Hmmm…someone is placing dirt back at Gray Slip where they originally took dirt from for Mud Creek. I wonder what that can mean? Oh, and the water is picking up there, too.
Tag: Gray Slip
Gray Slip Photos taken 11/3/18
Here are some photos showing the depth and width of the cracks with measuring tape so that we can more accurately track the movement. There are also photos showing the three springs (which we believe to be different ones, but which we have no way of knowing whether they all come from one original spring) that have been exposed by Madonna Const. since they dug here to obtain fill dirt for Mud Creek. There is no indication that there is any effort being made to control the water here. You might remember from the article I published on Monday (Here) that water is the key ingredient in landslides and debris flow. “Water is the key ingredient,” said Austrian hydrologist Thomas Thaler, who studies threats to mountain communities. These photos demonstrate that.
The depth of that last crack is 60 total inches. At the end of the slide show, Rock Knocker lost his tape measurer into the crack and had to climb in there to retrieve it. That gives an idea of the width and depth, although the tape could not follow the slope of the crack, so it is actually deeper than 5 feet.
Cal Trans occupies Bixby Bridge today, 10/30/18
Here are some photos Nadine Clark took this am, 10/31/18 at the bridge:
And here is one by Ken Ekelund:
When I drove by today around 12:30 or so, Cal Trans completely blocked off and/or occupied ALL parking places near the bridge, even on the north bound side, all the way around the corner. They also blocked off OCR completely for parking/gawking/stopping. I was driving my huge new Sprinter van by myself, so no way to get photos without stopping in the middle of the road like a tourist. So I didn’t. But if any of you local passengers got a shot, please ship it off to me. You know all my addresses…
I guess after Lisa Krieger’s article last Friday, then the Big Sur Multi-Agency Advisrory Council meeting the same day, I guess they heard us.
Also at the Big Sur Multi-Agency Advisory Council meeting, Cal Trans announced that if they get an extreme weather advisory from NOAA, they would be locking the gates on both sides of Paul’s Slide and Mud Creek.They haven’t said anything yet, but I’m betting if there is an extreme event, Gray Slip may let go, too. Might not even take an extreme event. Suzana promised me an official announcement by tomorrow re this gating.
Gray Slip, Oct. 2018
I have some information on the slide history, geological formation in the area, and plant restoration, etc. that I want to share, but I have saved it all in iBooks, which refuses to cooperate. I will try those pieces of the puzzle when I sort out the technical difficulties. In the mean time, here are photos of Gray Slip this month. One on 10/8 and another on 10/22 that show the spring. I have arbitrarily titled it Spring #1. There is another (#2) down next to the highway. Of course, there has been no rain since the digging here uncovered this spring.
Gray Slip, 1992 – a look back through photos
Gray Slip, 1988 – a look back through photos
Gray Slip, A perspective
There is a historical slide south of Mud Creek that many of you may not have heard of, or may not remember. This is Gray Slip. Madonna dug into this area during the repairs to Mud Creek to obtain dirt (as if there wasn’t enough at Mud Creek?) and transport it back to Mud Creek. Rock Knocker watched from above many times as they would bring a load of dirt from Gray Slip to Mud Creek, and then turn around and do it all over again. He couldn’t figure out why they did that, and to this day does not know why.
Rock Knocker went through some of his old Gray Slip photos, and I found some in an album I put together of a few of the major slides from 1980-1993. I also have an album I made from the El Niño of 1995. I did some online research and found a couple studies from 2001 re the major slides (40 page report I downloaded into iBooks; here is a link I found to the report so that you can download it. http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/Documents/landslides/Caltrans/SR_185/CT001mon%20Report.pdf
and another one on Erosion and Revegetation Management Report done by CSUMB and Rana Creek Restoration and Paul Kephardt done in Dec. 2000. (http://www.co.monterey.ca.us/home/showdocument?id=37877 ) Both provide some interesting insights into what we may see this winter in this spot and others.
This is a shot of Gray Slip from above taken this summer:
You can see all the water in the pit Madonna dug here in this photo from July. There are other areas not in this photo that are also showing water coming out, even now, in October, after a very dry summer season.
Earlier this month, Rock Knocker and I were coming back from a town trip south, and I asked if he could stop so I could take some photos. I had noticed quite a bit of water coming out of the hill, and noticed the cracks above where the Madonna team had dug out a pit in the mountain. I wanted to document this. He walked up and took photos on 10/8/18. He hiked up even further on 10/13/18 and took even more photos.
Throughout the coming weeks, I will be posting some of the historical photos I have of this area, some of the photos and data charts from the 2 studies mentioned above, and after I have done that, I will share some of this month’s photos. This project will take me a few weeks to complete.