Jones Creek Access Road Work Party Report
April 18, 2009* * * * *
Thank you to everyone that came out last Saturday and helped with the repair of the access roads into and out of the Jones Creek Trailhead. The weather was great and we had a stellar turnout with 15 volunteers for a total of 124 hours donated to the DNR for grant matching dollars.
Attending this event from Piston's Wild: Rick & Kira Dominiak, J.D. & James Winters, Douglas Gildden, Bill & Brandon Hutchens, Darel & Crystal Crowder, Douglas Seal, Joey & Kayla Verpoorten and Lance Schiedler.
Joining us from the Jones Creek Trail Riders: Neil Meacham & Bruce Wells
SPECIAL THANKS GO OUT TO:DNR Forest Road Engineering Group for providing the dollars to purchase the gravel for this project.
Longview ProCaliber (Douglas Glidden) provided a Kawasaki Mule w/ tilt bed to haul gravel, tools and people.
Sunbelt Rentals in Vancouver (by Home Depot) provided 2 walk behind skid plate compactors to pack down the repair work.
Freight Solutions, Inc. (Darel Crowder) supplied a John Deere 440 (4x4) tractor with box blade and front loader attachments.
Jones Creek Trail Riders provided two 6x6's (with operators) with tilt beds to help haul gravel.Anyone who's been there knows that riding into and out of the trailhead is a bumpy ride that's rough on your trucks and trailers (not to mention the toys on the trailers). In addition, the reaction of riders dodging the potholes can make for a potentially dangerous situation - if you're looking at potholes - you're not looking at what's coming your way. We've seen it happen too many times...
So - last Fall at the big clean-up event in September, as we were constructively complaining to Brian Poehlein of DNR about the condition of the roads we offered up a plan. If DNR could come up with the gravel, Piston's Wild would provide the equipment and the labor. This was the perfect time for this project with the Jones Creek Trails opening up on May 1st.
My personal thanks go out to all of the members, applicants and guests of Piston's Wild who stand next to me and help to ensure that we stand behind our word as a committed user group of the Yacolt Burn. It is the selfless dedication from each of you and others like you that has made the proposed 45 miles of new motorized trails a possibility.
Without further adieu, here are some "BEFORE" pictures of the approximately one mile stretch of road that we repaired that day. One mile may not sound like much - but ask anyone there that day - it was a full day's work and then some...
Here's Darel loading the mule up with the first load of the rock for the day. Thanks to Pro-Caliber Longview for providing this equipment for the day and thanks to James Winters for being our dedicated operator for the day -- Great Job James!
Here's the crew off-loading the gravel from the Mule into the potholes on the access road just off of the pavement.
Here's the Jones Creek Boys with their 6x6's getting loaded for their first run out. Those automatic dump beds are way too cool. Just an FYI - these 6x6's were purchased from Pro-Caliber using grant dollars that JCTRA acquired from RCO last year (this is your 1% fuel tax and ORV tag dollars at work - aka NOVA funds).
A special shout out to Sunbelt Rentals in Vancouver for donating the two walk behind compactors for the day. Brent and Don have always come through for me whenever we need some equipment for the projects we do in the forest.
I really appreciate Bill Hutchens and Douglas Glidden for taking the lead and driving those beasts all day - I had my 15 minutes and that was enough for me. I got it stuck twice and needed assistance to get moving - do I get the cowbell???
Special thanks to Rick Dominiak for handling all the crazy traffic that day. It's never fun to be the guy that has to tell people that they can't ride the trails because they don't open until May 1st.
Thanks Kira for grilling up the goods for lunch - although I did notice a significant "slow-down" from the work group after we all had full bellies... hmmmmm....
This past year has brought a great crew of "junior" motorheads to the group and they work just as hard (sometimes harder) than the "senior" motorheads. Thanks Brandon and James!
Adam says -- Safety First !
WOW - if majority ruled that day - we'd be turning Jones Creek Trailhead into a dog park! It's always fun to have our furry friends along for entertainment...
The area in front of BAZ gate was a nasty mess as usual - Neil, Bruce and I picked up the garbage and old fire pit debris (lots of nails from burnt pallets).
And Darel rececorated:
And here's the "AFTER" pictures -- GREAT JOB EVERYONE! It is such a pleasure to work with smart, motivated, community service minded individuals - thank you again, your efforts on this project have contributed to our relationship building with the DNR as well as other user groups in the forest...
Just to clarify - a patch job was not our original intent to address these pothole issues. We had originally offered to grade and resurface the road and entire trailhead for DNR. Due to the economy, the dollars for that much gravel simply could not be acquired. For an interim plan, patching the potholes and compacting was the best solution.
Our hope is that the "Remington Steele" timber sale that is scheduled for May will be successful and the logging company that gets the bid will be coming in over the next 12-18 months and will completely rebuild the entire 1600 Road (aka Boulder Creek Road)
That's all folks!
If you would like to view ALL of the pictures from the work party please go to:
s731.photobucket.com/albums/ww312/pistonswild/2009%20Events/4-18-09%20JC%20Road%20Repair/?albumview=slideshowHave a great day and I hope to see you all at Sand Lake this weekend.
Respectfully reporting,
Crystal Crowder
Club President
Piston's Wild Motorsports