Santa Clara Divide/San Francis Dam trip

[HanzoSteel]

Has a really good time, sorry I was late! Was nice to meet everyone, we had a nice trip over the peaks of the Santa Clara Divide though it was mostly cloudy and rainy so we couldn't see squat but atleast it wasn't 100 degrees like we've been having. Stopped at one of the Nike missle silo's and and looked around and stopped off at North Fork picnic area by the Ranger station then onward up Mt. Gleason Rd. to Lightning Point campground where we stood in the rain and had a lunch like real men do. Then onward to Bear Trap Cyn Rd. down to Aliso cyn where we were back on streets and headed to San Francis Dam. As we entered San Francisquito Cyn we came aross a rolled vehicle off the side into a ditch where it was lucky the one of the occupants was able to get out and on the the side of the road to be seen by passerbys, there were already a couple people pulled over and naturally we all pulled over. Mark went down to assist but it appeared that one of the people that pulled over was a nurse so the occupant still in the vehicle was getting good attention. Once the paramedics pulled up it was onward to look for the San Fancis which took us a few back and forth through the cyn looking for part of the dam which is left over from the disaster. Finally found it and we all hiked up a hill in the rain to get a gander and point zero of the disaster. Trip ended there and some of us went to dinner and had good eats and drinks the then set off on our ways.


Mike



I didn't get any pics but I know a few people did and should be posting soon?

 

[whitethaiger]

Thanks to Mark for putting another great trip together. It was great to meet everyone.

I just read up a little on the San Francis Dam. Looks like the remnants we were walking on were from the "west wing dike". We were wondering why it was all broken up. The article on wikipedia contains the answer: "Although the west wing dike remained intact, it was used by Los Angeles firemen to gain experience of using explosives on building structures"

The article and video linked to list at least 3 contributing factors for the failure:

1) Unstable ground (landslide) on the west side
2) Water soluble formations on the east side
3) Concrete quality.

It was an interesting stop with some sad history.

 

[crawler#976]

Thanks to everyone that came out!

It was great to see old friends and to meet new ones. With the clouds and rain, it made fro some neat scenery with the winds blowing the clouds across the divide.

The failure at the dam site is impressive to say the least...

And, the Skirt Steak, while not up to Brazillian standards, was very good :sombrero:

Just got back from my Sunday daytrip - 290 miles thru Santa Paula (stopped at the Oil Museum), Hyw 33 thru the mountains of the Los Padres NF, left on Hyw 166 to Santa Maria, then Ventura for Halibut Fish and Chips at Andria's.

I'll post pic's in a few days.

Mark

 

[ntsqd]

Finally found the link on the Dam Failure Analysis that I've been looking for.

http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/st_francis_dam/index.htm
The 117 page pdf takes you through all of it.

 

[crawler#976]

Here's a link to a couple photo's:

http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showpost.php?p=72214&postcount=44

And, again thank's to everyone that came out for the day!

 

[awalter]

Was great seeing old faces & meeting new. Only downside was the less than perfect weather. Tried to post pics here, but couldn't get it to work.

 

[adventureduo]

Hey guys ,missed this trip a while back and think we may be running it this Sunday. Does anyone have the GPS coords for the Silos? or are they easy to find off the trail?