Events/Trails Mount Ord cleanup - TRAL event - Postponed (2 Viewers)

[brices123]

Postponed

The back-way up Mount Ord (FR27) is one of our official TRAL (Tonto Recreation Alliance) adopt-a-trail trails. They have scheduled a cleanup day on April 4, 2020. Please see below for the details I received from Richard (@richardlillard1) from TRAL .

We have a couple trail repairs we would like to do on the back way up Mount Ord; a couple off-camber spots which we would like to make a little more comfortable for those enjoying the trail.
Lunch would be provided by TRAL, and we could probably pull some strings to get up into the fire tower at the top. The views are certainly fantastic. Typically we work until lunchtime, then enjoy the afternoon on the trail wheeling.

More details to follow.

Please chime in if you can make it. This will be a family friendly event and our first official adopt-a-trail event.

 

[OffRoadScott]

Damn, wish I could make this but I have more pressing things... it is my wedding anniversary.

 

[murf]

This is a great way for us as a group to help give back and give some love to a trail that has been a club favorite for many years! Do we need to be any tools, etc?

 

[-Spike-]

Do we need to be any tools, etc?

TRAL will bring all the dirt-work tools necessary, meaning a jackhammer or two, shovels, and mcleods. If you want to pick up trash or do some brushing, bring stuff for that. Also any personal protection equipment you need, such as gloves, eye protection, etc. Please, no picks or overhead-swinging tools, at least not on the repair stuff.

 

[blatant]

ah... a mcleod tool. I have one of those from a hmmwv tool kit! Neat set up!

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Great to see TRAL & CSC working together.
I will be in Utah for this clean up

 

[Saddletramp]

I should be there.

 

[LongDuck]

Adding it to the calendar, and thanks for giving plenty of notice for people to plan ahead,

 

[tlin]

On my calendar, been a while since I've done much of anything with CSC.

 

[blatant]

Can stock tacoma handle this?

 

[Saddletramp]

I would say yes a stock Tacoma can handle this trail, with a experienced driver.

 

[Saddletramp]

It would be great to see a strong turn out for this work effort as this is one of the CSC adopted trails. I’m looking forward to getting in some volunteer hours that help build a strong relationship with our Tonto National Forest representatives. Did anyone catch that lunch will be provided!

 

[Otter]

Yeah, the group has been talking about this a long time and we're finally moving forward with it. I'll definitely be there.

 

[verruckt1]

I'm in.

 

[-Spike-]

I regret to have to say this, but due to an abundance of caution regarding the current pandemic, TRAL will not be able to participate in any volunteer events for the near future, which at this time includes this one. Richard or I will be in contact when the situation eases, and hope that we can pick up where we're leaving off. Thank you very much for all of your interest and enthusiasm for this project. It will happen eventually, even if it's next fall.

@brices123 please update the first post to reflect this.

 

[DSRTRDR]

prudent decision

 

[Dimples]

Just curious if and when we are planning to revisit this?

 

[-Spike-]

Just curious if and when we are planning to revisit this?

TRAL is cautiously resuming volunteer events, with limited participation and while maintaining physical distancing. Currently those events are limited to route inspections, because distancing is easy while driving around. Repair events will likely have to wait awhile, especially in situations where distancing is difficult, like working on a small area on a shelf road.

Further complicating things for this particular endeavor is that the area was hit by the Bush fire and is currently closed. Tonto staff expect massive flooding and damage in the fire area and all along the 87 if/when a major storm comes through, and I've heard (unofficially) that they intend to keep the area closed until at least that first storm happens, and possibly longer depending on what develops. That was expected to happen during the monsoon season, but it hasn't materialized.

The bad news is that this trail is particularly susceptible to serious destruction when that storm hits. I have heard suggestions that it may not survive a flood event. The good news, I believe, is that the longer the area has to grow some ground cover before a major storm hits, the better.

TL;DR: No plans yet.

 

[Dimples]

TRAL is cautiously resuming volunteer events, with limited participation and while maintaining physical distancing. Currently those events are limited to route inspections, because distancing is easy while driving around. Repair events will likely have to wait awhile, especially in situations where distancing is difficult, like working on a small area on a shelf road.

Further complicating things for this particular endeavor is that the area was hit by the Bush fire and is currently closed. Tonto staff expect massive flooding and damage in the fire area and all along the 87 if/when a major storm comes through, and I've heard (unofficially) that they intend to keep the area closed until at least that first storm happens, and possibly longer depending on what develops. That was expected to happen during the monsoon season, but it hasn't materialized.

The bad news is that this trail is particularly susceptible to serious destruction when that storm hits. I have heard suggestions that it may not survive a flood event. The good news, I believe, is that the longer the area has to grow some ground cover before a major storm hits, the better.

TL;DR: No plans yet.

I was just thinking that with the fires a little trail repair and preventative maintenance could go a long way to prevent the trail being damaged beyond repair.

 

[-Spike-]

I was just thinking that with the fires a little trail repair and preventative maintenance could go a long way to prevent the trail being damaged beyond repair.

That's true to a point, water control features can be used to slow or prevent major erosion in normal circumstances. After a fire, the water load increases exponentially. It becomes difficult to predict where it will go and what it will move. On a small scale, you can guess and take measures to alleviate it, but when you're talking about almost 5 miles of shelf road the job becomes unmanageable, even if we had unlimited resources. The threat is not just to the trail surface, but even more the potentially unstable ground above and below it, which we don't have the means or ability to do anything about.

Pandemic and area closure aside, we could go in and make some small improvements to shore up some spots, but it would be a complete waste of time if one or more sections of shelf road completely disappeared later. The Apache Trail is a good example of what can happen after a fire- massive amounts of material on the trail, and sections of it fell down the mountain, just gone. No amount of preventive maintenance can stop that kind of destruction.