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Post by DavidT on Sept 28, 2009 21:14:18 GMT -5
Joseph and I spent some time on Wine Creek yesterday. I would say 2 - 3 miles (sorry my computer is not working)in from Key Rd is a bridge across a drainage chasm that has railings and hardware cloth on half of it. The recent rains have caused slick mud to fill in the hardware cloth and gaps between the boards. The bridge is angled slightly to the trail and at the bottom of a pretty steep drop. Therefore if you are anything but straight on that bridge, you are in for a surprise. My son found out the hard way. Fortunately the railing caught his shoulder and neck before he went off the bridge. I did not attempt to ride it as I watched in horror 
thinking he was about to drop off the seven to eight foot high bridge. For those who do not know, Joseph is 8 years and handles his 20" mountain bike great. I don't think he would have handled the drop off very well. I did find the bridge very difficult to even walk on.
I think the only fix will be to either raise that end of the bridge and ramp up to it, or dig in some really good drains on either side of it to keep the mud from accumulating. The one thing I did notice was that the spacing between the boards is very wide compared to most bridges on the trails, which is good. I think the hardware cloth is the double edged sword here. To get the mud off will require some shovels, if I had one yesterday, we would have cleaned off as much as possible. To do the job right, the hardware cloth will have to be removed, mud cleaned off, and hardware cloth replaced...across the whole bridge. Also we might want to consider putting a second railing or cross bracing to help keep someone from going over. You can approach this bridge a very high rate of speed with the trail leading to it dropping and is fairly straight. The railings are very high so if someone does go down, they will either hang themselves on the railing and then go under the railing and over the edge, or just as my son did, just hang themselves.
He and I will at least go out Sunday with a shovel and clean as much of the mud off as possible. We could even dig some drains in on the sides of the bridge. I will measure the bridge as well and report about how much hardware cloth will be needed to cover the whole bridge. Although, I really think someone with more trail building experience should take a look to make sure it is done right so mud does not continue to accumulate.
thinking he was about to drop off the seven to eight foot high bridge. For those who do not know, Joseph is 8 years and handles his 20" mountain bike great. I don't think he would have handled the drop off very well. I did find the bridge very difficult to even walk on. I think the only fix will be to either raise that end of the bridge and ramp up to it, or dig in some really good drains on either side of it to keep the mud from accumulating. The one thing I did notice was that the spacing between the boards is very wide compared to most bridges on the trails, which is good. I think the hardware cloth is the double edged sword here. To get the mud off will require some shovels, if I had one yesterday, we would have cleaned off as much as possible. To do the job right, the hardware cloth will have to be removed, mud cleaned off, and hardware cloth replaced...across the whole bridge. Also we might want to consider putting a second railing or cross bracing to help keep someone from going over. You can approach this bridge a very high rate of speed with the trail leading to it dropping and is fairly straight. The railings are very high so if someone does go down, they will either hang themselves on the railing and then go under the railing and over the edge, or just as my son did, just hang themselves.
He and I will at least go out Sunday with a shovel and clean as much of the mud off as possible. We could even dig some drains in on the sides of the bridge. I will measure the bridge as well and report about how much hardware cloth will be needed to cover the whole bridge. Although, I really think someone with more trail building experience should take a look to make sure it is done right so mud does not continue to accumulate.
