Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

I've got a copy enroute too.

 

Is this an accidental book club?

I'm just finishing up "The Last Season" about Randy Morgenson.
I look forward to starting this new, old, hardcover...

 

Somewhere in this thread is a list of books already.

 

I definitely enjoyed these ones, which were once recommended to me by an astute contributor to this thread:

 

Hmm... Might be a long 190 closure again (from CHP Incident Log):

Jan 10 2023 11:01AM
1125-Traffic Hazard
Sr190 / Townes Pass

Jan 10 2023 11:03AM [3] 72-5 ADVSD ROCKS AND DEBRIS FOR MILES AND DIRT MISSING FROM UNDER THE NEWLY PAVED RDWAY
Jan 10 2023 11:02AM [2] 1039 CT
Jan 10 2023 11:02AM [1] ROCKS AND DEBRIS 1125 AND MM60

 

The latest status shows they’re escorting traffic … not sure if that means that one lane is stable, or if they’re just getting people out who were stranded. Here on the coast we’ve been really hammered, and the warm nature of these storms has created a mess in the Sierra (rain/melt/flooding plus heavy snow at higher elevations), but I was surprised to see that Panamint Springs has had over 1/2” rain today and even Furnace Creek had a measurable amount.

 

Looks like it must have just been rocks and debris on the highway and no actual pavement loss or undermining. Caltrans has it all cleared and open again.

 

Gotta say, rocks a debris is nothing to sneeze at Right now, we have huge redwoods coming down in addition to rock and debris. Other hwys are suffering scour and pavement loss where drainage is. Caltrans has to be playing whack-a-mole lately!

 

It’s so easy to criticize CalTrans and PG&E but all those guys are doing amazing things this week. I watched some tree workers balanced out on logs in the San Lorenzo River yesterday just downstream from the Highway 1 bridge, cutting them into pieces. Roped in a foot above fast-flowing water, with what looked like a 36” bar but still not quite long enough to cut through without going in from both sides. Not for me.

 

Like this? 9 is pretty bad and I'm sure the summer moving stoplights will start multiplying. There's a lot to repair.

 

A short time after this, he got the saw wedged in the tree that’s furthest away.They looped another rope on the saw handle and unbolted the bar and chain. The saw survived but the bar ended up floating down the river with the log. To keep it a bit more on topic, neither of their trucks was a Tacoma.

 

It's definitely keeping us geologists busy. Sent out a repair recommendations memo for a bunch of slope failures on 9 between Saratoga and 35 today, and heading up 17 in the morning to look at several more.

 

Same location from a week ago when I thought that in an emergency I could make it across if I had too. Gotten much worse since then. Unfortunately this is a county road and may take longer to get repaired than a main HW. On otherhand, wasn’t @erok81 looking for a local place to test his suspension?

 

I'm sure that will be a never ending task. Seems like there have been never ending slides.

 

There we go. The corner is even banked for extra speed!

 

I guess you'll be going over to Alum Rock/Quimby and then Mines. Just read Quimby is about the only way to get to Mt. Hamilton today

 

Somebody else is handling that. I'm also not on 92 in HMB.

 

Regardless. These are some big AF holes!

on El Camino in Santa Clara, there’s been a crew doing some kind of remediation work with slurry and horizontal boring. Right in front of a new apartment building….

 

My copy arrived...