There are plenty of land/mud slides blocking the road, but below are 2 pics of the most serious. This slide is about 1km north of Rincon Road, and right at the base of a powerline tower. Debris covers the start of a spur road to 2 towers. The nearest tower is in danger of losing one concrete footing, which is within 1m of the edge of the slide. I managed to go up and over the debris cone, passing between the trees above/right of the yucca in foreground.
On my way up the other side of the canyon I passed a backpacker coming down the road. We spooked eachother pretty good, since it was dark and neither of us were using lights (I was conserving battery). I took this as a sign that the highway had been opened again, and thought no more of it for a while. Once I reached the highway I saw no cars parked. Also, I hadn't seen much traffic. When I got to Barley Flats Road, the gate across the highway was locked. Hmmm....
It wasn't cold enough for ice, and the highway was clear, but my puzzlement was squashed presently. I passed 2 excavators parked along the road, then saw a large, vaguely earth-colored mass nearing in my headlight. The road had been buried edge-to-edge for 150mW X 100mH by a huge landslide. A single truck-width 'lane' had been cleared, but the reason for total closure of the highway was no longer a mystery.
In other news...
My wife and I managed to summit Sandstone Peak on Sunday, but we had to bypass the sizeable snowfield below the summit headwall as we had neglected to bring crampons and ice axes. (80% of that statement is a fib, but the part about snow is Dog's Own Truth!)
