Sinking Creek 4WD Association

Ary, John, Brett, and I hit up Bobcat today to cleanup some of the smaller stuff along the trail (bottles and cans, mufflers, tires, etc). I started to get into the trash pile next to the coal hill, but realized that that spot is going to be more of a job for a backhoe and dump truck and a large group of people. It's really gotten to be huge. We prolly packed out about ten bags of small items, a couple tires, a couple mufflers, shocks, and other small car parts.

The fire circle is a mess. There are hundreds of bottles and cans in plain view, and prolly hundreds more under the first layer of leaves. The stretch between the big mudhole and the fire circle is also pretty bad. Brett's truck was already full by the time we got there so we left that area for another weekend. It's going to take a lot of people to get that area cleaned up, and I'm going to see if I can get the freeride bike club to help us since we go up there to bike a lot as well.

We found what appears to be a newly abandoned vehicle- a Subaru that was driven into a tree and then pushed off the side of the trail. Luckily it got hung up on a stump before it could go further down the hill. It is located right next to where the Scout frame is currently sitting. I will be calling the Blacksburg ranger station tomorrow to talk to them about both of those vehicles. I will also find out what we need to do to formally "adopt" the fire road over there.

The pop-up trailer halfway through the trail has collapsed, so that may be something that can stand to be hauled out in the future.

I guess we should decide just how far we can/want to take this cleanup project. I'd hate to leave those abandoned vehicles out there though.

Good stuff guys. Thanks for heading out and doing that. Mike Stallings and I are planning to head out next weekend, so hopefully we can keep this up. Eric, thanks for checking with the Ranger Station and keep us in the loop with that.

i can be out there next weekend with my truck, but i can only do 2 wheel drive right now so i'll have to stay in the coal hill and fire circle area. if it doesn't rain i can go down and help yank the scout and the subaru out.

Adam,
Ill be out there with the Jeep and an empty back area next weekend unless something comes up.

Leach

I'll be around next weekend to help clean up.

Let me know what you can find out about the vehicles. If they want us to get them out of there, we can pull them out to the fire ring and let them handle it from there if need be.

Great work guys, hopefully we can be as sucessful next weekend.

the subaru


where it started


just a few of the things we got, ended up with about 12 bags of stuff, a few tires, mufflers, and all the other crap eric alreday mentioned

________
Mercedes-Benz M104 engine history

ill can go up next weekend with my truck. just let me know what time/where to meet.

lets take the subaru out and have the big guys of the club drive over it before we get rid of it

getting rid of it will be the hard part (assuming we can get a trailer- i have a connection i will try this week). I think leach is actually going to contact the rangers and see what they think about us removing the vehicles. maybe they can help us dispose of them, or point us in the right direction.

if we can't find anywhere else and we get a trailer we can take it to hedge metal in salem. i'd have no problem taking it there. i've got to go to roanoke all the time anyway

i have a trailer. i almost bet on of the local junk yard would take it. ill call one of my dads friends who owns one an ask him if he would take it.

Eric and I (check out the grammer biatches) went to the Ranger Station today and talked with them about removing the abonded vehicles and if any part of that trail is open for club adoption etc. They were glad to see people in there wanting to clean up the trail and were enthusiastic about helping us clean it/remove vehicles. The people we talked to however were not sure on policy and will have someone that does contact me or Eric and we might go show them the trail and the vehicles so they can help us in all possible ways. Will keep yall updated on that.

Steve

I was thinking something along the lines of us getting the cars to the fire ring, and then they could handle it from there. That would probably be the easiest way to do it unless someone really wants to take the cars to the scrap yard or something.

Mike, that is also what she mentioned. That if we show them the vehicles/or depending on what land its on etc. that they or the police will have them moved. When she emails me back I will post what she says. We might need to show them the vehicles but once they find them they should be able to remove them themselves.

Leach