Terrain puzzlement

Approximately 8/27/03 23:14, EdC uttered for posterity:

Heh. The worst of that stuff is river polished rock that is really close to round. Only ways I've ever traversed it is to keep enough momentum that you more or less float on top of it. Or if there is a path that allows you to keep one side *off* the stuff. Or wait until it gets ground into the mud a bit. Can't imagine airing down would help, although the places I used to run into it were logging trails, where a big logging truck had little difficulty navigating...perhaps enough weight to get the marbles to stay still.

That brings back memories! When the Amistad Dam was finished (Del Rio, TX on the Rio Grande) they took out a bridge across a river feeding into it. It was a wide, shallow river with good flow about 12 inches deep. When they blew the bridge they made a quick trip to a place I used into a 50 mile detour so we all decided to just ford the river just above the old bridge. The river was a good 150 yards wide there with what looked like a rock bottom - no problem. Turned out that "rock bottom" consisted of bowling balls. Add the constant water flow to lubricate them and that turned the 150 yards into the damnedest level obstical I ever saw. I think the only thing that ever made it across unassisted was a cat - nothing with wheels. Fortunately, it was easy enough to pull the venturesome souls out as long as at least one vehicle kept it's feet dry so we all had to try it a few times.

When was that?

At least one locker would really help with this stuff. Worst stuff I ever got into was back East on a popular pipeline run in Mahwah, NJ. The State had dumped tons of blast rubble down a hillside along the trail and we'd always try out new stuff by seeing if we could get up the stuff. It was either winch it, or lock up & pray. Sure was fun.

1967 or 68, I think - whatever year they closed the locks to start filling it. I spent nearly 5 years in lovely Del Rio surviving student pilots. They figured 20 years to fill Amistad but heavy snows and rain upstream had the water coming up 16-18 inches a day and flooded the old Lake Walk and Devils Lake withing the year. They blew the old hwy 90 bridge but people kept driving the old highway and winding up in the lake because it was coming up so fast. Great Bass fishing!

Well, ya'll made me feel a little better about my defeat. I've NEVER been so glad to realize I took a wrong turn. My guess is it looked so trafficked because of ATVs. I'm sure they're light enough to "float" on top of the rocks. Gotta get the rear lockers!

Approximately 8/28/03 23:12, EdC uttered for posterity:

.... or a bag or two of quickset cement. Which around Vegas is reasonably close to being the local alkali flat that it would work as well.

Wonder why they put the marbles there and just left them. Around Utah, the marbles were usually laid down during the muck season, then driven over with a heavy vehicle enough to more or less hold them in place for normal non-tactical vehicles to traverse.