Everything Southern Humboldt and more
At Whitmore Grove from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. in theory, but they reportedly did not open until after 8:00 this morning.
Old Briceland Road is of course the alternative, but I would advise residents to the west of Redway to try to get their business done by daylight.
Addendum: Briceland Road closed indefinitely.
Second addendum: Kym has photos.
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| Miss Criyant on For a Crisp Spring Saturday… |
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| suzy blah blah on For a Crisp Spring Saturday… |
| Narration on For a Crisp Spring Saturday… |
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| Narration on How does vinegar mix with tin… |
| suzy blah blah on For a Crisp Spring Saturday… |
| Miss Criyant on For a Crisp Spring Saturday… |
| Narration on For a Crisp Spring Saturday… |
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62 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 26, 2011 at 9:05 am
Anonymous
Open 7 am to 7pm ? It’s confusing as written unless I am fogging up from the chemo.
March 26, 2011 at 9:13 am
huufc
What the heck! Pull the logs out of the creek dump some rock to stabilize the bank and keep the road open, at least to one lane. Get the Federal Govnerment out of the way, tell CA Fish and Game to go home get CA Parks out of the office,work with Hum. Co. Roads and fix it!
March 26, 2011 at 9:21 am
tra
Eric,
The title, combined with the first sentence of your post seems to imply that the road is closed from 7am-7pm. But I think you meant that it’s open from 7am-7pm, closed the other 12 hours. Right?
March 26, 2011 at 9:25 am
tra
Actually it’s just the title combined with the first half of that first sentence that gives that impression. The second half of that sentence, and the second sentence both offer clues that what you really meant was that it’s open durign the day and closed at night.
March 26, 2011 at 10:03 am
Anonymous
what about weekends?
I looked on the Humboldt co. public works/roads page and there is no info.
anybody out there find any new stuff.
March 26, 2011 at 10:32 am
ED Denson
I got a call at KMUD suggesting that people with evening needs can use the Old Briceland road. Haven’t heard that it is not open. Any one know?
March 26, 2011 at 10:54 am
hohstadts
the ban on delivery trucks is really going to impact all business west of town. This effectively shuts us down. I hope state park realizes this.
March 26, 2011 at 11:08 am
ED Denson
Right now the road reports from inbound traffic that we are getting at KMUD indicate more than 30 minute delays. It is possible that there is some crucial part of the work which takes the entire road to do, but all we are getting is calls from people stuck in traffic – nothing from the people who would know.
March 26, 2011 at 11:46 am
Kim
I just photographed the crew working for the STATE PARKS as they rip wrapped the bottom of the slide exposed to rushing creek waters. They did a pretty good job, but the delay was humongous. Backed up past Briceland.
They were just finishing it up a few minutes ago and traffic… one way traffic, was being allowed to flow again. Expect delays, be courteous, and patience will save us from getting hurt.
This isn’t going away any time soon.
March 26, 2011 at 11:52 am
Ben Schill
I am hearing that cars are being convoyed over the Old Briceland Road by Sheriff cars after 7 PM.
March 26, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Anonymous
now it’s closed indefinitely, just heard from a friend who tried to come into town from the Cove (Sat 4 pm)
March 26, 2011 at 4:11 pm
volunteer firefighter
My wife just called (5pm Saturday),trying to drive home from work in town. It appears that more of Briceland road in Whitmore Grove has collapsed, and the road is completely closed. She was turned around and told to take Old Briceland Road.
March 26, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Kim
went and shot some more photos of this developing disaster. The road is gone. The crew is dumpinng riprap into the oozing mud. They disappear with a plop and sink into the moving mess. Truck load after truck load of rocks from a quarry on Bear Butte are disappearing into the hillside and creek bed as they try to get the earth to stop moving. This is serious stuff. The road is closed. There is no road. They hope to rebuild one lane by early in the week for controlled traffic. The repair will take more than a year. It will be very inconveniant.
Right now, if you don’t need to go to town, don’t go. If you have to drive Old Briceland Road, remember it is dangerous, and will have far more traffic on it than is normal. BE CAREFUL. Put your cell phones away. Pay attention.
March 26, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Norah
Thanks, Kim.
March 26, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Norah
101 is closed, according to Kym’s site.
March 26, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Dave Kirby
I think we all have to be ready to demonstrate if they try to widen the Briceland Thorn road as a result of this. It will enable military tanks and Wal Mart trucks to access Shelter Cove. SAVE WHITMORE GROVE!!!
March 26, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Eric Kirk
101 closed? Not to the north. I just drove from Eureka.
March 26, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Kym Kemp
to the south. 1 1/2 miles north of Leggett.
March 26, 2011 at 9:36 pm
WTF
This will be a good test using Old Briceland Road to and from Garberville. This is the same secondary route that is proposed for Concerts and Festivals at the Community Park. Wonder if they are planning a Sheriff Convoy too….
March 26, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Anonymous
Old Briceland Road was already tested when the tree fell down. It performed just fine.
March 26, 2011 at 11:26 pm
Not A Native
I thought your low impact rural lifestyle was in harmony and was stewardship for the environment and only those unsustainable city people are hopelessly dependent on roads and cars for their daily lives.
Sounds to me like sediment from washed out roads and truckloads of gravel being dumped into waterways is whats really happening. Thats not salmonoid friendly. But no one seems to care much, gettin’ where you want to go as fast as possible is the only concern here. Next you’ll be calling for wider and straigher roads made with even steeper and more unstable cutbanks(but not in Richardson Grove). Maybe you all should live more compactly and lighten your environmental impacts. Sheesh
March 27, 2011 at 5:10 am
anon
Not a native
I’ve been seeing your posts for some time now.
Your responses and attitude often comes from a cruel and vicious place.
You like to point out the contradictions in our lives here.
Do you live here?
If so, what do you like about life here.
If not, maybe you could muster the kindness to leave us alone and look inward for contradictions.
March 27, 2011 at 6:37 am
"a"nonymous
Not a Native, you should change your name to Gadfly.
March 27, 2011 at 7:01 am
hohstadts
I’m curious what roads you live out “not a native”. This problem was caused by state park not maintaing their road. Trees that fell five or six years ago were allowed to jam along the bank and slowly erode it for years. What are you suggesting the thousands of people that live west of redway do?
March 27, 2011 at 7:24 am
Kim
A word about NAN.
Please don’t feed this troll.
March 27, 2011 at 8:43 am
Aprilshowers
Well if there wasn’t enough impatient road rage on Briceland road before,this will spice it up! WOW
March 27, 2011 at 8:47 am
PAN
NAN is a notorious vinegar sipping misanthrope. There is literally no event, natural or manmade, that she will not bend to support her festering hatred.
March 27, 2011 at 9:30 am
olmanriver
Thanks for pointing out the main cause of the washout hohstadts…. State Parks ignored the obvious problem of the orientation of the logs in the creek that pushed the water further into the bank.
As Kim pointed out on Kym’s blog, the rotting logs in the roadbed may also be a factor.
Pray there is no need for speedy ambulance service for awhile west of Redway.
March 27, 2011 at 9:55 am
Ernie's Place
The obvious factor was a rotten crib of logs holding up the bank below the roadway. The redwood logs left in the creek was a real plus for the fish habitat, and it was correct to have left them there. The road needs to be shored up with large rip-rap rocks, which apparently they were doing.
Roads, people, fish, and forest can coexist.
March 27, 2011 at 10:46 am
huufc
Hohstadts and olmanriver are spot on, to leave the old growth logs in the creek years ago and ignore them resulted in the road washing out.
I understand that CA Parks owns the road and from driving on it a few times it is obvious that they neglected to do anything to maintain it.
However now it is an emergency and park employees from all over the state will now be filling the motels and restaurants in town, on per diem making and spending taxpayer money. It appears that Ernie’s Place is NOT west of Whitmore Grove. What a shame.
March 27, 2011 at 11:23 am
hohstadts
The redwood logs that were so great for the fish could have easily been moved into a position that did not cause this problem. State Park should have seen that the log crib was too old to be effective and replaced before this happened.
March 27, 2011 at 11:35 am
Eric Kirk
I’m reluctant to place any blame here. It’s rained pretty much every day in March, sometimes with a Decemberesque torrent. When that happens, lots of crap happens.
March 27, 2011 at 11:43 am
Whitethorn Resident
Heading home to Whitethorn on Tuesdayf from the Bay Area – wondering if anyone knows yet what to expect? Is KMUD the most current place for news on the road? As massively inconvenient as this is, I’m grateful that NO ONE was hurt as the road fell, and I hope at the end of the day that we have a safer road in place for ourselves, our family, friends, school buses, delivery people, and everyone who travels east and west on the county road.
March 27, 2011 at 11:44 am
Ernie's Place
Huufc
I lived in Briceland in 1964 after the Flood. My folks settled the South Fork in 1857. You ain’t seen shit!
The poorly maintained road was the problem. The logs belonged in the stream, as they have been since before man set foot on the north coast.
The Indian people used them to cross the streams, and the fish used them for shady spots safe from predators. The logs make good ladders and and deep water pooling. I speak from experience.
I also believe that we need the road and it should be fixed without bothering the creek. Those that want to take the time to think beyond their present woes will realize that it can all happen without screwing up the creeks, that we have done too many times already.
March 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Not A Native
Circle the wagons! Pour out venom and name calling! Let there be no crack in the facade of the pretense that SoHum rural impacts isn’t suburban sprawl. As the Eel rises, so does Denial.
But all that doesn’t change the fact that the truth of the rural lifestyle is little more than sprawl writ large. This event is more proof that the actual lifestyles of the rural dwellers degrades the environment and is more harmful, per capita, than compact urbanites. If you live so lightly on the land, why is a road so immediately essential? Oh yeah, because you’re daily commuters and suburbanites who depend on constant access to central amenities.
And your biggest hypocricy is the claim that this road is good for the environment, and its the absolute responsibility for the public to maintain your private driveway. And golly gee, if some rural ‘simple lifer’ cuts their finger, the simple life suddenly is revealed to include the right to immediate access to the same services as an urbanite. Simple life isn’t really simple, the way you folks here live it.
March 27, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Eric Kirk
NAN – I’m not necessarily in disagreement that rural living per capita has more impact on the environment than urban living per capita – on several different levels, and I agree that cluster living generates probably the least impact per capita. But if 101 was to go out, the Bay Area could make the same argument about the most “urban” of Humboldt residencies. And while rural impacts have a moderate impact on a large amount of land, urban impacts have an extreme impact on a smaller area of land. No matter where we are we have impact.
There is also evidence that population condensation takes psychological tolls which are not as prominent in rural areas. I will be posting something on the subject for an unrelated discussion, but it was rural living that probably saved European civilization from the black death.
We’ll always have rural dwelling and urban dwelling, and rather than rate one choice morally or practically higher than the other, we should focus on what we can do to mitigate our footprint wherever we live. I agree that some are resistant to see themselves or their choices as problems in any way and are thus resistant to adopt mitigation measures which require effort and sacrifice, but that’s pretty much universal to human nature and not unique to rural dwellers.
The road has to be fixed. It’s not a question of a sense of entitlement. A lot of people live to the west, and some of them even live in clusters.
March 27, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Ernie's Place
“Not a native” is obviously not a native.
We live here because we love it here. We have the right to live any damn place that we decide to live as long as we coexist with nature, and don’t take more than our share.
If you want to argue that the world is over populated, I would be the first to agree with you, but I have no problem with good roads that don’t wash down the river because they were poorly designed. They can build a road that won’t harm the creeks.
I’m glad that you live in town, next to the hospital, school and grocery store. We prefer to take our chances to live in the place that we do. Who was it that said “A life without passion is a life not worth living”. Some of us are pasionate about living here. Get it? By the way, Who grows your carrots for you?
March 27, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Kim
We love ya EB!
Troll killer!
March 27, 2011 at 1:00 pm
bongandablintz?
“Anonymous
Old Briceland Road was already tested when the tree fell down. It performed just fine.”
Not true. There was a wreck almost immediately on Old Briceland Road when Whitmore Grove was first blocked. That is why there are convoy trucks there now to lead cars through Old Briceland Road. It is a narrow, dangerous one lane road that was not designed for heavy use and is absolutely NOT appropriate as some alternative route when Sprowel Creek Road is being jammed up with event-goers at the proposed park public facility.
March 27, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Sally
A Facebook page called SoHum Awareness has been created, and is already full of helpful information. Check it out!
March 27, 2011 at 3:42 pm
olmanriver
Jim on Kym’s just posted a CDF dispatch that the Whitmore grove was reopened at 3:30 today… any confirmations?
Rotten logs under the road bed… are those the original 1920′s redwoods? Was there a repair there from the ’55 or ’64 megafloods?
March 27, 2011 at 4:28 pm
suzy blah blah
okay okAY! now you got my blood boiling bad, it’s raging like a river that the broken logjams finally let loose … that’s right NAN, … and puleeze correct me if I’m wrong, you troll, but we are very passionate about our life up here, and we know how to get er open and how to keep the fuel trucks rolling and how to get er done! too! –so take that you negative person. Where are you from anyhow? the city? that explains a lot –LOL!
love and peace and blessings to all of my peaceful loved ones and friends on this tragic rainy comic green day in paradise up here.
huggles
s
March 27, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Not A Native
ooh suzie. ‘so take that’? Violence is what you’re really about, strike out when you’re faced with confronting the damage your lifestyle really does to the world.
In the past your sort of blood boilin’ hick woulda been out shootin’ up the injuns who were in their way of gettin’ er’ done. You’re keepin’ up the good solid tradition of greed and selfishness in the backwoods. So just run that dozer up ‘er, get that stream straightened and channeled so it don’t no longer block you. Destroy and kill anything that git in your brutish way.
March 27, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Eric Kirk
…and how to keep the fuel trucks rolling …
suzy.
March 27, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Jim Baker
I just talked to Supt McAllister of SHUSD re: school bus routes and times for tomorrow morning. He indicated that State Park and County road crews have repaired Briceland Road at the slipout (no doubt a temporary fix) and it is open to two-way traffic now. School buses will be running on usual schedule unless the fix doesn’t hold through the night. Affected households of students are in the process of being notified via SHUSD automated phone service and will be updated if necessary.KMUD should be in the loop as well and delivering updates. Give those guys on the road crews a thumbs up next time your see them. They deserve it.
March 27, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Eric Kirk
Okay, but I’m being told by people who live down on Oakridge Road at the bottom of Redway that the road was still closed as of 5:00. They’re going out to check on it now.
March 27, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Jim Baker
Whoops! Egg on my face — I called CHP to confirm opening of briceland road — They say it is HOPED repairs will be completed sometime tonight and ready for school buses by morning. Stay tuned!
March 27, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Eric Kirk
Jana and the kids walked out the road this evening. It looks like they are very close.
March 27, 2011 at 7:45 pm
anon
wait a minute.
now they are saying that the road that was going to be closed indefinitely is going to open tomorrow.
WTF
Can anyone verify that????????
March 27, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Anonymous
I’ve used Old Briceland Road several times since the road first went out. I wouldn’t want to do that all the time, but it’s good to know we have it as a backup. For an emergency it will work just fine.
March 27, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Eric Kirk
wait a minute.
now they are saying that the road that was going to be closed indefinitely is going to open tomorrow.
WTF
Can anyone verify that????????
I think they just didn’t want to make any promises. But I will try to find some official word.
March 27, 2011 at 8:42 pm
Eric Kirk
Well, the Briceland Volunteer Fire Department is deferring to Kym’s Facebook page.
http://bricelandfire.org/2011/03/briceland-roadwhitmore-grove-update/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/SoHum-Awareness/120703491339259
March 27, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Eric Kirk
No mention of the issue at Humboldt County Public Works. Probably because it’s state parks jurisdiction.
http://co.humboldt.ca.us/pubworks/road-condition.asp
And I can’t find anything at the state parks site. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/
In fact, while Whitmore Grove appears on their map, it does not appear in their list for Humboldt County.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/parkindex/region_info.asp?id=1&tab=1
http://www.parks.ca.gov/parkindex/results.asp
March 27, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Eric Kirk
Kym does have some additional information and uplifting photos.
http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/27/briceland-road-opening-tonight/
March 27, 2011 at 11:10 pm
Not A Native
Ahhh, the crowning slur, an imposter at 5:09, crude and unskilled, who serves up lies that placate and comfort the prejudiced. You’ve got it all, from denial to propaganda. But really, if you’re going to masquerade as me, at least find someone learned to check your spelling. I know thats a tall order since school larnin’ ain’t too respected and is hard to come by in these parts. Anyway, don’t need no book to tell me how to run my cat down the crick.
March 27, 2011 at 11:22 pm
Eric Kirk
NAN – I wasn’t absolutely certain of that, but I suspected as much from the nature of the comment and the fact that the avatar was a different color. Violates my rules and it’s gone.
March 27, 2011 at 11:55 pm
WTF
I guess you have to know some history in the area to know the area or know what to google, you know? http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/
http://www.redwoodhikes.com/Dewitt/Dewitt.html
March 28, 2011 at 7:27 am
suzy blah blah
Eric, Thanks for editing the trolls. I missed reading the comment that was removed @ 5:09 but I noticed that the avatar that the the Nan @ 11:10pm used is also a different design and color.
March 28, 2011 at 7:36 am
Eric Kirk
It’s the standard blue which indicates a non-account posting. Sometimes posters forget to sign in. But you’re right that I should watch that one as well, although it seems unlikely to be an impostor.
To the faux-NAN – the rule is simple – do not impersonate someone else, either anonymous or otherwise. I do allow for a certain give and take between the posters, and when I think it crosses the line I intercede. I’ll be happy to let your posts through when you post your own handle.
March 28, 2011 at 7:59 am
Joe Blow
Hey Eric, If you’ve apparently got rules for posting on your righteous blog, how about posting them on your homepage so everyone can know what they are? That is, before we’re supposed to read your foggy mind . . .
March 30, 2011 at 7:51 am
Anonymous
hey FYI SoHum Awareness was started by Bobbi Wisby and Estelle Fennell and my family would like to thank them for having the insight to get this sight going in this emergency. They were really on it with up to the minute information especially re: what the plan was for the school bus picking up our kids.
April 2, 2011 at 4:35 am
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