Darrington road opening up

[mattp]

The Clear Creek road is more or less open now. This is the logging road that serves the Darrington climbing area (Road 2060).

 

At about two miles from the Mountain Loop Highway there is some roadbed damage and some snow remains on what is left of the road itself but a Ford Focus made it over that rough spot today and we got stuck coming out but it is doable with 4x4 for sure. Higher clearance than a station wagon would be recommended.

 

Today our hero sawed his way in there, removing probably 100 trees blocking the road, so it is passable at least to the fork about a half mile before the Eightmile Creek trailhead. I stood by and watched (clipboard in hand), while our friend Mr. Builder helped clear the debris. There were an amazing number of blowdowns and some avalanche paths where we have not seen them for at least 20 years. One, on the road below Exfoliation Dome, had a tree at least 3 feet in diameter broken off amid the wreckage.

 

The road needs more saw work and some roadbed work as well but the Darrington rangers tell me they are busy with other higher priority roads for now. Don't head up there in your brand new sports car or you'll regret it.

[hanman]

I can honestly say that that work party was a large helping of suck- Gear: One Husquavarna to 24

 

Thanks to all who participated- Tree removal on the Blueberry road and the first part of Eight mile trail to begin soon- stay tuned...

 

 

MH

[builder206]

Character-builder. Improves fitness. Glass is half full.

[waterboy]

Hi Matt, Kudos to you for leading this effort. Very much appreciated.

 

Honest question though - Where is the forest service in all of this? I mean, I can understand work parties for trails. But for forest service roads, isn't that the forest service' responsibility? The good thing is we have taxation WITH representation, so a lot of times the "squeaky wheel" principle works well. I remember when we put pressure on them in '05 when that road was closed. After many letters (I wrote one of them), they eventually opened up the road. In fact, do work parties on forest service roads set an undesireable precedent?

 

Interested in your perspective.

 

Thanks Matt.

[Off_White]

I'd guess the volunteer work is a good thing, since the FS would just as soon abandon this road. I don't know if there are people in the hunting community that use this access as well who would be interested in working on it or not, their time is later in the year so they may not be as motivated or even aware of the potential for closure.

 

Many thanks to you folks who worked so hard on this. Who says there are no heroes anymore?

[Alpinfox]

Throwing in my thanks to whomever was involved in the road clearing efforts.

 

Thanks Matt, Mark, and ?

 

I was hoping to "get my slab on" sometime soon, but have been deterred by the road closure.

 

Good work guys!

 

suggestion: Next time advertise the work party in advance. I would have gladly participated in some chainsaw work.

 

 

So how far do we have to walk the road to get to the 3 O'clock trailhead now?

[mattp]

Actually, this project was not undertaken with my leadership. I was most definitely a follower. Mark had the vision.

 

I've been talking to the rangers up there for the last 20 years, though, and I have a pretty good impression of the folks in the Darrington District. Today I spoke with somebody at the Forest Service who said they plan to send a crew up there in the next week or two if all goes well with other projects.

 

As you might imagine, they have a huge list of needed repairs this year and as some of you know their budget has been cut hugely over the last couple of years. I asked who we could call to suggest our support for more funding, and the roadway supervisor in the Wooley office told me we could call Rick Larsen, Representative in the Second District, Washington. The Access Fund and Washington Climbers Coalition have been sending periodic messages to his office and those of Cantwell, Norm Dicks, and Jay Inslee because they have been working on related issues.

 

There will still be more to do, however. They are not going to address the avalanche wastage on the road below Exfoliation Dome or the Eightmile Creek Trail (though WTA may target the latter).

[needtoclimb]

Went up there today. Great job guys clearing the road. The road is easily drivable to 3 O'clock rock trailhead in a 4X4,and passable in a Honda Civic, only it would take a bit longer. The road to Green Giant Butress is not passable at all, and trees block the way right at the 3;oo trailhead.

 

It was soaked today. Was hoping to find something dry to climb, but it was not to be. Too much water, but still fun hiking up.

[builder206]

Fairly close to the Mtn. Loop Highway there is (or was, maybe) a low spot that had held avy debris. As of 6/28 it was sort of a trap that got at least one 2WD vehicle. How is it now? You don't even mention it so I guess it's much better.

[builder206]

And did you check the road to Exfoliation Dome? It was blocked by multiple slides as of 6/28. Has anyone attacked that debris?

 

(If anyone does, I'll help)

[Argus]

Builder - that low spot didn't seem to be too bad. I'm pretty sure you could get by it with a 2wd no problem. We didn't drive up to Exfoliation Dome. We were able to get a 1/2 mile past the 3:00 TH, but I was willing to drag branches down the side of my car and drive over some shit. Dreamer was climbable yesterday, with a few small water streaks here and there. A little bit of snow remained in the gully up to the rock.

 

Anyone know when the last time the road past the 3:00 TH was cleared? It seems to be in pretty good shape otherwise.

 

Needtoclimb- I think you forgot your dog bowl at the TH. We were going to grab it, but figured someone might be back for it.

[mattp]

A ranger told me they were going to send somebody up there to fix up that low spot last week. It sounds as if they may have done so. Was water still flowing over the road at about the 4 mile mark?

 

The Forest Service has not cleared the road beyond the 3:00 trailhead for over ten years. I've participated in more than one work party cutting branches and filling potholes and once we even hauled a load of crushed rock up there but that gets expensive real quick. For Subaru, they did a little maintenance on the Exfoliation Dome fork whenever that was - four or five years ago.

 

I have to take care of family business this weekend but I'd be up for a work party and climbing campout sometime soon. The road to Dreamer will require a lot of work. We could reclaim the road to the parking spot for Exfoliation Dome with a more reasonable amount of effort, I think (though in reality the present blockage probably ads no more than a half hour to that approach even if it makes it into a trip most climbers will not want to undertake).

[Argus]

The low spot is still there. I couldn't tell if they fixed it or if it's smoothing out from traffic, but it didn't seem to bad. There was no water running over the road except at the paved creek.

Edited July 7, 2008 by Argus

[mattp]

It sounds to me as if "they" or somebody did a little work on it, then. That's good news! Let's hit it in two or three weeks.