EJ’s Update Aug 29th 2010

Hello everyone. Diesel powered hydraulics is a beautiful thing. The 305 CAT mini-excavator is kicking butt up on the Ridge Trail. I had no idea that the mini-ex was going to work so well. Drew Kneeland is a very good operator. Drew and the machine are what we really needed to get the “Shock Treatment” section of the Ridge Trail done.

All I can do is laugh when I watch the machine work. Every time I watch the mini-ex scoop one bucket, I say “Wow! That would have taken me two hours by hand.” The machine rips through just about anything. “Shock Treatment” is full of brush. A lot of you all know how bad it sucks to try to chop through these root systems by hand. The mini-ex plucks out a root system in one pick. No problem, Mon. The mini-ex eats up stumps for breakfast. I watched Drew and the machine pull out a 24″ DBH stump on Thursday and I almost couldn’t believe it. Switchbacks…..? Smitchbacks…..! Drew and the mini-ex built our hardest switchback yet in roughly 7 hr.s. This would have taken a four person hand crew two weeks to build. It is nice switchback and big with a 12′ radius. It’s gonna ride like a dream. Rocks are no problem, Mon. The machine has pulled out some huge rocks, and sometimes it can just break them apart. Diesel powered hydraulics are a beautiful thing.

When I initially looked at “Shock Treatment”, I said, “Holy o’ shit! How are we going to do this?” It is our hardest section yet, and we have been though some hard sections. The answer all along was a mini-excavator. Had we attempted to do this section by hand, we could have been mired in it for a year or more. With the machine it is going to get done in less than a month. Watching the mini-ex work has brought up a lot of discussions about man vs. machine. We are talking John Henry and Paul Bunyan here. The machine always wins. Maybe John Henry did beat the steam powered drill, but I think he died of a heart attack in the end. The mini-ex does have its time and place. There are some places you couldn’t get a mini-excavator into. Although you could long-line a mini-ex into a remote location with a sky-crane helicopter. Hmmmmm.

So things are going well on operation Ridge Trail construction. Man is doing a good job too. I am working with the “Dream Team. I have a great hand crew following the machine doing some awesome finish work. They are buffing her out, delineating the tread, and doing some really nice insloping on the corners.

Have a nice week everyone, and remember, diesel powered hydraulics are a beautiful thing.

Erik Jacobson
USFS