Rushing water closes a highway in Western Colorado

The small towns of Paonia and Hotchkiss in western Colorado are seeing fewer tourists this spring. Exceptionally high runo blew out a culvert on State Highway 133 about seven miles northeast of Paonia, which then allowed rushing water to carve a gully into the roadbed.

Back in August 2020, the Colorado Department of Transportation evaluated the culvert, found it vulnerable, and put it in a queue for repair, said CDOT spokesperson Elise atcher. But Region 3, encompassing northern Colorado, had 100 culverts needing work. e one near Paonia apparently landed too far down on the list.

In what might be termed an oversight, CDOT issued statements to the media labeling the washout a “sinkhole.” According to the United States Geological Survey, however, sinkholes have no entry or exit. ey occur when subsurface material caves in, usually during a drought.

e rusty culvert on Highway 133 crumpled on April 29, allowing the usually meek Bear Creek to start excavating the roadway. CDOT was alerted and began monitoring the situation. Meanwhile, drivers continued to use the road until the early morning of May 3, when high water pushed the culvert down the hillside. After that, a 10-foot-wide section of highway collapsed.

Over the next three weeks, high water gouged an ever-deeper streambed through the road.

Other road damage in the area was discovered May 24 when fast runo washed out the seasonal Kebler Pass Road. e Forest Service said that a paved section near the resort town of Crested Butte was gone.

According to Gunnison County Sheri Adam Murdie, “Kebler is a

Norton

of us who didn’t appreciate her e orts to worry more about us and how we were doing than how she was personally doing herself.

As the news hit our ZLC23 class, we reached out to one another for comfort and understanding; it’s one of the things that happen when you become Ziglar certi ed and connect with your classmates, you graduate as di erence makers in the personal, professional, and spiritual lives of everyone you have the opportunity to meet. And Jill epitomized that mission and purpose, she changed us all. Even when she was going through life’s challenges herself, she was the rst one to respond to a prayer request, jump into a conversation, or ask a meaningful question during a podcast or webinar.

Jill was a di erence maker.

Writers On The Range

bigger washout than Bear Creek and took the whole road out.” e good news is that Gunnison County Road and Bridge acted quickly to begin repairs, with June 9 as the expected date of completion, said Sheri Murdie. e mile-wide slide was threepronged and closed Highway 133 between Paonia and the town of Carbondale for four months.

CDOT put the road-rebuilding job near Paonia out for an emergency bid in early May, and Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction, with an o ce in Frederick, Colorado, was awarded the contract May 16. at’s when the company began engineering work on what will be a temporary bridge, said CDOT’s atcher.

Physical construction began Tuesday, May 30, almost a full month after the roadway collapsed. atcher said work should be completed well before the end of June.

Judging from comments on social media, many local residents think the state moved far too slowly to x and reopen the highway.

“ ey could have dropped in a new culvert and back lled the roadway with gravel,” said Somerset Water Superintendent John Mlakar. As the Colorado Transportation Department will tell you, however, they have to proceed in a deliberate way.

Townsfolks are saying no one has seen road damage like this since the massive East Muddy Slide of 1986.

Repairs progressed slowly as the landslides — which attracted geologists from all over the world — owed downhill, initially at one foot per hour, then slowing before grinding to a stop 216 days later. e highway’s temporary repair — as the slide area is still considered active — involved lifting the road up 40 feet and dumping the sliding material into Muddy Creek. at xed the problem but reduced the capacity of Paonia Reservoir, which sits downstream of the slide. It was meant to hold 20,950 acre-feet, but the reservoir today holds roughly 16,000 acre-feet.

I write this column as a tribute to Jill, a true ZLC’er class of ‘23. I write this to remind us that we all have something to give to others regardless of how short or long our lives here on earth are. We can smile, be kind, show our passion, know our purpose, and simply care about the person sitting across from us in the moment, because that is who Jill was, a living example to us all.

Is there someone who you need to tell how awesome they are before they are gone? Did this tribute connect with you? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can remember those who left their ngerprints of love and light on our lives, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

Meanwhile, Paonia, with a population of about 1,500, lacks bustle from visitors to wineries, restaurants, organic farms and shops. Julie Bennett, owner of Root and Vine Market and Qutori Wines on Highway 133, said visitors are down 50%.

A problem for nearby Somerset, population 100, has been sparse but fast-moving tra c. Mlakar said that vans transporting coal miners around the washout to the West Elk Mine were ignoring his town’s 25-mile-per-hour limit, tearing by at 50 mph.

Local law enforcement is problematic, due to the resignation of a Gunnison County deputy. Until a replacement arrives, Delta and Pitkin County sheri ’s departments are helping out.

With road damage blocking two roads in Gunnison County and personnel changes to boot, Sheri Murdie admitted, “It’s been a heckuva time.”

Dave Marston is the publisher of Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonpro t dedicated to spurring conversation about the West. He lives in Durango, Colorado.

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Search-and-rescue dogs embody the mail carrier motto: “Neither snow, nor rain nor gloom of night” will keep these trusty canines from their appointed rounds — searching for people or items with single-minded purpose.

For the dogs and their trainers who are part of the Colorado branch of SARDUS — Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States — training is a weekly, if not daily, endeavor to prepare dogs to certify in an area of search and rescue or to keep the dog’s skills sharp after certi cation.

“ e training continues for life,” said Cathy Bryarly, a retired Boulder sheri ’s deputy who trains search-and-rescue dogs. “ is has to be part of your life. It goes way beyond a hobby, or it’s not going to work. It’s a calling.”

SARDUS members agree that it’s a labor a love based in their strong resolve to help others. Not only do the dogs and their handlers train multiple times a week, enlisting family and friends to hide, so the dogs have someone to search for, but handlers also attend seminars on a variety of topics and work together by laying trails for others to follow.

Trainers are always learning, so they can improve their canines’ ability to help in emergency situations.

Search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers are not paid; in fact, handlers spend a lot on the dogs, the equipment, the training and more. e goal is to be certi ed to go on missions, the term for helping law enforcement nd people, bodies or objects needed in an investigation.

Call the people trainers or handlers, but more importantly, they’re dog lovers who want to work as a team with their pets to help others.

The humility of training e trainers say it simply: Training their canines is humbling.

“Our dogs don’t make the mistakes,” Anjie Julseth-Crosby of Morrison said. “We do. ere’s so much to remember. e training is about me trying to understand what (the dogs) are saying. e human fails, not the dog.”

In fact, Julseth-Crosby, who started training her bloodhounds two years ago, has compiled a 19-page document called “ ings I wish I knew two years ago.”

Training involves having a dog follow a scent for several miles, helping the dog return to the SEE DOGS, P17