Hitch Leader: Abe
Member: Daniel
July 1-July 11
For the first engineering hitch of 2013, we were not sure what to expect. We had heard rumors that new signs needed to be placed around the forest, and based on the hitch write-up from last year, we knew that brushing/road corridor work was also a common task. When we arrived to the Forest road maintenance shop we met Gary and learned that we would be helping him clear some washed out sections of road just north of the Salmon river between Indianola and Shoup. We were amazed at the power of the mudslides that washed out multiple culverts along the road and carried boulders that must have weighed nearly a ton.
The second week of the hitch we worked on brushing. The first day we were able to get in some good chainsaw time, but the second day the throttle of our saw broke, rendering it unusable. After that we honed our skills with loppers, cutting thousands of small willow shoots along the roadway.
Feet of road brushed: 8000ft
Culverts cleared: 5
Culverts inspected: 10