hills creek spires road conditions

[corvallisclimb]

As of 2/10/06 there was an impassable landslide on FS 566 about 2 miles in from kitson creek road. With the recent publication of this area, I figure there may be a small surge in people wanting to check this area out, so I just wanted to give people a heads up, so no one has to spoil a trip out there. It will probably be a long while untill access is regained, the FS needs to start cutting down a few more trees so they can maintain their roads

[corvallisclimb]

im wondering if any one has any experinceing organizing road clean ups or something to that effect. it could be a long while till the FS ever clears up this road. im wonering if it would be at all possible to get a group of climbers together to try and figure something out.

[111]

have you called the fs yet about it?

[corvallisclimb]

I have been chatting with Mr. Orton about organizing a clean up day, anyone interested?(Send me a PM) Also I belive I found an alternate route in, I will post for those that are interested.

 

Ian- I will call the FS about it, but like I said before these days they have absolutly no money to maintain low use roads. When the FS was cutting down trees it seems they had a bit more money for maintnence but now they seem to be lacking.

Edited March 2, 2006 by corvallisclimb

[mattp]

The cut in budgets is at most only indirectly related to the timber harvest. Their budgets for roadway maintenance here on the West side in Washington are being cut something like 75% over a roughly two year period that comes fifteen or twenty years after the big cuts in timber harvest.

 

It is politics. I am not sure I am quite that cynical, but some argue that Bush Administration appointees are forcing budget cuts that will put the squeeze on recreational maintenance so we'll be more likely to support user-fees and privatization as a cure to an artificial crisis. Who knows, but in any event we are going to see a lot more of this unless somebody can bring about a serious change in priorities.

 

Meanwhile, many of the decisions are made on an ad hoc basis without any comprehensive planning or clear structure for public participation, and special interest groups like motorized recreational users or horsepackers or whatever are generally winning out over unorganized individuals like us.

[111]

ok, so who'se got saws and shovels to bring out to this? think we could plan for a day in April?

[density524]

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.

[panch13]

It's not impassible if you have something with four wheel drive, and hopefully not a Subaru. I was there last weekend visiting my parents and I made it up there for some climbs no problem.

[corvallisclimb]

so it has been cleared? it was certainly impassable when I was up there. I would like to know if any more work needs to be done, I've been talking with Greg Orton and the FS about organizing a cleanup, I assume one is not needed anymore?

[panch13]

No it's not cleared I just drove through the mud. I only have a stock jeep cherokee with bald tires and I had no trouble getting through it. There are some more slides further up but nothing as bad as the first one. Who's Greg Orton? I lived in Oakridge for 10+ years and my parents still live there and I've never heard of him.

[corvallisclimb]

Well it obviously has been cleared since there are not huge trees blocking the road now. You must not read that many oregon climbing publications to not know who Greg Orton is, I wonder who helped publish the information you have on the Hills Creek Spires?

[density524]

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.

[panch13]

I don't have a book. I grew up there if you didn't notice my post. I watched the fire that burned all the trees up there back in 94 or 95. I was hoping the slide would keep people out of there now that there's a book out.

[corvallisclimb]

Great! another pissed off local

[density524]

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.