Cool thread mate! Jealous of the working environment. Something tells me you were listening to "Fortunate son" when flying over the LZ....
Track work has recommenced for summer. Completed track held up real well over winter and looks great. Work has also started on the CP to Porcupine Rocks track, begins 100m down from turnoff into CP and heads NE across the flats (Stillwell) not included. Pushing to finish both before winter 21. Snowgums got smashed by heavy snow this winter
Did the track really need to be routed such that it was needed to lop large branches off the gums? Bloody ugly!
That looks like a twisting stem failure from wind or snow loading. Walkway would have arched under beautiful old gum, unfortunately they have had to cut it off after falling on walkway. Finishing cuts on failed stem can be done in such a way they are much more 'naturalised' & will quickly blend into an 'age' feature on tree. That type of cut requires significantly more skill & time than standard pruning cuts though & is unlikely a track crew would be carrying the ideal saw for that job.
As K9 said, lots of old trees down from heavy wet snow. No beer, just rocks, gravel and steel. Squirrel pilot would dropeach bag of rock on a dime, trees no problemo, Huey (2 bags) not so accurate. Each bag contains around 700kgs, some only contain 3 rocks. Cracking on with the rock laying
Might not get too far, Xmas break and all. Pssst a sneaky down ours would go unnoticed over the break.
Our rock crew are now walking in from Guthega. Never seen so many peeps walking the Illawong track, some over geared, some undergeared (flipflops, singlets) - hailed mid avo. Metal work near completion (apart from bridge over Spencer's and one set of stairs) and will move over to Stage 3 CP to Porcupine. Track looking smick with all the rock steps and finished rock/metal. Wildtracks crew doing some quality rock steps. Creative lines crew laying some nice track out of CP by all reports. We'll be laying rock and gravel for a while, finish down to Spencer's and go back and do the gravel bits, then over to Stage 3.
Mizzle and showers kept the numbers down today. Sparks have changed the specs so less gravel and more aggregate between stepping stones on this section. Personally I think it's not as nice as previous work.
Working thru groves of old snow gums above the Snowy/Spencer's junction, bloody awesome, great campsites. Not that I'm aware, shame eh. All metalwork apart from the 60m 600k bridge over Spencer's is complete and the welders have moved to Stage 3. 3 rock crews now working on Stage 2 and another on Stage 3. Was wondering what critter was making circular divits in the dirt covering the completed rock sections, pigs?deer?wombats?smaller furries? - na, busted a spotted green grasshopper digging one, she wasn't happy being watched and sheepishly moved into the nearby greenery. Wild flowers are taking turns to bloom. Water temps in the Snowy are very swimmable.
Grasshopper was probably wondering what crittrr is leaving mysterious box patterns/messages beside his mating abodes
Caught sight of the crew working last week at CP. Used part of the path that is being built across Spencers Creek near Wrights Creek when out thrashing the water with the fly fishing gear. Picture below of track build on NW side of Guthries Ridge (opposite Little Twynam Creek?). Zoom in middle right Taken from CP at top of old J Bar lift.
