My first visit (fall 2008 I think) was before much development. The terrain was lush forest and meadows with brush, tall grass, and packets of thickets. There was nothing marking the historic drill holes at that time. The slope off of the lake was steep and slightly dangerous. There was even a rope tied to trees for use as a handrail near the adit. With 50 years of overgrowth, there was no way that the historic work would be visible. While there, Drew was talking with one of the potential contractors, and they ended up identifying what they thought to be the old road back in the day. They ended up eventually using that route down to the lake instead of the one they had tentatively identified. Just saying, hard to find a road 50 years later, much less one drill hole anywhere.
I happened to be back on site a few months later as the first hole in the modern era was being drilled. I shared pictures of all that at that time. They had the road down to the lake (necessary to access the lake to pump water up to the drill) and they had cleared quite a bit of trees and brush.
I happened to be back on the property in the summer of 2012. While coming up off of the lake, the site of that first drill hole was clear to me, despite an amazing amount of overgrowth in just that amount of time, less than four years. It was barely recognizable as the brush was reclaiming the landscape. I believe from memory there was a small wooden stake with a ribbon on it. When they drilled that hole, there was a pool of water right next to the hole from pumping the water, and there was a small puddle from that still visible.
My guess is there is little hope of seeing the old grid with a foot of snow cover (last week, some may have melted, but there is still the possibility of new snow up there as well). But I have not followed all of the details, or exactly what finding the old grid (or one hole?) means. If they have found multiple holes and marked them well, it may not be as much of an issue. But if they are going up there looking for additional historic drill holes, I would think that they need the snow gone.
The drill holes are capped right at ground level, or perhaps even slightly below ground level by a few inches. And they are not marked that well right after drilling. I saw the same thing with a hole drilled at Shining Tree. So with 50 years of growth and cover, it would be hard to find a three inch hole without snow, much less with it. Not sure how much technology can aid in the effort, with lat-long data or modern GPS coordinates. Hope this helps. |
