Figuring out where to build an access road

Back in June we started to explore options for building an access road. As I mentioned earlier access to the farm is by horse only. This is because the trail that leads there is too narrow for any vehicle including ATVs. We thought about widening that trail driven a bulldozer through but that’s a larger investment and would kill a few tall trees. So we started to explore other options to avoid that.

This is the view from the place where we had to leave the car and get on horses. You can see how it winds up the hill. On the other side is the farm of one of our neighbors. We thought that we might be able to do something similar as they did with the dirt road you see. Maybe not drive a bulldozer through initially but instead simply get through with the Jeep.

So we drove up the hill and started to look around. In the very center of the picture you can see a light green spot. That’s not our farm but something on the other side of the river that borders the farm. The place where the wooden shed is located is across it - although hidden in this picture. At least we can see the target :-) Promising!

Further up we go. Here we’ve been thinking that maybe around that corner you can see after the left turn it may level off and there might be a way to find a path down on the other side. It would have been so easy.

It wasn’t that easy at all. We got to the top of the hill just to find it levels off but it is more a range with steep slopes on both sides. The dirt road travels on top of it for some distance and turns right away from the path we had hoped to get on.

At the end of a long right curve we finally stopped to look around. This is a good opportunity to introduce you to Luis. He is the guy in the picture. Luis is going to be the foreman on the farm once we finally get it established.

This is what Luis was looking at. Up there, in the middle of the picture, you can see some pasture of the farm. We’ve been up there and looked at it from the other side. That’s the place above 400m in altitude. At least we can see a part of the farm. ;-)

Now let’s look to the left. Somewhere behind that ridge lies the farm. The slope on the other side of the ridge belongs to the neighbor in front of the other neighbor’s farm that borders ours. But then there is a lot of up and down. Sure a bulldozer can move a lot of dirt and fill gaps and all that. But it’s going to be very expensive. Not exactly what we’ve hoped for.

Straight ahead and down it doesn’t look better either. It’s steep and too narrow to carve turns for a road. And then further down where you can see the tree line this is certainly hide a creek. Wherever you can see trees lined up like that there is water. And where there is water you can find rocks and erosion. Not the best idea to build a road through.

So what else is there. Let’s look to the right.

Lot of forest has been cleared to make room for pasture. There is the dirt road in the center of the picture. This is the part that leads to a place called Playita.

In the end we came to the conclusion that we can’t build a road to the farm from here. It’s going to be too difficult and in the end far too expensive. We don’t want to get into the road building business and build some 15 km of road. One needs to take into account that at first it would be a dirt road but then after a while it will have to be improved and that means putting at least gravel onto it. That will get very expensive the longer the road is. So we have to find another way.

07 Sep 2009

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