Potential Club Project

Upcoming club rides. Who's got the skinny on the trip, when do we go, where do we meet ?

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tbsnowgo
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Potential Club Project

#1 Post by tbsnowgo »

As a prior active member of Snow Travelers, I would like to contact the moderator regarding a potential project. That's John J.
right? I suppose my email attaches to this, but I'd appreciate it you' contact me at tbsnowgo@gmail.com. Thanks Todd Boyce

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john
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Re: Potential Club Project

#2 Post by john »

Hey Todd,

We did discuss this at the Feb meeting and I was tasked with putting a work crew together, probable in June or July depending on the how the weather goes, maybe Aug at this rate :)

Any ideas for funding or material support ?

My plan is to do a site review after the snow's gone and the ground hardens up a bit, determine what's needed and then set a date to get it all going. May take two weekends to do, one for demo and the 2nd to rebuild, depending on how much we end up having to haul out of the old bridge and new material in.

larry morris
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Re: Potential Club Project

#3 Post by larry morris »

I'm in. We got a lot of coverage by Tom at TAC meeting with the mayor attending. He talked about our work on the Gilmore rd trail we did last season. He mentioned the bridge and I told hime we were looking in to it.

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Re: Potential Club Project

#4 Post by john »

Some update from Todd on this:
One of the first projects the club worked on was upgrading the connector trail between Chena Lakes and the main winter trail heading out towards Chena Hot Springs. We actually ended up widening two trails that parallel one another. These trails are some of the most heavily used in the whole North Pole/Two Rivers area. The more western trail crosses Potlatch Creek. After the clearing was completed, about 5 of us continued the upgrade by building a bridge over Potlatch Creek. At least two of the guys are still around, Lee Johnson and Leroy Gross, maybe you know them. Anyhow, we salvaged 6 25 ft. logs from the pile that the Corps of Engineers had pulled out at the dam, from spring breakup (happens every year). Leroy used a Kubota tractor to skid them to the site, and they became the basis for the bridge. We decked it with rough cut full 2x10's or 12's, and later added rails. It did a worthy job for almost 20 years, but collapsed late this winter.

Myself and Lee Johnson would like to see the bridge resurrected and would be able to assist. I think if a rebuild could occur this summer, the majority of the decking could be salvaged and reused. Support members would need to be a little longer than the original, due to some shift in the creekbed. 30 ft.long would work.

In the fairly near future, logs will be appearing at the dam again and could be utilized. Of course, something like treated telephone poles would be better, or something even more permanent, like "Ibeams" or a flatbed trailer or something. That ups the costs and equipment requirements of course. John mentioned that this may have already come up at a club meeting, maybe there were some ideas? I'm not sure what connections members might have. Back when the club worked on the bridge for the winter trail crossing of the Little Chena, we were pretty fortunate.
My plan is to talk the COE and see about getting first crack at a couple of the trees/logs that come down the river and try to get at least two 30 footers from them if we can. Then get those hauled to the b ridge site by them or the borough folks if possible. If not, maybe someone has a skidster we could use to haul the logs down to the bridge site.

Weather and trail condition will determine when were able to do this. I'll post more info as it becomes available, would like to get a half dozen helpers especially when we get to moving the logs in place.

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