Rain, Flood, Landslide, Pumping and Shoveling

I need not tell anyone that we did get a lot of snow, turning to rain over the past 30 hours. Being awakened several times during the night by just the sound of the rain, I was not looking forward to daylight and seeing the effects on the Hole In the Wall. It was much worse than I had even expected. Not only from the rain storm but also from the mud slides that the heavy rain created by over saturation of the soils. Two mud slides occurred, one at the normal location next to the Buffalo Wallow. As it did last year, Grannies Gully flowed mud out into the parking lot area but bypassed the Buffalo Wallow. The second mud slide occurred at the Wolf Den. John's Creek which feeds from John's Glacier, jumped the normal creek bed at the location where the "new" water line crosses the creek. It then followed the bed of the water line into the side yard of the Wolf Den. The pump system was rigged and de-watering started at 12:30 p.m. The pump has been steadily pumping since that time, currently it just passed the eighth hour mark. Although the pump is working, it is only maintaining the water that continues to flow into the pit area from Bear Creek and John's Creek. The new ditches that were dredged to channel the water was only partially effective. The upper portion of each of drain ditches did fill with sand and gravel either from normal washing or from the mud slide such as was the case in the area of the Buffalo Wallow. However, we were not the only ones to flood out. The Anchor River has reached flood stage and like the Hole In the Wall, has not reached the peak. Note the new log jam at the lower end of my favorite fishing hole.

Anchor River 10/10/08 Noon

Aerial View Of The Hole In the Wall

Ground View Of The Fire Pit Gazebo and Claire Allen's Flower Bed

The success story learned is from Bear Creek, the natural rock and clay mini wall that was built last summer is the most effective. With Bear Creek flowing a full head of water, equivalent to what we see in the spring run off, no water spread into the area of the Bear Den with the exception of one small tributary that was not blocked at the top. It has since been blocked and all water is being contained.

Bear Creek Falls

Bear Creek

Mud Slide Into the Wolf Den. Upon finding this, it made me sick but after looking at it in closer detail, no damage occurred and it could be a blessing. We have two options, this is all loose packed material, predominantly sand and gravel mixed with some clay. First option is to move it to the rear of the build where it will fill up the lower ground that collects water. 2nd Option is to level it off and the build the side and rear deck over the top of it. The foundation blocks are o.k., the center block is the only one that is covered, each block is visible

John's Creek Falls


John's Creek drainage area. I shoveled out the creek from the base up to the falls and reinforced the embankment to attempt to keep the stream confined to the drainage area. The upper portion of this creek is very rocky and with natural erosion, we should eventually be into the bed rock which will help in the stabilization.

Grannies Gully and Stream Bed. Where this stream hit the area of the gate and the new drainage ditch was dredged was covered in the mud slide that occurred at the top of Grannie Gulch. Due to the light soil and shale in this area, the newly dredged drain ditch past the Moose Wallow and into the Bronco Lane drainage canal filled up with sediment for the majority of it's length. I have re-shoveled this area and it is draining well.

I am treating this as a "learning experience". All along, I have been working with the concept of "blocking the water out" of the parking lot area by dredging the ditch so John's Creek funnels into the drain pit. After seeing how effective that the rock wall bordering Bear Creek has work, I am now under the concept of "blocking the water in". With a brief history, a drainage ditch in this area will not work due to the sediment that flows down the creek. With the tenants agreement and I would appreciate feed back. Forget the ditch concept to force the water into

the pit area. The two cabins sit about three to four feet higher in elevation than the parking lot area. Build a rock wall similar to Bear Creek from the new spruce tree to the edge of the drainage pit. Faced both sides with rock and plastic liner. Back fill with top soil and plant flowers or shrubs. The water flowing down Johns Creek will hit the wall and follow it into the pit area. If the pit is full, it will back up but it is going to have to get three deep to effect the cabins. By that level, it is over flowing into the parking lot and it does not matter what we do, we have a hell of flood. The draw back to this concept is that we will need to construct a small walking bridge over the wall to make easy and safe access. Unless the bridge is large, it will also restrict driving up to your doors. Ample parking is available and it really is no further than your present drive way to your front doors at your homes. The same concept will be used on the other drainage ditch at the Moose Wallow. The reason that we have had more than normal flooding this year is the cleared lots so we may consider a couple loads of top soil or a cultivator to break up the clay mixed soil and see if we can establish a lawn in this area to absorb some of the run off. As for the "old" Wolf Den and the Buffalo Wallow. The storm had no effect on either of these locations. At the Wolf Den, we may want to consider building some type of retaining wall or sand bags along the top of bluff to stop the flow of any mud slides that John's Creek may create in the future. We can never out smart mother nature, but we can wage an effective battle. Time to go check the pump and see if the water level has dropped.

Fall Storm

Late Monday night, a premature seasonal williwaw blew through the Hole In the Wall Recreational Area dumping record levels of snow for this time of the season. A total assessment has yet to be completed, however, early indications do not preclude the request for emergency disaster funds from the State of Alaska and the Federal Government. At the same time, our Congressional delegation will be contacted to explore the possibility of having some type of emergency "bailout" as a economic stimulator to the area. With the majority of the trees in the area still holding 73% of their foliage, a large number of them were bent to the ground under the heavy, wet snow loads. Egress from the Eagle Nest was blocked with Alder Trees laying in the driveway from the snow load. Rather than spending an hour on the chain saw cutting the trees down, the ole ford F-150 managed to break through on the third attempt.

Bear Den's First Winter Snowfall

Note the "Bear Marking" Tree in front of the cabin, as of

6:00 p.m. this evening, it had not yet corrected it self under the snow load.

Wolf Den's First Winter. The Apple Tree Sustained No Damage. However, from the photo it appears that some of the deck roof painting washed off.

Other news, the "new" construction is still underway. Completed trimming out the roof today, water proofing the skylight frame and laying felt. The building is now roughly dried in and hopefully under clear sky, tomorrow the shingles will magically appear on the roof in neatly arranged straight rows.

HITW Drain Project

Amidst The Colors Of The Season, The National Colors Are Once Again Retired

At The "Hole In The Wall"
The "Excavator" moved onto the site on Saturday and begin dredging the "bowl drainage system". The primary "settling pond" was enlarged to 6' x 8'. A very strange composition of soils was discovered. Just a few inches below the clay that halted the digging process by hand during the summer. A very nice seam of sand and gravel was struck, unfortunately it was only about six inches thick and then it reverted back to a "black" clay that was as hard as rock. The excavator kept going deeper,hoping to find more gravel, however, we could not get out of the clay. The dredging stopped when he reached a depth of six feet.
The next step was to dredge the drain ditch from "John's Glacier". A similar ditch was dredged from the gates to "Grannie's Gulch" to the established drain ditch along the driveway. Although it appears threatening, the drain ditch is only about six inches deep, just enough to get the water to move to the collection point. The "snow plow" and wheel barrow will make short work of the debris and it will be taken to the the pad at the Moose Wallow. The dredged material from the "pit" has already been transported and semi leveled in that area with the bobcat. With some work and material, it will be a good R/V site or a parking pad for the Moose Den. Since the drain ditches are shallow, with a little typar liner and back filled with several pick-up loads of medium size round beach rock, it should work as a "french drain".
I was caught by surprise, I was not expecting to put the new pit to the test until after I had finished the construction of the decking and screening. I also did not realize that it had rained so much and partially mixed with snowed overnight. Upon my arrival at the site this morning, this is what I had discovered. The new pit, despite being five times larger was filled and back flushed up and into the drainage ditch. However, the good news is that no water had back up even close to the fire pit area so the system will work and be very effective once the improvements are made.

Somewhere under this mass of water and leaves, there is a little blue sump pump working to it's maximum performance. With this amount of water, it took exactly two hours to pump it down. Sitting in my lawn chair and monitoring the drop of the water, I came to the conclusion that the acquisition of another 100 feet to 150 feet of 2 inch fire hose is a necessity. I had dismantled all of the piping for the excavation, with fire hose it would have taken five minutes to attached and lay out. My sit down time also provided me time to reevaluate the design of the cover and holding tank. I am going to build it the same way as I finished the pit in the Duck House. A cofferdam is necessary, even with the clay soil as it will erode under the water pressure. The cofferdam will also produce a solid foundation for the cover decking on the pit. It will make a great stage and sun bathing area. Prior to construction, someone is going to have to go into the hole and level the sides and scoop out any erosion that has occurred, for some strange reason, I think it will be me on the end of the shovel this time. I am just holding my breath that winter will hold off so I can finish all the projects, including the water tower.

HITW Log Posting

Was good to see a new posting on the personal sites of the Buffalo Clan and Bear Clan. At the HITW, still enjoying sunny fall weather, although today the wind was cold and we did get one small sprinkle. Lost a lot of our leaves from the wind today so we are now halfway through the fall.

The mornings are cold and frosty but turning into shirt sleeve weather by noon. Yesterday morning the Lower Crock Pond was frozen over and it remained that way all day. I hear Claire Allen on a daily basis, but have not seen her. I guess she has finally figured out that the "free handouts" are over with for this season. I do get a daily visit by the Canadian Jay, he / she always comes to the new site of the Duck Hose and chatters.

As for the Duck House, still on track to be finished by spring!:) Completely sided, soffitt boards on, and the overhang (whatever it is called) rafter on the rear of the building. Before closing down today, I installed the skylight frame which I had prefabricated on the ground. After applying two quarts of gorilla glue and spiked it in with six inch spikes, it is not going anywhere. As my dad use to say when he built something, "not much for pretty, but it is hell for stout". I love my gorilla glue and my "palm nailer", handled those six inch spikes like they were finishing nails.

Tomorrow, the building will be slowed down somewhat (according to Lady Eagle) it "can't get any slower"! The heavy equipment will move in and start excavating one pit and two ditches which I have referred on the Bear Den site so I will not be redundant. I will also not dwell on the O.J.Simpson verdict that just came in at 10 pm our time because I talked about that on the Buffalo Site so I will not be verbose and redundant. But, I will not have a sleepless night because poor O.J. is going away, possibly for life!

That is all!