July 12, 2004 Visit
I drove down to Sharpsburg on Sunday morning.
I had Merrill Langel bring in his backhoe and dozer and we replaced all of the old culverts and the ones that Depue ripped out and we added one near the trailer.
Then we started making a drainage ditch on the west side of the road. And we did! There is now a three to four foot ditch on most of the road and the drains are that deep as well.
When we started working on the drain at the stream where the road turns, we found the road was actually undermined and probably would have collapsed.
Now the new drain empties out a bottom of the streambed and the road has been widened by about two feet and soil has been added to improve the slope down to the stream bottom.
We did a similar arrangement for the stream just before the campsite. Unfortunately, a number of trees, some of which I planted, had to go. Anyway, the road is nice and wide there.
I was able to drive right up to the trailer after all of this. I did have trouble getting turned around, so I guess I need to trim out some more small trees and bushes (and get tires with better traction).
We spread the soil from the drainage ditches on top of the original road. Unfortunately, this new soil was clay and wet. When Merrill tried to smooth it out, it just clumped up and stuck to the treads of his equipment. So we decided to wait a few weeks for it to dry and then smooth it out. I expect I will go back at the end of July.
I am mostly pleased with how this turned out.
I will need to clean up the downed and damaged trees.
