The Building of a Box Culvert

Last weekend Dad and I accompanied Ernie, Scott and Jeff up into the woods to pack in the supplies and construct a box culvert to provide a temporary creek crossing along the new trail being built for the Mule Skinner's Memorial Day Poke Ride.

Here, we are loading up Ernies miles with the supplies we needed to back in. In this photos, Cody is being loaded with the lumber.


Here, I provide a nice view of Coday all loaded up and ready to go


Whisky gets to pack in some of the additional supplies we need, chainsaw, buckets, lunch etc.


Chex waits patiently while the mules get all packed up.


The mules are all loaded up, we head out to a hillside to grab some rock


This is the area before we did any improvements. It doesn't look like much but we worry that after 500 horses cross, it'll be a muddy mess.


Scott was the lucky nail straightener guy. Remember, RECYCLE!


While Ernie works on preparing the creek bed, Scott and Jeff start assembling the box


Putting the final touches on the box


The box is set over the creek flow and tamped down into place


The creek flow is adjusted just a little more to make sure it flows through the box


Some large branches are placed on each side of the box to help stabelize it


Ernie has these handy paniers that open from the bottom, this made it really easy to unload the gravel right over the culvert


Ernie tromps around on the fished product to make sure it is solid


Finally we are finished with our project and head back to the trailers