Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Maybe we need a road.

I was able to make another trip up to the property in the fall of 2016, as part of one of my football road trips. This was shortly after the electrical co-op had been out to stake where the post would need to be and get a cost estimate for getting in the electric.
I origionally put electric at the top of the list of "to do" items as I need electric on the property to have the telecommuncations company run out the cabling for internet access. Without internet access, it would be difficult to work from the property while i continued with other development. The cost for electric was about 12k, but they also had to have 20 foot wide clearance along the entire path which I would also be paying for it.
The other thing which was high on the priority list to get done was to get better access to the property. Right now the "road" into the property is really a steep trail with lots of loose rock that has been exposed.
At this point i had made about five trips up the road in my 2wd pickup and while some points the tires skidded, it was not to bad.
However, we had one last fatefull trip up the road after it had started raining. With the wet rocks and lose gravel, I got about half way up one of the steeper sections of the climb and lost all traction. Then came the scary part, I was sliding back down the hill with really no control of where i was going. I kept sliding and sliding getting closer and closer to where the road ended and a steep dropoff occured. I did cut the front wheels to try and get the truck to slide back onto the road and away from the edge, this worked for the rear, but pushed the front close to the edge.
The truck did finally stop sliding when the front driver tire got caught on a bollder which was right on the edge of the road.

Getting free was another story. I did manger to build up enough "road" out of rock and tree trunks that i felt it was worth a shot to remove the rock. After removing the rock i was able to safely back up the truck and get down the hill.

Lesson learned...Rain and loose/slippery rocks are not good for traction when climbing.
After this fateful little adventrure I have moved getting the road in up higher on the list of things to do...really its pretty much first. Afterall if i cant get there, it doesnt need electric or internet and  might as well put it back on the market.

1 comment:

  1. That sounds freaky scary! glad you were OK. I agree on the road being #1!

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