Elwood Pass Work Day

The CJG took on our biggest one day project in our 24 year history.  As 3 springs that has popped up in the middle of the road on the upper end of Elwood Pass.  The springs had caused a deep mud hole in the road and as a result many vehicles have been going off the trail and though a swampy area to stay out of the deep water.  Last year we put some logs along the edge of the road to try and keep vehicles from going off the road.  The project will include putting down a French drain in and around the spring area to drain it into the swampy area and then filling in the area layers of 2-3″ rock 6-8″ deep then a layer of fabric screen to help stop the drain from filling with silt and then used the rest of the rock to make a new road base.  We also lined more of the road with downed trees along the side to help prevent more people from going off trail.  We also worked on 2 other mud holes briefly to make sure Chad Beal could get through.  Rock was dumped at the top of Elwood Pass just on the Rio Grande Forest side with their permission and was put on a trailer pulled by Chad Beal and hauled to the repair spot one mile each way and was used as fill.  We had 14 club members work a very long 13 hour day not counting drive time.  Thank you to everyone!

Special Thanks To:
SW Ag for the donation of the back hoe
Tread Lightly! and Quadratec for the $250 grant
BF Goodrich for the Outstanding Trails award money
Click Excavation for the use of skid steer, French drain, and supplies
Tom Oroark of South Fork for the supply of 20 tons of 2-3” rock
Wilson Hagg for the gooseneck flatbed trailer
Neil Holliday at Southwest Financial for the use of the dump trailer
San Juan and Rio Grande Forest Service offices
San Juan Mountain Association

 This is what the hole looked like at the start of the day.  It was much worse earlier in the year. Some of the trail damage. Posing with the banners in the “before” picture. Scott, Billy, and Chad working on draining the mud hole. Kevin Fox and Chris Stacey putting in some no motorized vehicles signs along the road. Chad dumping the first load of rock. Putting rock on the first French drain. Scott installing the next 2 sections of French drain. Scott adding more rock to the base. Loading gravel into the dump trailer. Putting the fabric screen down to keep the French drain from silting in. Putting a layer of rock on top of the fabric screen. Putting dirt on top of the final rock to lock it all together. The final product.The “after” picture

Durango Herald 8/12/17
Follow up article 9/16/17