Thursday, 25 February 2010 09:29
Letter from Ken Crider regarding the water diversion project.
The Kentucky Mountain Crawlers received a $3000.00 grant from the Trail Keepers Association for use at the Black Mountain off road Recreation area. The Harlan County Outdoor Recreation Board gave the Crawlers permission to have the work done on the area. Ken Crider a member of the Kentucky Mountain Crawlers and a board member with the Recreation board oversaw the work. Southeast Construction was hired to do the excavation work on the project. Southeast was already doing work at the park and it saved us money by them already being in the park. Personal and equipment belonging to the park board was also used during this grant work but was paid for by the park board.
The work started on June 22, 2009 and ended on June 29, 2009. The work consisted of diverting water from the Lower Damnation trail and trail 13. Water was also diverted from the Killing Time trail to the water diversion on trail 13. The lower Damnation trail is a very popular trail on the park and was a man made drain from when there was a coal mines where the lower rock garden is now. The large amount of water in the trail was causing the trail to deteriorate at a very fast pace. When there was heavy usage of this trail the water in Bailey’s creek ran muddy all day. Our intentions were to put the water back to where it originally ran.
The first days of the work was to dig a large ditch line down beside trail 12 to where the water came out of Damnation and went under trail 12 via a culvert. This ditch line was approximately 350 yards long. The dirt from the ditch line was placed on trail 12 and it repaired what was a very bad section of a main trail in the park. Large rocks removed from this ditch line were then taken down the hill to trail 11 and were stacked beside the entrance to this trail. Users cutting the entrance short were eating trail 11 away. By stacking these large rocks, we cut off the short cuts and widened the entrance to trail 11 thus fixing the entrance to that trail.
A 36” by 20’ culvert had been purchased on 06-22-09 from Mountain Supply Company for $396.65. On 06-26-09, it was placed to divert the water from trail 13 and over the hill to the ditch line previously dug. Park personal assisted in placing this culvert. Also on this date, an existing culvert that emptied out and into the new culvert had to be cleaned out. Jonathon Howard was hired to crawl into this culvert and shovel it out. Howard was paid $97.50 by check from the Kentucky Mountain Crawlers for this work.
On 06-29-09, the work on the culvert was finished and the excavator moved across the road to a trail called Killing time. This trail had been previously closed due to water issues. Killing time had been washed out and the water was bypassing a culvert and running out on to trail 12, which would have washed out all of the new dirt that placed on 12 to build it back up. A new ditch line was constructed and the water was then diverted into the culvert that Howard had cleaned out. This culvert dumps into the newly installed culvert that diverts water away from trail 13 and Damnation. The washed out section of Killing time was then reconstructed into a trail. Southeast construction donated work hours on the 29th due to the $3000.00 running out. The Killing Time trail has since reopened and is a very popular trail for rock crawlers.
Pictures of the work are being provided. The pictures of trail 13 with the ice cycles hanging on the cliffs shows the water running on this trail prior to the work being completed. There are also pictures of the work on the ditch line and the placing of the culvert. Copies of the checks written by The Kentucky Mountain Crawlers are being provided along with an invoice from Southeast construction and Mountain Supply for the Culvert.
The grant money provided by Trail Keepers fixed water problems on Trail 13, Lower Damnation and Killing Time. The dirt and rock moved to fix the above listed trails was use to fix and widen the entrance to trail 11 and to repair trail 12.
The Harlan County Recreation Board Authority appreciates the Trail Keepers and the Kentucky Mountain Crawlers for their assistance in this much needed water diversion project. We cannot thank you
enough for your help in keeping our park a great place to ride and also helping to protect the water quality and trails in our park.
Thanks again.
Ken Crider
Trail 13 before improvements
Improvements on Trail 13, Lower Damnation and Killing Time.
