[Tazz]

updated list of roads damaged and closed in the GPNF

[andrew e]

I've posted a report of my damage-scoping trip in the Skykomish area on WTA's Signpost blog. There's a pic of the bridge at Deception Falls, which amazingly, is still standing. The West Fork Foss River Trail to Trout, Copper, Big Heart Lake is toast, however. http://www.wta.org/~wta/cgi-bin/wtaweb.pl?4+blog+thread+ed+211

[Foist]

I'm especially devastated by the Index/NF Skykomish road. There are some terrific trails up that way, and even the road itself was such a joy to drive. And Tonga Ridge! are we actually going to have to EARN those views now? I'm in exile so I can't enjoy this stuff anyway nowadays, but it still makes me sad. Thanks everyone for the info and photos.

[Rich Baldwin]

[MCaver]

[Dayhike Mike]

[trout990]

It sounds like a lot of roads and trails are out. How many do you think will get rebuilt, or maybe i should just ask how many wont get rebuilt? How long will it take for most of the trails and roads to be fixed, by next summer? by next year? in 5 years?

[Dayhike Mike]

If they all get rebuilt, it'll have to be by an act of God. Hence, my answer: 7 days.

[GeoTom]

[Dayhike Mike]

Actually only 6 days were productive work. Chalk the 7th day up to bureaucracy. Even God can't get those kind of building permits and waivers in less than 24 hours.

[andrew e]

[Newt]

[GeoHiker]

I was up near Index today wandering some roads and was expecting much more damage. I grew up on the Sky River east of Goldbar and that area had some minor flooding, but nothing like I've seen in past floods. The Index-Galena road was littered with downed trees and debris from yesterdays storm, but the normal flooding spots I expected to see were not there. I turned around at the Road Closed sign. I was planning to hike to the washed out area with my waders, but there wasn't much of a spot to park. Maybe I'll try and make it back up there tomorrow with my mtn bike and explore further. I'm curious to see how Garland Mineral Springs made out. I took the short hike to the river through the future Sky River park and was surprised to see both bridges in good shape. One quite low walkway was still there and it didn't look like much water flowed through this area. There were county crews with heavy equipment working on shoring up the bridge into Index. I took the Reiter-Index road and there are several spots in the town of Index where the water over flowed, but not much flooding. I took FS 6010 up to Deer Creek Flat to about 2500 ft. That road is in decent shape with some minor rutting in spots, but nothing that a car couldn't handle if you go slow. There were quite a few trees down across the road from the wind storm yesterday. All have been cut and cleared. I'm sure the 2 comm sites up there make this road a priority. What I saw was encouraging, so I'm holding out some hope that other areas weren't too damaged. Has anyone heard anything about the Miller River road?

[David]

Very bad news regarding the middle fork road... according to a TR posted on the Goldmyer group on MSN, looks like the road is entirely gone at 20.5 miles in. This is the spot where the middle fork was already eating into the edge of the road. According to the reporter, about 100 yards are in the river at this point. Past this another 100 yards, about 1/4 of a mile of the road is totally gone - he wasn't clear on what he meant by gone, though. Not sure what the FS will do here. It is likely that there is mining equip and cars stuck up there... I know the mining caretaker keeps his car up there around mile 21, plus likely some hunters as well. wonder what will happen now....

[andrew e]

Some amazing photos of damage to Highway 35 in Oregon, which leads to the Mount Hood ski area. That pic of boulders stacked on the bridge leaves me speechless.