Miller Rock FR523.1C Project
by Adam Mehlberg
On a nice sunny Saturday, September 14, some of our members headed up to the Raymond Store to meet Skye and Jayme of the Boulder Ranger District to do some route control on our adopted road, Miller Rock. We needed to create an end of road barrier where the MVUM show the end of FR523.1C. People had been driving vehicles, ATVs, and Side by Sides down to the Middle St. Vrain River, beyond the end of the road and were making user trails along river and ups the banks. One Jeep had crossed the river and tried to drive up the old ledge road where he slid off and got stuck. It was time to solve this problem.
Gordon, Greg and myself, brought small trailers to haul up the buck and rail, generators, signs, and posts. After loading materials from the Forest Service trailer, Gary and Paula took the lead, followed by Gordon, Richard and Carla, Mark, me, James, and Greg. This put someone in front of each vehicle with a trailer in case they needed help over and obstacle.
At the top we took a left onto FR523 and headed east. As we went in we noted areas that would need some work on our way out. After making all of the intersections, we came to where the end of FR523.1C should end. It was in an area that afforded a turn around. We unloaded the materials and planned out where the fencing would go. Gary, Paula, Gordon, and James went down the road past the closure point and hauled as many large dead trees as they could find into the road to help deter traffic.
While they were doing that, the rest of us got busy on the fence. First we assembled the bucks and laid them out where they would be placed. Next, we started the assembly of the rails to the bucks. We built four sections with down rails at the end.
Using a T-Bar we placed a sign in the center of the old road bed with the fencing.
It didn’t take long to complete the fence once we got started.
After loading the tools, we headed back out, stopping to replace a carsonite at FR532.1B. We also used carsonites to block off an illegal route up around some boulders. These may not last, but it’s a start.