.

On the way out Mark is pushing trees down!
Ok, this is to widen this corner out to allow us room to
maneuver beams past.  No live trees were harmed making this film :-).

Teaser run and more rock.

Today we assembled at the chalet, then drove down to the bridge a 42ft long structure to test the drive-ability of something that long.   Some of the corners and bumps had us worrying.

Gromit was here to supervise.  Just about ready.

We're off!

We made this corner but some adjustments were needed.  A 42ft long trailer is a beast!

The bridge sections weigh in at about 3000lbs each.

We descend to the hairpin corner at the top of Sisu.

No major problems so we continue down Sisu.
The 8ft boards you see out the sides is to mimic the width
of the trailer we'll be using.

No problem.

This is the tallest bump and we made it.

The last section we backed down.   What glorious weather to be working on trails in.

Gromit is amazed that we made it!
Some corners need adjustments but that will be fast work
for the compact tractor we've been renting.

The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon hauling rocks in.

The middle bridge project volunteer hours rolled over 600 today.   Would you like to help?

Wood, rock and gravel moved.

This past week more rock and gravel was moved in, plus the decking showed up and was parked at the fair grounds.

This decking is 4" x 10" (full dimensional) and 12ft long.
This is not all the wood for the middle bridge but most of it.
It cost $3200.

Some boards were loaded and hauled down.
They weigh about 140 lbs each.

The job site was cleaned up some.

And more rock and gravel was dumped  here this past week.

The larger rock is to contain the gravel.

 

Not seen was we packed Mark's Dainty digger up and got it hauled out.  BIG thanks to Rich K for the help with that and moving rock.

More dirty work...

More rock and sand were hauled down today to fill the upstream abutment.    

The most handy 35hp compact tractor was again used :-).

Larger rocks were moved in to contain the fill.

We guesstimate another 18 tons were moved today.

Large rocks were also added to the upstream side to keep the
creek from washing away the fill.

On the way home, Pete said he could shimmy
 up the tree and tighten this rope.
He did!!

BIG thanks to Don A and Pete L for their help today!!

Back-filling abutment.

With our deluxe trailer out of the repair shop, Pete L and Arly got to moving rock and gravel to back-fill the abutment today.   
Special thanks to Mark R for the repairs!

Three sides of the form was pulled off.

Then a sand/rock mix was brought down.

  This was found in the old sand pit at the top of Sisu hill.
Rock was needed to help keep it from ever being washed away. 

A form was recycled as a slide to move materials to the far side of the abutment.

Not seen was the bridge side of the abutment was filled at the same time.

A rare photo of Arly actually doing something :-)

By late in the afternoon, around 15 tons
of materials were dumped here.

Final footer pour done!

With 10 people to help today, 55 bags where thrown into the mixers, tumbled and poured in just 1.5 hours this morning.   Since Mark and Arly were in medical "no lift" prescriptions, we really appreciated the help today.

Ken jumps right in and gets a pump going.
Can he really walk on water?

Donna is the fiber additive Mistress at this pour.

Dave asks "is this where the premix goes?" :-)
While another Donna stashes the empty bags.
Yes we had two today!

Andre shows him where.  He's helped at each mix party we've had!

  

Rich shows how he can do this just as well.
Seems he's been to all the mixing parties too!

   

Of course trail mutts came to help as well.
"We think trails are important!" Gromit says.

 

Mark and Don start to vibrating the mix in.
He may have been to all the pours as well.  Thanks Don!

Ken wonders "what's taking those mixing guys so long?!"

Ok, Ok, now it's really pouring in.

Mark is glad the abutments are just about done.

He marks the date, to remain for posterity.

Done! Mark is jubilant for yet another step complete in this big project.
We've got about 400 hours into it, as of today.

Mark had the guys help pick the work site up before he'd allow
 lunch to be served.

A delicious reward for work well done was served.
Thanks to Clare and Greg for providing excellent white bean soup
and cornbread for the whole crew, and to Joyce
for yummy chocolate chip cookies for dessert!
 Hummmmmmm everything was delightful!!