19 November 2009

Mitchell River GL road repair project

A few months ago, we discovered some serious damage happening on a road on Mitchell River Game Lands. This road was constructed by a local land swindler/developer who was only interested in getting a road in there, getting the timber out, and then getting people in there in order to buy parcels of property. Needless to say, great care was not taken in this road construction. Since becoming game lands, we just closed out this road to the public and use it for administrative access only. We pretty much knew that this road would create problems eventually. Twenty or more feet of poorly supported and connected culvert pipe was left extending out far above grade.

This created a 25 foot high waterfall, which over time, eroded the ground beneath it until culvert sections were left unsupported. One culvert section broke off and the process started over again at the next section of 20' culvert, until the resulting erosion shown in the photo's below threatened the stability of the road.


We came up with a fix for this area with the advice of an engineer from our Engineering Division who came out one day to observe our work. Our first task was to remove two of the extended culvert sections. The one that had broken off was pulled from the gully with the dozer winch, the next one was excavated with the backhoe.


Next, we needed to convert the very steep banks of the "cut and fill" used to create the road in this section into a better designed drainage area. The easiest way to do this was to shove soil straight down the embankment with the dozer. After careful assesment of the risks involved, Jim strapped into the dozer and shoved down the steep embankment using the mound of soil that he was pushing as his emergency brake. At this grade, the dozer just kind of slides downhill on a one way trip, a path was pushed beforehand as a way to climb back out.


The drainage basin continues to take shape, the spillway is lined, and rip rap is placed...


Some matting is placed on the steeper sections.

We lined most of the waterway with heavy fabric, installed a few log check damns, hand placed several tons of rip rap, and a large pile of brush in the bottom of the basin to help stabilize the soil and slow down any heavy water flows. We then seeded the entire area down with a mixture of grasses and crown vetch.

Finally, we mulch down the site with straw. We completed this project in less than a week.

17 November 2009

Buffalo Cove Game Land - Directions

Buffalo Cove Game Land



The Buffalo Cove Game Land is located mostly in Caldwell County, with a small portion located in western Wilkes County, in northwest North Carolina. There are two entrance roads to access the Buffalo Cove Game Land, Green Rock Road and Cove Branch Road. Both game land entrance roads can be accessed off of Buffalo Cove Road. A third access point via a small parking area and hunter trail provides access to the northern most "Long Ridge" tract. To access the Buffalo Cove Game Land:

Green Rock Road entrance - Travel NC Highway 268 to Buffalo Cove Road. Travel north on Buffalo Cove Road approximately 1.8 miles to the Green Rock access on the left.

36°2'18.10"N 81°31'18.43"W

Cove Branch Road entrance - Travel NC Highway 268 to Buffalo Cove Road. Travel north on Buffalo Cove Road approximately 2 miles to the Cove Branch Road on the right.

36°2'25.03"N 81°31'22.91"W

To access the "Long Ridge" tract via hunter trail, travel NC Highway 268 to Buffalo Cove Road. Travel north on Buffalo Cove Road approximately 6.5 miles to Old Sampson Road on the left. After turning left onto Old Sampson Road, travel approximately 0.4 miles to CC Camp Road on the left. Travel approximately 0.6 miles on the graveled CC Camp Road to the small parking area on the left. The hunter access trail begins across the creek and heads across the ridge to the game land boundary. GPS coordinates for the hunter parking area: 36°6'1.94"N 81°32'16.20"W

For an online interactive map of Buffalo Cove, please visit the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission website @ www.ncwildlife.org or click HERE to link to the interactive maps.

A detailed map of Buffalo Cove in PDF form can be found HERE.

16 November 2009

Mitchell River Game Land - Directions

Mitchell River Game Land



The Mitchell River Game Land is located in Surry County, in northwest North Carolina. There are two entrance roads to access the Mitchell River Game Land. One game land entrance road is located just off of River Road and the other entrance is located on Haystack Road. To access the Mitchell River Game Land:

To access the River Road entrance - Travel Interstate 77 to the Dobson Exit (#93). Head west on Zephyr Road approximately 1.5 miles to Kapps Mill Road on the right. After turning onto Kapps Mill Road, travel 1.8 miles to the end of Kapps Mill Road. At the stop sign, turn right onto River Road. Travel River Road approximately 2 miles to the game land entrance road on the left.
36°25'6.98"N 80°51'27.00"W

To access the Haystack Road parking area - Travel Interstate 77 to the Dobson Exit (#93). Head west on Zephyr Road approximately 1.5 miles to Kapps Mill Road on the right. After turning onto Kapps Mill Road, travel 1.8 miles to the end of Kapps Mill Road. At the stop sign, turn right onto River Road. Travel River Road approximately 3.5 miles to the intersection with Haystack Road. At the stop sign, turn left onto Haystack Road and travel approximately 4.5 miles to the game land entrance on the left.
36°25'7.09"N 80°55'43.14"W

For an online interactive map of Mitchell River, please visit the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission website @ www.ncwildlife.org or click HERE to link to the interactive maps.

A detailed map of Mitchell River in PDF form can be found HERE.

Directions to game lands in District Seven

We are attempting to get detailed directions posted to each of our game lands here in District 7 here on our blog. While this will take us some time, as there are many game lands, please check back for updates and notice that direct links to the directions for each game land can be found on the left-hand side of the page under the "Links" tab. Directions to the Thurmond Chatham game land, in Wilkes County, can be found there now.