Things have been pretty quiet around here since we saw some of you at Christmas. We got a big storm just before Christmas that put down 5 1/2 inches of rain here at the park, but we got no snow out of it. There was another storm just after New Years that did give us about 8 inches of snow, but most of that is gone now. But up on Cedar Mountain, the big storm before Christmas turned into a disaster. They got about 5 feet of snow up there and more with the second storm. The first storm was so heavy and wet, it coated the trees with snow and ice and bent and broke a lot of them, especially around the Duck Creek area. Some of them were just columns of snow and ice.
Anyway, what that storm did to our snowmobile trails has to be seen to be believed! I have spent about 130 hours since then up on the mountain cutting and moving trees out of the trail system. Most of them fell during the big storm, so they are half buried in the trail. So we get to pull up to them in the snowcat, dig down to see what we’re dealing with, use the chainsaw to cut them in pieces, hook a chain or strap to them, pull them out with the ‘cat, and then either bulldoze them off the trail or move them off by hand.
Yes, this is our trail, with about 8 trees down in 30 feet of trail!Some of the aspens didn’t break, but got folded over and have their tops buried in the middle of the trail, so we still have to cut them at the base, hook up the strap and pull the top out with the cat. All this while wading around in thigh deep snow. With all the lumberjack work, we’ve made a point of having two of us along on these trips, since wading through deep snow by yourself with a chainsaw in hand is usually considered a bad idea.
Sometimes it looks like a bomb has gone off. You just stand there and stare at it and it's still hard to believe.
Needless to say, it’s been wearing this old man right out. Add the fact that it takes me 4 – 5 hours in travel time just to get to the part of the trail where we are working, and it makes for some pretty long days – last Thursday was a 15 hour shift. But that is what I’ve been spending most of my time on since the new year started. We are getting close to getting the trees cleared and we should be able to get back to a normal grooming schedule soon – if it doesn’t pound us again before we are able to get them all cleared.
Sometimes it looks like a bomb has gone off. You just stand there and stare at it and it's still hard to believe.
Needless to say, it’s been wearing this old man right out. Add the fact that it takes me 4 – 5 hours in travel time just to get to the part of the trail where we are working, and it makes for some pretty long days – last Thursday was a 15 hour shift. But that is what I’ve been spending most of my time on since the new year started. We are getting close to getting the trees cleared and we should be able to get back to a normal grooming schedule soon – if it doesn’t pound us again before we are able to get them all cleared.I try and remember to enjoy the nice scenery while I'm up there, though. This was taken at the top of the ski run at Brian Head.
Well, that's about it for me, I guess. I would like to encourage all of you to do a post now and again and keep us up to date on what's going on with all of you. I'm wondering if Facebook has kind of taken over our time and we aren't blogging as much as before. But for those of us who are "Faceless" (mainly me, I think), this blog is important in keeping up with everyone. So let us know what's new with you - it means a lot. Bye for now! Dad
Well, that's about it for me, I guess. I would like to encourage all of you to do a post now and again and keep us up to date on what's going on with all of you. I'm wondering if Facebook has kind of taken over our time and we aren't blogging as much as before. But for those of us who are "Faceless" (mainly me, I think), this blog is important in keeping up with everyone. So let us know what's new with you - it means a lot. Bye for now! Dad
3 comments:
Nice title! How weird to see those trees bent all the way to the ground. It's hard to believe they didn't just break off. Glad you're finally almost done getting the trails cleaned up. Hopefully you won't get any more snow up there- or at least not THAT much again- this year!
Hey, maybe now that you've cleared all these trees out, the week ones have been taken care of and there will be no more falling onto the trail to be had. The worse of the snowy weather should be over, right?
Hey there!!! Thanks for the post on my blog. It was great hearing from you. We also received excessively amounts of snow here in Tulsa, OK. I am tired of shoveling!!!!
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