Laurel Gulch Bridge Gets Dismantled Before Airlift

Today we returned to the Rincon Fire Station to dismantle much of the new wood footbridge that will shortly be airlifted to Laurel Gulch, leaving intact the main bridge section consisting of two heavy beams and tread, and making a second tightly assembled package out of the hand rails, uprights, curbings, and end pieces.

Surprisingly everything went quickly and smoothly! The only real annoyance was when I stripped a wood screw and had to use a pipe wrench on the screw head to remove it, generally slowing things down a bit. Jeanette, Ben, and myself from the San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders managed to get everything done in five hours.

And hot! Working on the heavy concrete work apron at Rincon gets very hot when the Sun is shining down on the Trailbuilders, the heat not reduced with morning fog or cloud cover, and even stepping off of the concrete a short distance on to the dirt field it was a great deal cooler.

Fortunately we had an ice chest filled with cold drinks and packed with plenty of ice sitting in the shade, and in five hours I drank five containers of cold liquid and still was parched.

So now the plan is to airlift the two bundles to Laurel Gulch, set the bridge itself gently on the footings that we built, and then have a crew of volunteers reassemble the bridge, hopefully in a single day.

And then the project will be finished! The John Seales Bridge at Laurel Gulch will be a totally awesome, totally massive wood bridge on the way to the "Bridge To Nowhere" that hikers will certainly remember and sing and talk about since it'll be so awesome.

When the new bridge is installed and gets fully reassembled, the old bridge (if you can call it that!) will still need to be removed, of course.