Road Closures and Conditions

[mrfish]

Governmental agencies seem to have developed a policy of keeping people off public lands in recent years. The main way they do this is to limit access by closing roads. By so doing they are not allowing us to visit our land! The two roads I've heard the most complaints about are the road up Surprise Canyon and the road that drops into Trail Canyon. As far as I'm concerned the road in Surprise Canyon wasn't worth much since winching was required to travel up that one, but the road in Trail Canyon was extremely useful since it provided a quick way of getting from one side of the Panamints to the other side. Besides these roads, what other roads do people complain the most about being closed?

[cactuspete]

Death Of Park Employee Chuck Caha
This guy died while working on West Side Road. That's the road that provides access to canyons like Trail, Hanaupah, Johnson, etc. Not only is it extremely unfortunate that someone died like this, but it's also a setback for getting roads in the area repaired and open for public use. Very sad any way you look at it!

Park employee Charles (Chuck) Caha died at Death Valley on Thursday, September 19th. Chuck worked with the roads and trails crew as a heavy equipment operator. He was grading West Side Road, repairing flood damaged areas, and did not return at the end of the day to the maintenance complex. Late on Thursday afternoon, Chuck was found by his coworkers unresponsive on West Side Road.

LINK: http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=14566&urlarea=npsnews

[BallaratBob]

Death Of Park Employee Chuck Caha
This guy died while working on West Side Road. That's the road that provides access to canyons like Trail, Hanaupah, Johnson, etc. Not only is it extremely unfortunate that someone died like this, but it's also a setback for getting roads in the area repaired and open for public use. Very sad any way you look at it!

Park employee Charles (Chuck) Caha died at Death Valley on Thursday, September 19th. Chuck worked with the roads and trails crew as a heavy equipment operator. He was grading West Side Road, repairing flood damaged areas, and did not return at the end of the day to the maintenance complex. Late on Thursday afternoon, Chuck was found by his coworkers unresponsive on West Side Road.

LINK: http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=14566&urlarea=npsnews

Here's the obit on this guy. Not any info on cause of death though.
LINK: http://obits.pvtimes.com/obituaries/pvtimes/obituary.aspx?n=charles-caha&pid=167171030#fbLoggedOut

[MojaveMike]

I suppose this government shutdown won't speed up the road repair process any! What is wrong with the freaking idiots running things in Washington? How did we wind up with such a bunch of losers? Why do we vote for these incompetent fools?

[mrfish]

Gov. declares Inyo County roads 'state of emergency'
Well it's about freaking time!!! This should have been done within five days of the storms! I don't know why it took so long. Apparently this part of the state is not a very high priority. If we were part of Nevada we'd get our share of resources and services, but California more or less ignores our needs!

More than two months after a series of July thunderstorms washed away large swaths of Inyo County's roads, California's governor decided to act. On Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown issued a declaration of emergency in Inyo County and signed a resolution to “secure the federal funding necessary to complete repairs to roadways in Inyo County badly damaged and closed” during the storms that hammered the area between July 22 and July 23.

LINK: http://www.ridgecrestca.com/article/20131002/NEWS/131009914/0/SEARCH

[panamint_patty]

Anyone been through Panamint Valley recently? From what I hear there are only a couple slight detours that hardly slow you down all that much. However, I also hear that the road up to the Charcoal Kilns is still closed. Hopefully that problem gets fixed pretty soon!

[wildrose]

'Fix This Road Or No Sex!' Columbian Women Insist
I wonder if this strategy would work in Inyo County!?!?!?!

[surfsteve]

Speaking of road closures, why is the road to Death Valley still closed? It's kind of nice for bicycling but I still wonder what's going on. Seems like it's been forever. What exactly is it that's keeping everything closed after all this time? Is the road really washed out that bad or is it political?

[pcslim]

Polical? Most likely. I don't think Inyo County really cares much about Panamint Valley. Other than the gold mine there's not much there for them to concern themselves about. The road to the gold mine was taken care of quickly. But the road is blocked off right at the turn off for Ballarat!

[mrfish]

When is the road to the Charcoal Kilns going to get fixed? This is ridiculous. What do we even pay taxes for anyways? The roads should have all been repaired two months ago. This total failure to take care of business is intolerable!