Packing Concrete in the Rockies with Mules

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  • January 4, 2011 at 1:25 am #42273
    Carl Russell
    Moderator

    Here is a picture of my friend Tim Resch (Elk Guide) with a string of 18 mules hauling 2000 pounds of concrete up to Chasam Lake cabin.

    Carl

    167411_1769007023163_1178822460_32172299_3658039_n.jpg

    January 4, 2011 at 4:19 am #64514
    lancek
    Participant

    He missed out that so pose too be a 20 mule train ! Eather way great pick is he building a cabin or are they doing some sort of rehab for the government?

    January 4, 2011 at 1:30 pm #64501
    Carl Russell
    Moderator

    Contract work for USFS.

    January 4, 2011 at 5:17 pm #64506
    near horse
    Participant

    It sure is amazing what those mules will haul – I imagine you’ve seen the video (was on RH television) of the mules w/ snowshoes carrying the US mail (in the Sierra Mtns of N. Cal). That same video even had pics of one carrying a casket and another, an engine block. 😮

    Nice pic Carl –

    January 4, 2011 at 8:00 pm #64519
    jac
    Participant

    A great picture sure enough Carl. I remember reading about how the mule trains that were hauling dynamite in rocky areas were fitted with bronze shoes.. Seems some archeologist had found a bronze shoe at a dig and wondered if it could be off an emperors horse mabey.. burst his bubble when he was told the real reason ..
    John

    January 4, 2011 at 9:46 pm #64512
    Jim Garvin
    Participant

    I’d be concerned that the concrete would set up before the mules were able to deliver it….must have used some slow-setting admixtures to it!!

    Here are a couple of pictures I took back in 2009, in Death Valley, of the 20-mule team Borax operations. How many people here remember watching “Death Valley Days”? Be careful….you’re dating yourselves!!

    January 4, 2011 at 10:21 pm #64510
    CharlyBonifaz
    Member

    with bronze shoes

    :confused: no sparks? no sparks because dynamite leaks nitroglycerin in rainspells, collecting in puddles + being extremely unstable??

    January 5, 2011 at 1:00 am #64502
    Carl Russell
    Moderator
    Jim Garvin;23376 wrote:
    I’d be concerned that the concrete would set up before the mules were able to deliver it….must have used some slow-setting admixtures to it!! ….

    Hauling dry:D

    Carl

    January 5, 2011 at 3:20 am #64516
    mitchmaine
    Participant

    @Jim Garvin 23376 wrote:

    I’d be concerned that the concrete would set up before the mules were able to deliver it….must have used some slow-setting admixtures to it!!

    Here are a couple of pictures I took back in 2009, in Death Valley, of the 20-mule team Borax operations. How many people here remember watching “Death Valley Days”? Be careful….you’re dating yourselves!!

    my mom sent away some soapbox tops and got me a plastic model of the twenty mule team. it sat on the bookshelf by my bed till i left home. the animals all had names as well as the driver, boraxo bill, who rode one of the wheelers. the wheel team were horses and 18 mules.
    i believed everything the old ranger told me.

    mitch

    January 5, 2011 at 7:08 am #64507
    near horse
    Participant

    They still mine borax just west of Death Valley near a place called Trona -might as well be Death Valley. DV is someplace you’ve got to see to believe – Devil’s Golf Course, Dante’s Palette, old beehive charcoal kilns (and some feral burros) …. pretty neat.

    January 5, 2011 at 1:12 pm #64520
    jac
    Participant

    Charlie it may have been gunpowder:o was a long time ago I read it but it was definaitly to do with sparks and big bangs:D..
    John

    January 5, 2011 at 3:20 pm #64521
    XLmules
    Participant

    Carl, great pictures of my favorite hybrid! Looks like everything went pretty smoothly:-)

    January 5, 2011 at 5:24 pm #64508
    near horse
    Participant

    Just a thought and not to “split hairs” but do you think they were hauling concrete or actually just Portland cement? Seems like there’s plenty of aggregate around there that there should be no reason to carry it as a premix. Does that make sense? Still just as heavy.

    January 5, 2011 at 8:43 pm #64503
    Carl Russell
    Moderator
    near horse;23423 wrote:
    Just a thought and not to “split hairs” but do you think they were hauling concrete or actually just Portland cement? Seems like there’s plenty of aggregate around there that there should be no reason to carry it as a premix. Does that make sense? Still just as heavy.

    I’m not sure….. he doesn’t take on the projects, just contracts with USFS to pack materials in.

    Carl

    January 5, 2011 at 8:50 pm #64515
    Andy Carson
    Moderator

    My grandpa worked with his dad to build fire lookouts in the wilderness of central Idaho many years ago. They hauled everything back and forth on mules too. I imagine it looked alot like this, although they only had four mules in thier train. I always thought that sounded like a fun project. I imagine it really gives you an opportunity to be resourceful when the trip to town is so long. 🙂

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