Driving to Osier from Chama

[Paul Davenport]

The MOW crew occasionally has to drive to Osier from Chama to do work along the tracks and I'm wondering whether the forest roads that seemingly come in from the west, connecting from the Los Pinos area (at least according to a Mapquest request for directions from Chama to Osier) are worth considering.
It looks like it might save driving miles, but would be it be too rough to make it worthwhile timewise without seriously risking vehicle damage?
We usually drive the Friends' truck or a 4x4, but we a) don't want to wreck either and b) don't want to spend half the day crawling along when the alternative is getting work done.
My Carson and Rio Grande national forest maps aren't much help but between them and Mapquest, it looks like a couple of the forest roads coming in from Los Pinos would be Forest Road 74 (Carson) and Forest Road 103 (Rio Grande).
The comparison would be with FR103 coming in from the east after dropping off CO 17 near Mogote Campground, which is also how we've gotten to Sublette and Big Horn.
Anybody have intel to share?
Paul

[Steve Forney]

Paul, my wife and I drove from Lamanga Pass - Spruce Hollow turn off - on into Osier. It was slow, rough, and dusty. And with unmarked side roads. Anything with sufficient clearance would have no problem. But you would not save any time, and likely actually take longer than going in the usual route via FR103. Nice drive, though, if you have the time.

[Paul Davenport]

Thanks. That's helpful.

[John Cole]

Hi Paul, can your team hop a ride to where your going on the fire patrol speeder?

[Paul Davenport]

John,
We have done that and doing that is a big help in reaching remote sites without feasible driving access. But sometimes there isn't a fire control speeder following the train on particular stretches of the line _ fire conditions not so bad some places? _ or there are other reasons we can't get aboard. On the other hand, there have been welcomed times when the operator has lined up a speeder to get us to a particular site, like to the tunnels, if we drive in to Sublette, for instance. In some of those cases, we try to make the most of the help we're provided by dropping a couple of us off at one location that needs work while others head further in. Similar situations have applied with a couple tree/brush crews that I've worked.
Paul

[John Cole]

When we were spotting telegraph poles in the swamp between the #1 switch and the Chama River, Mike went out ahead of the train before it left pulling our speeder trailer loaded with 5 poles and stopped for us to spot them one at a time along the ROW. BIG HELP!!!

[John Cole]

Hi Paul, did you watch the interview #5 about the new R/R management working with the Friends getting our people and equipment spotted along the ROW? Sounds like we should have great cooperation.

[Paul Davenport]

John,
I've been watching the videos of the interview with John Kistler as they're posted but hadn't yet seen the one about work by the Friends, so thanks for pointing it out. I agree that his remarks about welcoming and accommodating work by Friends crews are most encouraging: "I'm safety wired to the yes position." And since he spoke of several types of work, I think his declaration applies to work both in the yards and along the line.
Paul

[John Cole]

Perhaps we can have another Kick Ass All HANDS ON DECK brush clearing like in session B in 2004. Nan Clark got about 120 Friends members out to a before season brush clearing. Unfortunately we were not allowed to put one of the chippers on top of one of the Friends speeder trailers and follow the cutting crews down the ROW. Instead we had to load (and hand push in some cases) trailer loads of brush back down the ROW to the Chama yard when we could have done it on site. Les Clark who was running one of the chippers told me that an entire speeder trailer of brush could be reduced to about a 5 gallon bucket of wood chips in less time than it took to unload the trailer. If I recall they were bringing in a total of 5 work trains worth of cut brush and wood cleared along the line.

With the new management team's cooperation, next time it will be even more successful.