Track condition, poor...
Posted on 07/28/2008 7:01:51 AM PDT by CedarDave
I've always taken a contrarian view on the name: My thesis is that it is a mis-spelling and a misinterpretation: It should be Rio De Oso; River of Bear... there are normally a lot more bears along the river than there is noise. ;-)
Well, it could be a combination of both. Noise from those encountering the bears...
Hmmm. You may be right ;-)
Hope everyone down there is okay, we’re praying for you guys up here.
Hubbard (the racetrack owner) has been threatening to close the track and move it elsewhere if the Legislature doesn't give him some special tax breaks and some other stuff.
Just between you and me, I think he is just trying to coerce the Village(s), the County and the State into approving some more of his real estate developments and golf courses that will have a detrimental effect on the community, the infrastructure and the environment.
So, a lot of people were already worried about the local economy.
Personally, I'd like it if the race track was closed for good and about 90% of the people here leave.
Track condition, poor...
I did get out and look around a bit.
Driving through the main parts of town, other than some mud, gravel and other detritus washed across the roads, one would would never know there was anything out of the ordinary.
The tourist traps in midtown are very crowded and busy, especially for a non-holiday Monday, which is usually the quietest day of the week for them.
The ‘main’ bridge over the river at Sudderth and Mechem is just fine. That’s the only really critical bridge for the general operation of the town and for those just passing through.
The Upper Canyon is inaccessible from the first bridge above the ‘roundy round’. That’s going to really hurt the most people, as there is no other way in or out of there other than by foot or by air.
Paradise Canyon (Parasite Gulch as some of us old timers call it) is open, although some of the private drives across Cedar Creek are gone. The main bridge, just before the steep hill up to Sudderth drive is OK, although they have built sort of a coffer dam just above it, and there is some water running across the road
The upper Cedar Creek road is open all the way to the top, a few private drives across the creek are washed out, and there are a few places where the edges of the main road are crumbling, so you have to drive carefully, especially if there is someone driving the other way.
The Gavilan Canyon ‘bridge’ (culverts, actually) is gone... again... That’s the third time in three years. They just finished rebuilding it from last year, a couple of months ago. They spend more and more money on that every time, with worse and worse engineering., and make it lower every time as well. Fortunately, it is only a ‘convenience’ bridge, and no one HAS to use it.
I didn’t go down to the Downs, but talked to one guy that lives down along the river there. He didn’t get flooded, and his bridge is still up, although he is a little worried about it.
All in all, the town is far from devastated, although a lot of people who live right along the river and some of the creeks are hurting. They are going to have to do a lot of cleanup at best, total losses for some of the trailers and some of the real houses and condos.
Other than some of the residential areas all along the river, and some of the motels and inns in the Upper Canyon, (and the Race Track, as Cedar Dave’s photos show) it is pretty much ‘Business as Usual’ and a little inconvenience of not being able to take the back ways to stay off the main roads for 90% of town.
I didn’t take any photos, or explore as much as I’d liked to have done, as my invalid mother just had to come with me, and I couldn’t leave her in the car in order to to do anything interesting.
We went to golf there. BEAUTIFUL mountain course if you're into golf!
No, actually it is pretty much the natural river bed there, despite how it looks on the map. It WAS a little straighter there before the flood in the early ‘60s, but that did some weird things to the river bed from mid town all the way to halfway to Roswell, . ( I think 63, but it might have been ‘61,’62 or possibly, 64).
There was nothing in that area on the north side of the river back then, and nothing in Gavilan Canyon itself, other than a gravel pit, one house, a horse corral and one trailer house. SO, it is really only the bridge engineering that is lousy... They haven’t been ‘terraforming’ there, despite appearances
We’ve been out of town, but I graduated from RHS and was stunned to see this on the news! Unfortunately I was FreeRepublicless!
susie
It’s up Carrizo Canyon Road (we lived on the road when it was originally being constructed. My grandfather cursed them because the dam created issues for the water for his trout fishing lake).
susie
LOL
One reason we won’t retire there (altho my husband was raised in Ruidoso and I lived there for part of HS) is the glut of people. Maybe if they would leave we WOULD come back! Right now we are considering something closer to Lincoln or the Penasco River near Cloudcroft (I may have spelled that wrong).
susie
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.