Author: Michael Ballard

On Saturday, February 10, two board members (Michael Ballard and Jaime Crawford and two volunteers, went on a survey trip over the Ridge Route to assess the damage from the February 4-9th storm. We were surprised by what we saw, most of which was encouraging.

The southern gate was partially blocked by a rockslide, which wasn’t a good start. It was easily cleared by our crew and we moved north to the early 2023 landslide. The work done in late January by the RRPO to cover the slide and divert water did seem to help quite a bit. After making minor repairs and adjustments, we continued north towards Serpentine Drive. A minor slide from early 2023 showed no additional signs of movement but was still partially blocking the roadway.

Few rockfalls or slides were observed between the National Forest Inn and Serpentine Drive. This section was the site of three major slides in 2005 which completely shut down the roadway and damaged oil/gas pipelines in the area.

At Serpentine Drive, we did note two problem locations. Both are known issues which are tougher to solve. The first, a developing washout near the pipeline bridge, has gotten a bit worse. The roadway is undermined and gradually breaking up. For now, we intend to divert the water to reduce further damage. Longer term plans call for reconstruction of this section with proper drainage installed. A bit further up, a rockslide partially blocked the road, which was mostly cleared a couple of times in the last couple years.

At Swede’s Cut, we found quite a bit of debris blocking the road which required some work to make passable. This location is usually the site of many rockslides.

South Reservoir Grade was fairly clear, much to our surprise. The storms in 2023 brought down quite a bit of rocks so we expected a lot more this time. So far, things are relatively clear with some areas being covered by sediments at stream crossings.

North Reservoir Grade, however, had a couple locations where a large amount of material has come down onto the road. Most is softer sands and mud with some larger rocks interspersed. All will require a blade to clear along with the adjacent drains unclogged.

All of the areas we have worked to clear the drains so far have held up well and are in good order except for one at the northern end. We’ll get back to that one in a bit.

At the large washout near Kelly’s, we stopped to survey how the sandbags held up and if any changes needed to be made. We found the bags had indeed worked well except for at the upper end. As a shorter-term solution, we relocated some of the bags to further push the water away from the drain as the upper end was getting overwhelmed with sediments. Additional work will likely include additional sandbags to raise the level and divert some water into a drain on the uphill side of the roadway.

Just south of the Tumble Inn, we stopped to clear a tree which had fallen onto the road. As the cuts erode, we expect more of these to fall in the future. The only thing we can really do is keep an eye on any that are large enough to block the road and mitigate the damage as best as we can.

Between the Tumble Inn and Liebre Summit, the road was quite muddy in places with a large amount of debris covering the road. Two major drains are blocked or otherwise compromised and need to be cleared. The roadway itself needs to be bladed. Some of the potholes have gotten worse, with the largest one near Horseshoe Curve. That will “Pothole #1” to be taken care of as the concrete is breaking up in addition to the asphalt.

Upon reaching Sandberg, we discussed options for future repairs and maintenance of the roadway. In addition to the photos, we also took about 40 minutes of video which we are putting together and will post on our YouTube channel in the next month or so. We also do not recommend traveling the roadway between Sandberg and Templin Highway during this time regardless of the gates being open. You can damage the roadway and possibly injure yourself in the process, neither of which we want to happen.

Your help will be greatly appreciated and necessary to ensure the roadway remains intact. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing out there at our next CUTRR event, which will be posted soon.

Two board members of the RRPO and a couple additional volunteers surveyed the Ridge Route earlier today. The results were very surprising and overall good. The Ridge Route survived the storm! We were able to travel the entire road with only some issues. A more in-depth update will be posted on Monday.

Due to overall conditions and the winter storms, any travel over the road beyond the gates is NOT RECOMMENDED regardless of the gate status.