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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 29, 2016 - 07:43am PT
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El Dorado County is considering building a new bridge across the S Fork of the American River to bypass the old Mosquito Bridge.
Climbers in Placerville are concerned that as well as destroying the historic old bridge (apparently the 2nd oldest working bridge in CA), the climbing area around it, with a long history of difficult ascents dating to the mid 70s, will be damaged or destroyed.
American White Water Assoc is concerned about a loss of river access and access for cyclists at that point as well.
Both groups are negotiating with the El Dorado County Supervisors to preserve the old bridge and the climbing area, and provide an access point to the area for climbers, white water people, and cyclists.
Your comments would be very helpful in convincing the Supervisors to seriously consider these requests.
You can support this effort by getting online and filling out the form provided by American Whitewater Assoc.:
https://secure.everyaction.com/rVlBLdNSnkGMhllm0V7XxQ2
Thank you................Bob Branscomb
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 29, 2016 - 08:30am PT
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Well, gee I had heard it was built in the late 1800s (originally--the county replaces timbers in it every year)so, ok, I learned something there. Thanx!
It is a cool bridge in any case and it would be a pity if they just dropped it in the drink.
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 30, 2016 - 09:35am PT
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thanks for the bump, Dingus...we want people to be on this...
the crack up the overhanging prow beneath the bridge is Twist and Shout...10c crack that goes from fingers to fist/small ow in 40 feet of total pump...FA by Don Garrett and Ron Vardanega in the mid70s with hexentrics.
lots of pictures and descriptions of the main attractions on Mountain Project: Tahoe region/Hy50 corridor/Mosquito Coast.
Everyone please do the easy to use input form for the El Dorado County Supervisors...this place is hard core and needs to be preserved...thank you!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Nov 30, 2016 - 09:53am PT
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El Dorado sups are hard asses, and will require a big push to move the smallest mountain.
signing in 3.2.1...
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Killer K
Boulder climber
Sacramento, CA
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Nov 30, 2016 - 10:13am PT
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As the road continues past the climbing area it gets really skinny and can be a puckering experience when locals fly down the hill. Not to much room to turn around either.
Such a cool area though. Twist and Shout is great.
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 1, 2016 - 07:19am PT
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Bump this thread up the list so people see it and sign on...........thank you..........Bob
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RonV
Trad climber
Placerville
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Thanks Bob
Here is a copy of a letter I submitted this summer:
8/15/2016
To the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors,
Regarding the Swinging Bridge on Mosquito Road. I congratulate the progress made in the planning for a new bridge thus far.
I would like to respectfully suggest that the Historic Swinging
Bridge be left in place and parking be made available at the closer points.
I started developing rock climbing routes on the crag that forms the north abutment of the Swinging Bridge in 1977 with a small group of locals. The year I graduated from El Dorado High School. These climbs were first described in a guide book published by Bob Branscomb in the early eighties and then in the Cosumnes River Guide (2003) by Will Cottrell. Will coined the name Mosquito Coast for the area we just called Swinging bridge.
The climbs are steep cracks on high grade granite and makes a great training area for climbers preparing for the steep cracks of Yosemite. Several difficult climbs are found here so climbers come to test their strength and technique. To be fair Mosquito Coast/Swinging Bridge sees few climbers, but periodically locals make regular visits.
From a climbers perspective as long as there is parking, we can get to the climbing by walking down the road to the bridge.
As a native Californian I would also plead that Swinging Bridge is a piece of history that deserves consideration for preservation. I have heard a rumor that it might be the 2nd oldest bridge in California.
As a resident of the town of Placeville I would like to point out that access for emergency vehicles to one more bridge is an asset in this age of catastrophic wild fires not a liability.
This is a special place for me and many of my friends, as a climbing area and a great place to take a dip in the cool waters on a hot day. Because currently there is too much traffic on this old narrow road, I think moving traffic onto a new bridge is overdue and could help make the Swinging Bridge a great recreational destination as long as access and parking were preserved.
Sincerely,
Ron Vardanega
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 2, 2016 - 06:35am PT
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Another bump this thread up...please submit the online form and help preserve the Mosquito Bridge...thanx.............Bob Branscomb
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 2, 2016 - 07:54am PT
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You'll see the joint in the beam to the right in Dingus' picture. The entire span is built of short wood sections with that joint in between each one. When a car comes onto the bridge, the joints close up, meshing the individual sections together and forming two long, rigid beams across the length of the bridge: a pretty strong structure. When the load is removed, the beams ease back up to their original sectional configurations.
This is part of the load bearing structure of the bridge, along with the cables and the undercarriage structure.
Many a time I've sat underneath watching it work...it makes an awful noise but it's cool to watch.
Those ol' guys were pretty foxy when they built this one...be a shame to lose it.
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plasticmullet
climber
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Unfortunately, while the bridge is indeed old, it is not "historic" within the context of CEQA and NEPA. Because it is neither a historical resource or historic property (respectively), the County is under no obligation to preserve the bridge. The best and really only hope would be for a private entity/organization to adopt the bridge and maintain it for perpetuity.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Since it seems to still do the job it was designed for why do they want to replace it, one of the
supes have a brother-in-law in the bridge business?
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plasticmullet
climber
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This page appears to have much of the CEQA information.
https://www.edcgov.us/MosquitoBridge/
The bridge is structurally deficient, a rating of 12.5 is very low, something needs to be done to bring the bridge up to current design standards.
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RonV
Trad climber
Placerville
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The community of Mosquito and Swansboro have grown far beyond the capability of this bridge and road. Nothing more than an old tractor cut that has been paved. The bridge is one lane with no room to pass before and after. Cars have to stop 200 yrds on either side to take turns. The bridge is also so narrow that modern SUVs barely fit. In fact cars constantly hit the bridge and damage it requiring a one month shut down for repairs every year. The alternative access to these communities is Rock Creek Rd, which is many miles longer and contains its own dangers.
The bridge is so narrow, local fire and ambulances have to be special ordered to fit. This was not a problem years ago when few people lived there, but now everyone wants to live in the sticks and commute for hours to work.
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chainsaw
Trad climber
CA
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Please contact CRAGS. Thats Climbing Resource Advocates of Greater Sacramento. They still have two or three lawyers on the board. CRAGS is an access fund affiliate and works to preserve climbing access from Auburn to Lovers Leap. No promisses. But perhaps my old board of directors could write a letter to ED Co Supes on this subject. I would endeavor to contact them for you. But Im done with community sevice for the time being. Cost me too much time and money. Not to mention I got tired of others claiming all my accomplishments. Good luck with your plan. I dont know if Will Cotrell is still around. Thats his area. He would be another person to contact. He wrote the guidebook on mosquito and consumnes.
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RonV
Trad climber
Placerville
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Thanks Chainsaw,
I did get the Access Fund involved and they have taken action. Another organization could help. We thought getting the community at large involved was also important which is why Bob posted this on ST. Will is around, but has been flying under the radar these days.
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 2, 2016 - 10:34am PT
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Ron V hit it on the head that there are so many people out there commuting everyday to work that the present bridge and the road is pushed way beyond what it was built for. Going out Rock Creek Road to Chili Bar is even longer and as narrow and windy as Mosquito Road and going out to Georgetown is pretty much a backwoods adventure on dirt roads.
I can understand why the Swansboroians would like a new bridge...it would save money on relining their brakes twice a year at least was well as the nervous wear and tear of driving that old road. The other big consideration that Dingus correctly cited is the fire danger out there...I remember watering down my parents roof when the big Mosquito fire came roaring up a ridge away from their house in the 80s, until they turned the place pink with borade...and we were on the S edge of that monster...it came real close to taking out all of Swansboro and the threat has not diminished over the years...it's nothing but dry brush and parched trees out there in the summer and fall. I can see why they want a fast exit outta there.
It is maybe a stretch to get the El Dorado County Supers to leave the old bridge in place, but it's worth a try.
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chainsaw
Trad climber
CA
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It is excellent to see folks rallying to protect mosquito. Like so many other local crags, it is a good spot to get on rock without driving all day. Part of the art of staying fit for bigger climbs is making the most of little spots like mosquito and consumnes. There may be some precedent for protecting the climbing at least since its part of a watershed which limits how much damage can be done to it. As for the bridge, its a tough call. If it is unsafe or inadequate, the county and state are obliged to act. There may be a middle ground. Our efforts to preseve climbing there may depend on how we are viewed by the supervisors. If climbers are willing to be supportive of their needs, they are more likely to embrace ours. If climbers make their life hard, they will remember it for decades. El Dorado Co controls places like consumnes and spires and leap. Yes those are National Forest and or private. But the County has alot of weight with them. We need to foster a positive relationship with these regulators lest they adopt an adversarial position vs climbing, which could be bad for future climbing area concerns down the road.
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 2, 2016 - 11:25am PT
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Yeah, I'm acquainted with some of the former El Dorado County Supervisors through my Father, who knew all of them through his work (he was District Superintendent for PG&E)and, yeah, you don't mess with those people. Be respectful and polite and try to work with them and you'll get a lot further. Need to keep it civil.
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Cool bridge but I am not sure how the loss of the bridge really affects climbing access. The bridge sounds like an expensive asset to maintain.
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 6, 2016 - 07:17am PT
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A nice view of Ant Line...a stout 11a finger crack.
Yes, the fear about removing the bridge is that the deconstruction process will damage the climbs underneath it, some of the best there like Twist and Shout and Susan Forever.
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2016 - 08:26am PT
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Mr. Mustard...10b lieback/OW...burly. FA 80s by Don Garrett and Dan Bolster.
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 8, 2016 - 11:06am PT
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I put this up in supertopo a while back...gives a good idea of how special the Mosquito Bridge is to us Placerville climbers, and those of us who used to be:
I drive downhill around the last hairpin curve, the last steep narrow drop to the American River. The Doug Firs and Black Oaks are thick down here in the shadowed river coolness. The sunlight flashing on the windshield through the bright green canopy of oak leaves, briefly blinding me driving from dimness to dimness, hoping there isn’t some late to work redneck speeding out of Swansboro on my side of the road.
Bought a place out there because they wanted to get away from it all but still have to work in town an hour or more away on this tight windy narrow road. Have to replace the brakes once a year. They drive fast and they’re real cranky because they bought into it but they aren’t rich enough to relax even one day a week. They have to stay at it all the time and they’re all hemmed in in their wide open ten acres of brush and snakes and they flip you off if you get an inch over the center line or you aren’t fast enough or you’re just distracted by the speckling sun on your windshield: they have no time for speckles.
At the last wide spot above the bridge where you have to wait to let cars go across the one lane suspension bridge, I turn around and park facing uphill next to the creek under a California Bay, so sweet and wafting its perfume like a welcome to the shadowed canyon, cool and wet green moss. It will be here long after the silly intense humans are gone.
People stare at me from cars. What are you up to? Start a fire? Steal my stuff? Rape my wife? What’s your trip walking down a country road? I scoot under the bridge abutment and hop boulders across the river to the cliff. Yeah. The Mosquito Coast of late; the Mosquito Bridge to the original participants. Obscure, steep and difficult. We didn’t think we could climb that hard in those days. Now almost everything has been pegged a grade higher. Pretty crazy. Does something good for your spirits to know you were better than you thought.
Now I come mainly to boulder along the base. Hard enough for my meager talents. Touch this water smoothed foundation of my favorite range: the most beautiful, I think, the most forgiving, like a mother who loves her wayward child just because he wanders, but hers only and forwever. The granite is so polished that it looks like glass, a mirror even. I can touch it and see, there on the other side, a young and wild haired me, an old friend always with me inside. I feel him take my hand as I remember that younger me: faster and bolder, maybe better, certainly much crazier: my old friend. Pity those who have never been crazy: they have never lived. Bukowski, I believe.
I almost bought it here free soloing, at the top of Reluctant Elevation, thirty feet or so off the hard stone deck.
Funny little guy panic running around mad as a hatter in there pulling the fire alarms while I’m there on the stage. Like they say, even if the sound cuts out on you, you have to carry on the show because you just fail if you don’t but if you fail carrying on, well, at least you get applause.
You can’t just stand there and cry because this is not the venue for your special little gifts, which it never is. You are always lacking in some way and you just gotta carry on. You just liked being there and now look where all that spiritual and aesthetic bullshit has put you: right up the big creek. So you better just put it in low gear and grind it out, Bobby boy. You don’t want them to find you lying in your own brains and blood down on that granite patio, quietly running down to the sea.
I had to do something before I burned off so when I finally got tired of the nauseating vista of the bulges over on Octopus’ Gardens to my left, it was like something Bukowski said: nature gets to be an endless bore, and more than anything I was getting bored standing there waiting for something to happen so I decided that if I demonstrated an unusual amount of technique and power I could latch what appeared to be a finger lock at the top of the corner and hoping to rely on adrenaline, haul my ass over the top. This worked to remarkable effect and I was able to wimper my way to behind the road support pillar above, where I cowered for a good fifteen minutes trying to calm myslef.
I’m glad I don’t have to wear those shoes anymore.
So here I am, all these years later. Some people would say it was a waste of time. I should have thought more about making money and a career and all that. I’m looking up at the road at, what I assume, are many examples of that thinking, racing back and forth, worried and angry. Yeah, you’re a big success all right, probably Republican to boot.
Ah, that’s neither here nor there, is it, Bobby? Get back to what you know. These movements the memory of long practice, the polished smears to be pressured just so, the smooth jams and bridges. You just let it happen and before you know it you’re on your ass on your pad, sometimes actually planning it that way. More often than not, you have to try it several times before the memory kicks in as to how hard you have to crank to succeed here, how precise your technique must be on this river polished stone. It comes together after a bit and you’re just a passing shadow across the stone.
Maybe that’s all we are, really, shadows passing across this, a small stone third from the sun. Our days are but pretence, our nights the wish of Ophelia, hoping to dream.
The day is dimming. The traffic is lessening, the time between cars longer and longer, allowing the silence to ease up from down stream, the darker green and granite grays, cool between the sound of cars creaking across the old bridge. The gleam of water washing stone in the twilight. Moments of thought impressed on the breathing quiet, as if they were not your own but some air you feel passing through you. You rise and touch stone again. In the twilight the folds and edges stand alive and you move again in the silence flowing around you, moving across stone.
Why we go
Why we are
The magic of where we go
And how we go there…
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 20, 2016 - 08:57am PT
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I have attached this recent email from Teresa Simsiman concerning the progress of the Mosquito Bridge preservation.
Thanks to all of you who filled out the online form to the Eldorado County Supervisors. We at least are on their radar now, it being hard to ignore 309 responses.
I will try and keep everyone posted on this...in the meantime, those of you who haven't done the online form linked at the beginning of this thread, please do so. Thank you all again!
Hi All,
Trying to catch folks before they leave for the Holidays!
First, I wanted to send out my thanks for all the support on the Coalition comment letter for the DEIR, individual comments & also a shout out to all who spread the AW link for stakeholders to send in comments. As of the last check 309 stakeholders sent in comments through this link making it virtually impossible for El Dorado County to ignore our concerns.
That being said - I have contacted Supervisor Ranalli's assistant, Brenda Bailey, per my request she has set up a meeting for stakeholder engagement. So far she has reserved Wednesday January 11th at 3:30 pm. Supervisor Ranalli, Supervisor Veerkamp, County Counsel, County DOT & County Parks and Recreation will be present. It is open to all stakeholders! It is important that we get as many of the interest groups as possible so I would like at least one representative for BLM, climbers, bikers, fishing, boaters, El Dorado Residents and business owners. It is my hope that at this meeting we will have the substantive engagement and mitigation results that we requested in our DEIR comments. PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR AVAILABILITY ASAP. Information for location will be forthcoming.
As a follow up to legal representation - AW has received a draft engagement letter from Soluri Merserve specifically to review the DEIR for CEQA deficiencies and to provide legal comment to El Dorado County. While the County has shown it's willingness to engage now, we feel it would be prudent to have this legal administrative record should we have to pursue our interests in court. AW will engage Soluri Merserve before the New Year. We will have them do the review and we will shape the corresponding comments depending on the outcome of the meeting on January 11th.
Finally, I am attaching BLM's comments FYI. Jim modeled the BLM comments from the Coalition comments and also added the full weight of BLM authority over the Public Lands that El Dorado County needs for the Bridge Project. (Thank You Jim!)
If anyone has questions/comments feel free to forward them to me - in the meantime I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and a Happy New Year!
Tree
Theresa L. Simsiman
California Stewardship Director
American Whitewater
916-835-1460
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 16, 2017 - 08:44am PT
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Good news about the Mosquito Bridge:
I wanted to share the good news.
The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors pulled a 180 and unanimously agreed to the following:
1) Keep the "Swinging Bridge" once the new Mosquito Road Bridge is completed.
2) Use SMUD money to provide the estimated now $15000/year maintenance. And refine the cost estimates to better reflect the true cost of maintenance of a pedestrian and bicycle only bridge.
3) Give the DCAO and County Parks and Rec permission to pursue and work with a partner organization on the ongoing care of the bridge.
Obviously details need to be hammered out in the coming weeks but I think we all deserve a pat on the back for the collaborative effort that led to this BOS vote.
If you get a chance email Supervisor Ranalli bosfour@edcgov.us and Veerkamp bosthree@edcgov.us - thank them for the vote to keep Mosquito Road Bridge and that you look forward to working with them going forward.
A big thanks to Bill Center and Nate Rangel for speaking before the Board. And the biggest thanks to Violet Jakab who was in this from the beginning, endured often nasty attacks of character from Swansboro neighbors and gave the most eloquent speech that truly resonated with the Board.
More to come!
Theresa Simsiman
American Whitewater
California Stewardship Director
916-835-1460
Thanks to all who put their two bits in to the El Dorado County Supervisors on this. See, they are reasonable people.
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