The bridge looked great 7 years ago but bad design and water led to rot.
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November 2017
Spring Canyon has taken up a lot of my time over the last few years - blogged it several times and comment often. Briefly, it’s a 100 acres surrounding this pond built back in the 60s by the Greensboro Baptist Church. On the slopes surrounding are seepage streams and above the slopes is Longleaf Pine slowly being restored by hand-clearing and periodic burns. Native plants abound, some rare or endemic. The whole place is lovingly cared for by my friend Ms. Helen and her husband Tom.
So 7 years ago Helen had the footbridge built to replace the previous bridge that replaced the original bridge. I think, but I do know more about it now after dismantling.
Here’s the west side of the bridge which is about 3 feet wide. There’s a soft spot at the middle left that I patched a year ago.
and the east side showing the step-up in the middle which gave a better view and allowed boats to pass under. The stairs were always too steep and steps too narrow. That patch in the middle is where Tom almost fell thru. At this point I have removed most the top rail and the fencing along the sides.
This is taken on the 2nd or 3rd workday — all the planks are up and exposing the original pilings that were reused to hold the new 4x4s in place. Where it rotted mostly was at the waterline by the old pilings and RR-crossties. Some of those were infested with big red ants.
I used the resident canoe to ferry the wood from the eastside back to the westside staging area. I also got in the canoe and paddled from post to post to cut off the 2x6 runners with a battery saw-saw.
Taking down the stairs took a day or so. I was thankful I could reuse the solid patch-boards from the eastside as a temp crossing below the stairs. Didn’t trust nothing I stepped on and spent much time securing each work area.
Closeup showing the old RR-ties and some of the vegetation that takes root. I dropped my favorite screwdriver (over 40 y/o) near the shore in 5 feet of water but there was a foot of muck. I was able to get it out using my fav 40 y/o rake. I also dropped my crowbar but by then I had a big 6” round magnet (from 40 y/o speakers) to locate it.
and as the footbridge is today. Most the remainsing 4x4s will be pulled out, a few solid ones will hold Woodduck boxes. The short pier will remain for now unless it gets unsafe. Handy to have it there for fishing or getting in and out of boats. Sure was a bright sunny day...
OK, I could always write more, and spend a few days doing that but we need a bucket for today so here it goes. See ya in the comments…
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