Sometime between 4pm and 8:30pm on Friday 10/09/2020 some huge rocks broke loose from the Dingford Bench cliffs and landed on the road. If you look around in that section it's not unusual -- there are many other big boulders lying around including one that is a popular bouldering problem. Within a couple days volunteer work parties managed to clear enough brush and tip over the smaller rock to make a workable route for vehicles again. It's an important time of year for stocking up winter supplies at Goldmyer -- last winter the caretakers were isolated for months by the landslide at the 9MP point and subsequent heavy snows.
Rock fall on the Middle Fork road at ~MP19
One of the big chunks landed in the middle of the river channel
Rock fall on the Middle Fork road at ~MP19, seemingly having fallen out of the sky
Rocks fell from the cliff above taking out trees below. Photo by Bill Davis.
At least the blockage is far up the road, on the unpaved section beyond the big Middle Fork Bridge parking area and campground. And now we are in the season when all those potholes fill up with rain water, making it harder to judge just how deep they are!
It's beyond the Dingford Creek trailhead gate so it really didn't impact hikers at all -- you could walk right through. The main impact was on the inholders that use the road -- Goldmyer and some miners. Search and Rescue often uses the road when needing to search for hikers such as the one recently missing near Gem Lake. The road is also used to bring trail crews and supplies up to the Hardscrabble horse camp or other jump off spots for trail work.
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