Crestline Soaring Society

This storm brought what was predicted and more. We got 2 - 3 feet at my house 'Lake Gregory'. Throw in a few power outages, and rock slides and YeeeeHa what a week. I think it's time to put all this behind us and go flying!

The road to the LZ is not for the meek at the moment. That trip to buy a skip loader pays off again, Rob & Gene.

UPDATE: I rode with a USFS rep, the full length of Marshall road from bottom front, up past the 750 and past Marshall to Hwy 18. There is some passable but fairly eroded areas, 1 rock slide that could be fixed by hand if need be but also one slide on the (section hwy 18 to Marshall) that is very narrow and the fix will need 1 hour with gracie and some hand work to fix a clogged drain. The gate at the lower front is broken and I showed the rep how 4wd and quads can drive up from the old nudist camp to bypass the gate should they repair and lock that broken gate. All in all the road is safe and passable as soon as the snow melts. The head ranger was on the phone with us as we completed the trip. Ranger wants to see at least a forecast for upcoming rain including snow level, before giving the go-ahead to open. The snow is so thick between regionals and 18 that we can't get through without a high clearance 4wd vehicle and possibly chains. For Marshall, we need to wait a couple days or more at least anyway even if they opened the road tomorrow. I have volunteered the local flying community to provide the labor to replace the broken gate (surprise!) and also to install another gate above the 750 so that if there is a washout between 750 and regionals then they are able to leave open access to the 750 with that locked gate above it, which would keep the public safe from the washout area and to take away the incentive for illegal access via nudist camp trail. Win-win! The plan right now is to let tomorrows rain happen, see if the snow problem is still there and then to lobby the ranger to open the road. Additionally we want to get the ball rolling on us getting the gate repair and second gate installation. So have patience and watch the CSS website for any work party plans.

Marshall road is supposed to be open by noon today (Friday Jan 29th). There is still some snow on the road so even though it's open, if you have 2wd please consider using Crestline instead.