density524

Where are you located?

PM Sent..

No other companies maps.. including the National Geographic Topo listed can be downloaded to a Garmin(or any other brand for that matter) GPS. You are locked into the mapping software from that company if you want the topographic features loaded into the GPS. Probably be best to pick up a copy of Mapsource Topo off of eBay, it's a non-locked product so you don't have to worry about activation or anything like you would with later versions(like City Select), plus it's actually oriented towards topographic features, and not roads so for most outdoor activites it's a better chunk of software anyways. David

I drove up from the backside today, apart from a fair amount of snow on the road(including snow actually coming down a bit as well), at least from that side it actually looks like a maintained road. Now from the front side, I'd still say that the first slide is generally going to be a barrier to folks. I was driving a Tacoma with 32" tires(so you're looking at about 12" of ground clearance), and I had my tires in the ruts going thru the slide and moved forward until I was side-slipping a bit hopped out, and the front skid-plate was hitting the center burm, and it looked like the mud definately got deeper further along from where I was. I had already spent a half hour shoveling at a higher up slide so after judging how much I'd have to move to assure I could get thru I turned around and drove back out the backside. I just wasn't in the mood to be working a shovel *under* a stuck truck in the foot deep mud/clay. Further up the other issues are a few small slides(as long as you don't mind riding over a 1" pile of firm dirt with one tire they're a non-issue), plus a 2' rock that is sitting dead center in the road(your choice, get over in the soft edge of the road, or crawl over rocks on the ditch side). But the things that really concerned me were the 8'+ boulders which used to be a bit up, in the hillside which are now sitting immediately at the edge of the road. There are a few sitting just sitting on piles of dirt, with the start of small slides behind them. Given enough time/rain I think they'll probably fall onto the road, hopefully they'll roll across, but probably not. Then just up beyond the first slide, there is a big rut that running water has cut into the road in the last 2 months or so. Currently the rut is about 2-5" wide, and running towards a foot deep. I still think that without some maintenance, the front-side access to the spires will probably not exist in a few years. The upside is that the backside doesn't seem to have any areas that are slide-prone, but due to less sun exposure it also has a lot more snow.

Assuming it's still like it was when I was up there, I'll hazard a guess that if it isn't actually fully cleaned up the water that used to run down the drainage ditch on the uphill side of the road will flow around the big pile of debris and run down/across the road.. given enough time the road itself will start to rut/wash out. So passable or not, it still needs some attention preferably before lots of additional rainfall. Going from memory I'd guess there is probably 18 cu-yards of dirt to move.

I didn't hike up past the first slide, but at least the lowest obvious slide didn't seem to have any actual trees across the road anymore(although there are certainly some up on top of the mound of dirt which will likely gravitate down).. judging from the sawdust it looks like some folks took care of the immediate log problems, plus there were some pretty pronounced tire ruts heading thru the mud. It is(or at least was last week) passable with a truck with enough ground clearance. Which isn't to say that it hasn't slide more with the rain/snow we have been getting, but at least the 4x4 trucks are still heading up(witness the bad rutting on the hill going up onto the closed off road up where you'd park for the majority of the climbing areas, it's definately a popular spot). When I heard there was slide, I immediately thought of that particular stretch as a likely candidate and found it was within about 100' of where I expected. I can't think of any other obvious spots further in, but I imagine there are plenty of other spots.

Got any pictures of the cams?