You Won't Believe What Was Stuck Inside This Culvert!

Añadido: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Hey everyone, it is now the last week of April. It's going to be May in a couple days.

[00:00:08]This is the worst I have ever seen this flooded. I was out here about two weeks ago making that video and I thought the beavers were no longer here.

[00:00:23]You can see slits in their dams made by the logging company and there was no clear evidence that they were there. So now we need to drain this. We need to walk around the swamp and investigate where they could be living.

[00:00:40]There was a few beavers relocated from here right before the winter and I thought that was the end of it. Clearly not.

[00:00:48]We have a blocked culvert here that we have to get back open and we'll be completely left alone today, which is awesome.

[00:00:58]I had to open the combination lock at the end of this road.

[00:01:04]So, that's awesome.

[00:01:06]I don't have to be worried about being bothered by anyone. No one's going to walk in here this far out. Look at that.

[00:01:12]Absolutely zero water.

[00:01:15]That'll make some great before and after pictures.

[00:01:19]Nice.

[00:01:21]They really got that water tight.

[00:01:23]There's almost nothing coming through it. But that pipe's completely underwater on the other side, so we should get a pretty good blast.

[00:01:31]But then we back up a bit. I have never seen it in the road in this spot. Down here is a much bigger cover that's also blocked. I can tell by the water levels. I have seen it in the edge of this road before because it backs up and then it comes down to the black culvert down there.

[00:01:54]So, this is star stuff. We pulled out a few big pieces just two weeks ago.

[00:01:58]And yeah, there's beavers here for the 2026 season.

[00:02:06]Wow. Yeah, this this is actually going to be a super easy one to get out. They didn't use much big material. And you see right here, beavers are actively walking through here, using this as a passage.

[00:02:17]So that's great.

[00:02:19]A view from the entrance.

[00:02:23]So we can put that afterwards.

[00:02:26]A view from the inside.

[00:02:29]This will make great before and afters.

[00:02:31]I'm very confident in today.

[00:02:34]Okay, now we need to go look at the other side before we get the rake and big high boots on.

[00:02:43]Super duper dry.

[00:02:46]Wow.

[00:02:48]Look at that. Almost nothing flowing.

[00:02:51]This is going to be great.

[00:02:53]We got our magnetic tripods.

[00:02:57]Let me get on down there.

[00:03:01]Look at that. There is really nothing flowing out of there.

[00:03:08]I think this is going to be an easy one.

[00:03:10]When we were here a couple weeks ago, that blockage had to have been 10 ft thick. Today, it's maybe 4T thick.

[00:03:23]Check that out. This is going to be easy. This is going to be awesome. I think we'll be able to get this thing flowing heavily in a matter of 10 minutes of action.

[00:03:35]So sometimes this is even flooded where I'm walking. They do have a substantive beaver dam down there, but it hasn't been being maintained. And even when it was, it wasn't very watertight unless they were getting a ton of rain because the beavers would always plug this up for a secondary pond while where they actually lived would be drying up because they just didn't understand they were restricting their own water. But I no longer think they're living down there.

[00:04:03]We will take a walk down there later in the end of the video. If you want to stick around for that, we'll go down there.

[00:04:09]But we need to investigate upstream. They're not suspected to be living at this pond, but we will take a walk back there. We haven't done that in years.

[00:04:21]We got to figure this out because there was no evidence two weeks ago. What I mean by evidence is fresh chewed trees still dripping because they were just cut down. We didn't see anything like that. Not at all.

[00:04:35]So, we have no idea where the lodge is, but if we find the lodge, we're going to tag that lodge so the DNR can put traps right next to it.

[00:04:46]So, what a lot of people don't realize is by removing these dams, keeping this water low, we're buying the beaver's time. In this area, the DNR tells me they don't start relocating until June.

[00:04:58]It's another four or five weeks away now at this point. If we can keep the water levels low enough where it doesn't flush out these roads, logging company's not going to come out here and kill them off. So, if we can keep these water levels low for another month, I think we can get them actually relocated.

[00:05:18]All right, let's gear up.

[00:05:21]All right, everyone. We're all geared up. Got the headlamp. I got the waterproof diving lamp. Camera number two, and the rake.

[00:05:29]Let's head on over. Last time we're out here, I had camera number two inside there with me facing the other direction. So, today we're going to try to give you a whole different view.

[00:05:40]We're going to put camera number two out here facing the pipe up on that pile of debris.

[00:05:47]This is probably our last time at this culvert without mosquitoes.

[00:05:51]We haven't had many deep freezes in the past couple weeks. We just have mild frost the past couple of weeks up here in northern Maine. So, mosquitoes are going to be coming out. I've already seen mosquito larae squirming around in the puddles, which means they can literally come out now anytime.

[00:06:11]I have only been bit by one so far this year, and it was at home.

[00:06:17]Alrighty, everyone. Camera number two has a really good view and we have that recording in 4K so we can zoom into it hopefully without it pixelizing up too much.

[00:06:33]All righty, we're going to come on in here. We got our diving lamp which is submersible down to 30 yards.

[00:06:42]Of course, we'll never go down that far, but we can get it wet. All right. It's dark in here. Since we're working deeper in the pipe this time, let's switch you up and around like that.

[00:06:56]All righty.

[00:06:59]Make you off to the side a little bit so there's room to put camera number two.

[00:07:04]Okay.

[00:07:06]All righty. We can also put a light on you. Okay. There. Now we got Oh, we got red. We got blue. We got police. We don't need any of that.

[00:07:20]Okay. Just a nice big bright light in here. And I got my headlamp, too, so I can see without having a horrible shadow in front of me. All right, let's get this going.

[00:07:35]I try to take it apart as much as possible first.

[00:07:40]That way I'm not flooding my area and I can actually sit in here because it's very cramped in here.

[00:07:47]I get cramped in these anyways.

[00:07:52]All right.

[00:07:54]Should be pretty easy. Once we get flow going, it'll push all this pile of debris out of here.

[00:08:01]We're just going to take it easy.

[00:08:04]Take it nice and easy.

[00:08:14]It's a good workout, especially when you get deeper in here. A lot of these sticks will be underneath the pile of mud.

[00:08:23]It's always a good workout.

[00:08:27]It's been a slower spring thaw, just like last year. Not too much going on.

[00:08:33]We have honestly not found a single debris blockage by storm surge. This is beaver related.

[00:08:41]This is not flood water related at all.

[00:08:44]We barely had any flooding this year, just like last year. It's been 3 or 4 years now since we had those videos where you couldn't even get around out here until June because all the roads are washed out and they can't fix it until mud season because they can't drive heavy trucks. They can't drive heavy equipment like right now. That's why these roads are gated because the heavy trucks will get stuck.

[00:09:15]But even though this is even though this is not my boss's property, it's still a shared right of way. So, he has the combination, which is nice cuz I'm not going to hike up here with all this stuff like 12 miles in.

[00:09:42]All right, get sore.

[00:09:59]The water is almost to the top of the dam. So, it's much better than last time. Last time, this dam was dry. It was dusty in here.

[00:10:09]Visibility was going down as I was working. I really thought the beavers were gone. This was abandoned, this dam.

[00:10:16]So, we need to really investigate where they could be living cuz we did not come across it last time.

[00:10:39]See all this stuff I'm throwing here?

[00:10:42]When I start releasing the mud, it'll pack against it and force it out here.

[00:11:33]I don't know if you can hear that, but it's windy out there.

[00:11:37]Got some good wind going.

[00:12:37]This really helps with your aim. You got to get it high enough to get it on the pile, but low enough to not hit the lights.

[00:12:54]Time for the arm workout.

[00:12:57]They're tougher to pull out the further in we get, but we're still trying to keep it watertight so I don't flood my sitting area.

[00:13:08]These smaller 4ft pipes are back breakers when you have to be in here crouched. So, it's really nice to sit in here without getting flooded.

[00:13:20]But I'm sure I gotta wash my pants or change my pants tonight because we are sitting on rust.

[00:15:22]Oh man.

[00:16:10]All right, let's try to get water in here now.

[00:16:15]Heat. Heat.

[00:16:39]Heat. Heat.

[00:17:17]Heat. Heat.

[00:17:27]Heat.

[00:17:44]Heat.

[00:18:02]Heat.

[00:18:04]Heat.

[00:18:14]Heat.

[00:18:27]Heat.

[00:18:52]Oh, it's not moving today. Oh.

[00:18:57]Oh, come on.

[00:19:09]release some water over the top. So maybe that'll start floating so we can push.

[00:19:20]It's not budging today.

[00:19:37]Oh, come on.

[00:20:08]It's stuck Okay.

[00:20:33]Okay. I guess I got to come in from the other side now. Heat.

[00:20:53]Heat.

[00:21:01]Heat.

[00:21:13]Heat.

[00:21:33]Bever.

[00:22:02]Let's keep it moving.

[00:22:04]There we go.

[00:22:06]Nice. Come on out.

[00:22:30]Heat.

[00:22:42]Heat.

[00:22:51]Heat.

[00:23:13]Heat.

[00:23:27]Heat.

[00:23:29]Heat.

[00:23:50]Heat up here.

[00:24:09]All right, other direction again.

[00:24:15]This is way harder than it was the other week for some reason.

[00:24:32]Heat up here.

[00:24:57]Heat up here.

[00:25:34]Heat up here.

[00:25:49]Heat.

[00:26:05]Heat.

[00:26:23]Heat. Heat.

[00:26:54]All right, we are 100% open now.

[00:27:00]Oh, wow. Look at that flow.

[00:27:05]That was tougher than last week.

[00:27:10]I'm going to feel that later. Okay, we got it going good.

[00:27:17]That takes so much quick energy out of me.

[00:27:22]Until I regain myself, I'll be stumbling for a few minutes.

[00:27:30]We got it clear.

[00:27:33]Look at it go. Is it easy to break through a path anywhere here?

[00:27:48]Look at all that water.

[00:27:54]Whoa.

[00:27:56]Almost flooded out there. It's so deep now.

[00:28:03]All right, everyone. We got a lot of current going through. Here's what the inside looked like before.

[00:28:11]And here's what it looks like now.

[00:28:14]A ton of awesome current.

[00:28:18]Here's what the exit of the pipe looked like before.

[00:28:27]And here's what it looks like now.

[00:28:31]We got a ton of flow going.

[00:28:34]Time to get on up out of here.

[00:28:37]All right, everyone. Here's what the exit of the pipe looked like before from overhead.

[00:28:46]And here's what it looks like now.

[00:28:49]Pretty awesome.

[00:28:52]We're about to go down to the other pipe in a moment.

[00:29:00]Here's what the entrance of the pipe looked like before.

[00:29:07]And here's what it looks like now. We're going to drain back probably 2 feet of water here before the beavers return.

[00:29:13]Here's what the inside of the pipe looked like before from the entrance.

[00:29:20]And here's what it looks like now.

[00:29:23]We just got a ton of flow to go through.

[00:29:27]Awesome. Now, let's try to get that water out of the road near the other pipe.

[00:29:55]All righty. Now, we need to go down and try to get this water off the road. It won't go away immediately by the looks of it cuz that puddle's deeper than this little dam holding it. So, some of it will probably stay behind.

[00:30:14]Let's go set up camera number two.

[00:30:19]That'll be a good before shot. All that mud right there should be completely underwater as soon as we release this.

[00:30:32]All righty. Camera number two is going.

[00:30:37]Let's get that a little better. Here we go.

[00:30:47]All righty, let's start it. There's definitely more water here than last time. The other pipe, I think, is a little less. That might be why we had such difficulties. But then again, last time it was so easy. The dam was dry, dusty. It floated easily. Today, it was heavy and it wasn't really helping us by floating. So, that's probably the bulk of the problem. Now, let's find the pipe. I've had issues finding this one in the past.

[00:31:21]It's easier to find it with this end.

[00:31:31]I think I got it.

[00:31:53]This one can be very hard to find.

[00:32:08]Okay, I found it.

[00:32:12]Nope. The mouth of it is all the way up here.

[00:32:22]>> Got it. We got it.

[00:35:08]I'm digging a a channel so it can get down to its max.

[00:35:13]We've just maxed out the pipe.

[00:35:17]It's flowing really good.

[00:35:22]Nothing in the bottom. Completely open.

[00:35:25]I'm just trying to clean up in front of it.

[00:35:38]Water pressure really helps at this point.

[00:35:48]Wow.

[00:35:50]We got it open all the way.

[00:35:53]Look at that.

[00:35:55]Wow. You got to see the other side of this.

[00:36:02]Here's what the entrance looked like before.

[00:36:08]And here's what it looks like now.

[00:36:11]Awesome. That one was like using a plunger. We got the whole blockage to just slide through it.

[00:36:57]Didn't really have to pull out anything like last time. And the water's dropping fast. Notice how much black culvert is showing right now. There was none when we started.

[00:37:08]And in an hour, I'll show it to you again after we investigate this swamp.

[00:37:12]Try to figure out where they live.

[00:37:16]Look at the cracks right here from the road drying out. Many areas up here, the ground will still remain frozen until June, but most of the roads now are done with mud season in this area.

[00:37:33]The top part of the state still has snow.

[00:37:37]All right, now look at the other side.

[00:37:39]Here's what it looked like before.

[00:37:45]And here's what it looks like now. Such a good blast. I don't even have to clean up anything on this side.

[00:37:53]Now, a closeup of the culvert's exit.

[00:37:56]Here's what it looked like before.

[00:38:02]And here's what it looks like now.

[00:38:04]Awesome flow back here where all that mud was. Here's what it looked like before.

[00:38:17]And here's what it looks like now.

[00:38:19]Awesome.

[00:38:21]This tree here's got some buds.

[00:38:24]The trees are all budding in my area, but up here, this points north, really not many buds. Remember this area, the trees don't grow their leaves until June. We're really high up right now.

[00:38:37]The upper part of the state, they're not full until the middle of June.

[00:38:41]But right now, I'm going to go back to the truck, put away the tripods, put away the rake. We'll keep the big high boots on because we got to investigate and figure out where these beavers are.

[00:38:52]Since last time we were here, we found a bunch of recently built beaver lodges from the fall, which I thought were relocated. There was no clear evidence of them still living there if you saw that video. We're going to check that out again.

[00:39:08]But this is prime real estate. They'll relocate them. They have in the past.

[00:39:13]They'll go away for a year or two, but they'll always be back. It's such a perfect spot for them. Multiple levels of beaver swamps on both sides of the road.

[00:39:35]All right, we're back. So, my camera here has this little window that opens and shuts.

[00:39:46]You know, I've only been using this device for a couple of weeks now because the autofocus on my last one broke, so it was making strange noises like a bumblebee that you could hear in the video recordings. Wow, this puddle's already going away. But, we'll do a before of that when we leave because it's got a lot more to do.

[00:40:06]But anyways, I noticed on this newer phone, the camera sticks out further beyond a normal case. So, I bought this one where the case has a little door that shuts. And now it just opens and shuts. Like if you put the camera upside down like in the cover, it kept shutting on me. The little plastic nub completely worn down over two weeks. I guess I do use a camera more than most people would, but why couldn't they make that out of metal?

[00:40:34]Anyways, this case is still better even if I rip the little door off, which I probably am going to end up doing because I noticed it is beginning to get looser and rattle.

[00:40:45]Filming over bumps.

[00:40:48]Look at all these rocks. You had a rock get pushed up by frost and recede. Very, very rocky section of road.

[00:41:00]I don't know if we're going to go down to the lower swamp or not. Look at that.

[00:41:04]Is that a leaf spring? Look at that there.

[00:41:09]But I want to check out where the most probable place they are living might be.

[00:41:17]So, usually we go down there, hike up through here and across the road.

[00:41:23]There's a good amount of water up here.

[00:41:26]So, we need to prove where they live or at least try to make this easier.

[00:41:36]When the government comes out to get them, the government will remove beavers from private property.

[00:41:47]Okay, this is definitely flooded more.

[00:41:51]Hope they make my job easy if I visually see one. And that's it.

[00:41:58]This is recently flooded, but this is a older beaver pond.

[00:42:04]It's definitely flooded more than it was two weeks ago. But the same analysis I had two weeks ago I have right now. It's definitely deeper. This lodge was built about 5 years back by beavers that were relocated many years ago and then there was a gap. No beavers.

[00:42:23]And then somebody started renovating that. You see that's not fresh, but it's newer. It's from last fall because there was no beavers here last summer and then they began building again late in the year in the fall. So, this is where they were, but I still don't think they're there. This might just be treated right now as a secondary pond. There's lots of dead stuff I got to try to get over.

[00:42:58]See, that's really old there. That's been reused.

[00:43:05]Come on.

[00:43:07]That could have been worse. I could have got these really sharp Himalayan blackberries into me.

[00:43:19]Okay, let's go down to the dam, which is pretty much the same situation.

[00:43:26]You can tell it's been recently worked on, meaning last fall, but it doesn't currently appear to be active.

[00:43:37]Still going through right now from two weeks ago.

[00:43:40]I don't see anything fresh.

[00:43:44]And I've come across probably a hundred beaver swamps that I know of that are active right now.

[00:43:51]And this one does not look active.

[00:43:55]That's not super fresh. It might just appear fresh because it's floating in the water.

[00:44:03]But I'm looking for repairs in the slits that were made in these dams.

[00:44:12]None of this repair is new.

[00:44:16]But what I found really cool about this Beaver Dam was it's got a lodge incorporated into it with an entrance on the top and bottom.

[00:44:27]That's rare.

[00:44:31]Okay.

[00:44:40]You can also look around for tracks.

[00:44:42]Hasn't rained in three or four days.

[00:44:48]See, I'm right above one of their hallways that comes out right there.

[00:44:56]Interesting lodge. See, they have two entrances there and one coming down this really long hallway.

[00:45:04]And then they have another lodge right there completely separate. And this is one of the coolest chewed trees I've ever seen. I had numerous comments telling me I should come out here with a chainsaw and take that.

[00:45:21]I could zip it, but I don't know what I would do with it.

[00:45:27]I'm looking for very fresh materials.

[00:45:35]This lodge has its entrance completely out of the water.

[00:45:40]Interesting.

[00:45:42]Water's much deeper than it was two weeks ago because now I actually have to go up and over this lodge to get out of here.

[00:45:55]These lodges are very, very thick.

[00:46:00]Very low chance of ever falling through one.

[00:46:07]Look at this trail.

[00:46:10]You got a trail coming in.

[00:46:13]Now this is fresher.

[00:46:15]See that leaking right there?

[00:46:21]They got fresh trails coming in here.

[00:46:25]They walk out into the woods and drag trees back to build.

[00:46:34]That's what made all these trails.

[00:46:35]Beavers walking around.

[00:46:45]Yep.

[00:46:47]Looks like they've repaired it.

[00:46:54]They have repaired it.

[00:47:00]They repaired it. Nice.

[00:47:04]Now, these logs here look like they're a little older because they're just covered in dry mud.

[00:47:11]Let that get rained on a little bit.

[00:47:13]It'll clear up substantially.

[00:47:18]The last time we were out here, there was a deep cut by whoever trapped them because that's unfortunately what they do sometimes when they're not relocated.

[00:47:30]They'll cut the dam. They'll put a gigantic beaver trap in the middle. It's like a mouse trap. When it goes in there with debris, it snaps them.

[00:47:40]It's likely how they got rid of them back in the fall. But I'm guessing they either didn't get rid of them all and they're just now able to start building back because the ice prevented it.

[00:47:51]That's what I think. I think they just did not get them all in the fall.

[00:47:56]That's what I would think by taking a look at this right now. So, we know where they are. They're here. They're not as active in the day. And more than likely, they're hiding in one of those two lodges just because I'm here.

[00:48:14]But maybe they just forgot one of them.

[00:48:21]They got to do their research and figure out how many beavers there are. They should be out here watching an eye on that because the DNR has told me there's a 40% chance of survival if they relocate a beaver. But that chance of survival jumps to 60% if they move the entire beaver family altogether. Because if they move just one of them, that one is going to spend the rest of its life and energy trying to get back rather than building shelter and dams to protect itself.

[00:48:51]If you move them all, they'll feel content enough to restart a lodge and home.

[00:48:59]But it seems like they forgot one of them here.

[00:49:04]So, if they moved multiple, their chance is still better. But they forgot one.

[00:49:10]That's what I would guess here. They forgot one. Now, this was definitely flooded about 20 minutes ago before we unclog the smaller black pipe. And this is very sticky like peanut butter. You got to be careful walking through here.

[00:49:26]Now, this is down. This is the freshest of the fresh. Look at that. Now, that is what we look to see. That is absolutely fresh. Super duper fresh. Look at that.

[00:49:38]What I was just showing back there covered in mud is not the freshest.

[00:49:43]It's likely their winter pantry leftovers, which is standard for the beavers.

[00:49:50]They stick thousands of sticks into the mud. They leave their dam, swim under the ice, grab a piece, swim back up with it, and chew on it. When they're done, they leave it floating under the ice.

[00:50:01]And then in the spring, when the ice is gone, they have thousands of pieces of floating wood, which are slightly faded, but the water pretty much keeps it still alive. You see the beaver was sitting right here having a snack. That is super duper fresh as you can see compared to what I was just showing at the use for repairs which had to have been their winter storage. This is as fresh as it gets. Look at that.

[00:50:28]That is so fresh.

[00:50:32]Probably chewing it off instantly right after cutting the tree down. Now this is shallow enough. I should be able to make it through here like we did two weeks ago.

[00:50:46]The mud is sticky. It's going to feel like I'm going to get stuck. I almost flooded my boots last time, but I made it through. Look at all those stinky gas bubbles.

[00:50:59]If you put a lighter up to those, believe it or not, sometimes they'll go poof.

[00:51:04]Yep. We've already dropped this area by over a foot. And you see I made that channel coming all the way out here. Can drop it about another foot.

[00:51:16]Okay, it's an 18 in pipe or so.

[00:51:21]Here's what it looked like before we did anything.

[00:51:26]And here's what it looks like now. Great difference down the other side. Of course, it has slowed down a little bit. Half the water's already gone.

[00:51:38]This is all receding as part of it. Like I said, it's now gone down enough where that's pretty much all that can get out.

[00:51:46]The rest of this puddle is going to have to wait to evaporate and or sink into the ground. There's a few water beetles in there. They should have no problem getting back over to the water.

[00:51:56]Thankfully, no tadpoles. I always feel bad draining those when they're full of tadpoles. Actually, have not come across a single ditch full of tadpoles this year.

[00:52:05]Amazingly, no, we have not.

[00:52:09]But here's what the puddle looked like before.

[00:52:14]And here's what it looks like now.

[00:52:15]Definitely a difference. Let's go take a look at the other pipe before we head on out. That was much easier than I thought because last time I didn't think there was any beavers left there. I don't think they moved them all.

[00:52:28]Sad.

[00:52:34]I don't know if they keep records of where the other ones got brought and after a whole season's passed if they would accept that one back or recognize it. I'm not sure about that. I don't know. Okay, this has definitely dropped back.

[00:52:47]Probably half a foot or so. It's got a whole lot more to do.

[00:52:53]Looking good.

[00:52:55]Time to get out of here. We have a few more locations I want to check on this road that we have not seen yet this year.

[00:53:02]All righty.

[00:53:06]Head on out. Drive through that puddle and see what we can find up here.

[00:53:18]This road here is expected to reopen May 1st to public traffic.

[00:53:29]That's funny. I just backed up because look at this. This part of the road obviously washed out last week when there was a horrible storm and they've already fixed it. But before they fixed it, somebody wrote, "Nope, because that's more than half the road."

[00:53:45]Unless you're in an ATV, I don't think anyone's taking that risk trying to get around that big of a wash out. Look at that. That whole part of the road collapsed probably because there was water going over the road. We did have some flooding last week.

[00:54:00]Nothing too too horrible, but yeah, some flooding.

[00:54:04]All right, this part of the road does have a good amount of erosion. It's going to be a little bit difficult maybe driving over some of this. Some of these roads are still soft around darker corners where there's still frozen parts of the road. So, yeah, this is Wow, look at that. To the left, that hole is 2 feet deep right down there.

[00:54:27]Yep.

[00:54:30]These roads are going to take quite a while to grade and fix once they do thaw out. I think we won't have a problem getting through right here.

[00:54:39]This is one of the reasons. Well, this wasn't a reason actually a week ago. We just recently had a ton of rain that caused all this damage. But it was very It's very very muddy last week. This week the mud is mostly gone, but now there's all this erosion and bumpiness, which is going to take a while for the grater to get down all these roads and fix all that.

[00:55:05]All right, it's still a little soft.

[00:55:08]This year, amazingly, I only had to winch out once where I got stuck. And there's a grouse bird, if you saw that on the left, just ran in the bushes.

[00:55:18]Last year, I got stuck maybe a dozen times.

[00:55:21]I really didn't get stuck much this year. Maybe I will again. Up north is still mud season.

[00:55:30]Oh wow.

[00:55:32]We have not seen a wash out like this in a while.

[00:55:36]But wait a minute. Hold the phone.

[00:55:41]I don't think this washed out recently because that sign all unplowed roads can be used for snowmobiles.

[00:55:56]I haven't I have honestly not been up on this road in two years.

[00:56:02]It's possible this was never fixed.

[00:56:05]Yeah, I don't think Yeah, this was never never fixed. This is the same wash out I showed a couple years ago. They actually never fixed it. We're not on the same road where I just showed they fixed that other issue where they wrote, "Nope."

[00:56:20]This has been damaged like this for years. We got moose tracks.

[00:56:27]You can see the groundwater still active down in there. Can't believe they didn't fix this. But I guess they're not using it. So, this erosion is not going to be fixed.

[00:56:40]Well, it's settled.

[00:56:43]I know an hour detour that we have to take around this.

[00:56:48]Pretty cool though. Most of these ribbons are actually mine. Not the yellow, but yeah, those green ones over there were mine.

[00:56:57]Definitely. I remember that.

[00:57:05]There's another sinkhole.

[00:57:08]Those might even be my ribbons.

[00:57:12]Yeah, this road is not being used at all.

[00:57:17]Still fun to navigate, though.

[00:57:20]All right. Are we going to continue?

[00:57:22]Let's inspect.

[00:57:28]All the water's coming out through the pipe. If it wasn't, it means there's hollow cavities. I think we can get through that. Even if we did get stuck from the ground giving, we have a winch.

[00:57:38]We'll get out of it.

[00:57:54]Easy. We're not even in four-wheel drive.

[00:57:58]This is a really big hole.

[00:58:03]Whoa.

[00:58:05]Look at all these bumps.

[00:58:12]This road got really, really bad.

[00:58:23]We've got water up here.

[00:58:26]What's this all about?

[00:58:29]Roads washed out. Looks very soft, so we got to be careful.

[00:58:41]Yep. If I would have kept going, I'd be stuck.

[00:58:45]Those last track Yeah. Look at my tread right there filling with water. Check that out.

[00:58:54]Look at that. That's where my tire just was.

[00:58:58]Look at that. It's flowing like wet concrete.

[00:59:04]Yep. This is one of those days as soon as you get out to the paved roads and start moving fast, your balance is going to be all messed up from mud. Maybe actually the balance gets messed up when mud starts falling off because when you start cuz now if mud got into my rim and I start moving around up here, it's actually going to even itself out. It's selfbalancing. But when it dries and falls off, that's when you have really bad thumping. So, here's the culvert. It looks like it eroded down there and just started crossing the road. I've unclogged this culvert in the past, but that's not what the problem is there.

[00:59:46]If they build the road back up, it'll force it back to that pipe. That's all.

[00:59:52]But this is not an active section of road. I'm just exploring something that has not actually been logged for three years.

[01:00:00]And there's no plans of logging it right now, but this is a bypass of that giant wash out at this moment in time. It's not considered anything more than an ATV trail.

[01:00:14]But if you think you've got what it takes to pass it, no one's going to stop you. These roads are at your own risk.

[01:00:23]You can come upon a wash out anywhere potentially. These roads are very soft because we are gaining elevation to an area where we actually could get stuck in the mud which keeps it very interesting.

[01:00:42]I'd rather take these un these unused roads than go back out to the pavement good bypass routes. And considering I haven't used four-wheel drive all day, these roads could be considerably worse.

[01:01:06]All right, things just got way worse.

[01:01:09]It's got very lopsided. Look at the ruts are so deep right here.

[01:01:16]Some really, really big holes. And what's that pink ribbon coming up? That looks fresh.

[01:01:23]I haven't used this road in two years.

[01:01:26]It's not pink. It's orange.

[01:01:29]I just saw it fluttering before I could see its color.

[01:01:35]That's probably a warning from the other direction for what we already drove through. That's what I'm thinking.

[01:01:43]If this road goes through, we're going to make it to that one Culver pipe. Out of all the thousands I've unclogged, there's just one where I slipped and had a water slide.

[01:01:54]That's at the end of this road. And I see no reason we're not going to be able to pass it unless there's an enormous wash out.

[01:02:02]This is going to take about another 40 minutes to get around to the other side of that big wash out.

[01:02:13]These types of signs you're seeing are put here by snowmobile and ATV clubs.

[01:02:18]Those are not logging signs, but they do help you out.

[01:02:29]This is a very fun road.

[01:02:48]Getting soupy.

[01:02:53]The areas where it's still muddy despite not raining in four days means the ground is likely still frozen, acting as a liner, preventing that water from draining down.

[01:03:11]But look at all the trees up there.

[01:03:12]They're turning red with buds.

[01:03:26]That's a bad bad one. I don't think I'll have a problem going over it, though.

[01:03:34]Got to be careful.

[01:03:37]All right, we risked it and did it.

[01:03:40]Could have fallen through that one because that's caused by the pipe being rusted out. There could have been hollow cavities there, but not that big of a hollow cavity. Enough to get stuck down onto the skid plates, but we made it.

[01:04:21]All right, that's a wrap. That's it for the day. We will never make it to the other side before the sun goes down. We now have to backtrack on nearly two hours of dirt roads to get back to the pavement. Then we have to drive about maybe a half an hour on the pavement to another logging road to get around this now. And this will not be fixed unless the ATV clubs want to fix it.

[01:04:50]All right. This definitely recently fell out probably this week because of conditions.

[01:04:58]I don't know if you can tell that is very very far.

[01:05:06]Like if I stand next to it, that's even with my waist.

[01:05:15]Why did it happen?

[01:05:18]Oh, we've got a blockage. I'm going to do that. That blockage, I would say, is to blame partially. I still think it's under capacity by the evidence, but we can just leave the truck smack in the middle of the road because no one's going to be obviously coming through here. ATV or not. The gates are shut, so no vehicles. ATV, I'm sure, could find a way in here, though. So, it looks like old culvert got pulled out. Brand new covert. Don't know when that was installed, but unders sized and it's a garbage plastic.

[01:05:56]So, uh I'm actually having second thoughts right now about even opening this because the end is clogged and we're never going to get that,000lb rock off of there.

[01:06:11]That's a giant rock.

[01:06:17]huge.

[01:06:27]Is that mud going to hold me or am I going to sink? It's holding me.

[01:06:33]See, even if we open that up, it's not going to help the situation at all.

[01:06:39]If I grab that and pull everything back as so, we're going to let more water in there. But it's impossible to not have some leaves also going in there. See all that going in there?

[01:06:52]See, we're able to get it open a little more. But as you can see, it's quickly slowing down as it fills up the pipe because it's blocked down there. You see?

[01:07:03]Didn't really help.

[01:07:06]All we just did was cause it to start coming out of that coupling.

[01:07:15]If there's a coupling, does that mean part of the pipe washed away? I don't think there ever was any more pipe.

[01:07:44]That's not budging. We are not going to budge that rock.

[01:07:50]What if any of you want to move?

[01:08:04]Maybe.

[01:08:13]Okay.

[01:08:15]How about you?

[01:08:18]Wait a minute. We might be on to something.

[01:08:27]Okay.

[01:08:34]Are we on to something?

[01:08:37]A little bit.

[01:08:42]Is that any closer to budging?

[01:08:45]Nope. Thought maybe with those rocks out of here we might been able to tip it, but no, that's not going to happen.

[01:08:53]Only way that would happen is if we wrap around that with the winch.

[01:09:01]Go around that tree and pull.

[01:09:14]I think I could definitely do that. Go around that and pull it off.

[01:09:22]Okay.

[01:09:24]Want to try that?

[01:09:27]I can try that. All right, everyone. What do you think?

[01:09:58]I got my remote control here in tensioning it.

[01:10:10]Okay, if that does slip off, it's going to swing that way, not near me. This is also the fiberglass rope. If they do break, it doesn't go flying like a cable. So, let's see. Can we do it?

[01:10:25]Uhoh, that tree. Is that tree going to hold?

[01:10:28]Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

[01:10:32]Ah. It's coming up the tree. But yeah, we got more water going. Ah, we got to try it again. So close. All right, let's let some tension back out of the winch and rerigg. All right, it appears that had to happen because there was mud in the way. Now that it moved and went back, we were able to get the cable down further behind it. So, even if that does go up on the tree a little bit again, I think we have a better chance now. I already retensioned it. So, let's try this again.

[01:11:10]Ah, it's going up again. But is it going to hold on to the rock?

[01:11:16]Come on.

[01:11:18]Oh, no. We're pulling the tree down. The rock's not moving as easy because we're pulling more weight now that the cable's lower.

[01:11:25]Come on, tree.

[01:11:28]Uh, come on. Don't slip. Don't slip.

[01:11:29]Don't slip. Yeah.

[01:11:32]Oh, wow. Look at the debris. I'm hoping I can kick it now. Great.

[01:11:39]I was a little worried about getting the cable trapped underneath the rock, but we would have pulled it out. Let's see if we can kick that rock out of the way now. Or should we rerigg and do it again?

[01:11:49]Let's see how much pressure. No pressure is on that anymore. Let's throw that to the side so it's not under the rock if I do actually kick it over it.

[01:12:04]All right. Almost. We're going to rig it one more time.

[01:12:20]I got to let some out.

[01:12:32]Let's try this again.

[01:12:46]All right. Hopefully we don't lose it underneath it.

[01:12:53]High enough to knock it over, but hopefully. All right, let's try it again.

[01:13:08]All right, we added tension.

[01:13:10]Now I'm over here with you.

[01:13:13]Is the rock going to move or is it going to slip again? I'm not going to keep trying this. Ah, it's going to slip. Oh my gosh. Yep. I don't see a way to really get on it. I'm going to try one more time the cable all the way at the bottom, but I don't know if it's going to work.

[01:13:49]I don't like it, but we got to give it a try that way. I'm afraid of getting the cable stuck.

[01:14:02]Okay, let's try this again. It's going to go up on the tree. That tree smells good cuz we scraped some of the bark off. And that is yellow birch. Okay, we're all the way at the bottom.

[01:14:12]Are we going to pull the whole thing out?

[01:14:16]That tree's coming down. Come on. Don't do not break cuz that's going right in my face if that breaks. I got to step back in case we break the tree. If we break the tree, we're done.

[01:14:27]Got to be careful.

[01:14:31]Oh man.

[01:14:38]What?

[01:14:44]Yeah. No, that rock's not budging.

[01:14:48]Release the tension.

[01:14:59]Okay, enough off to release it.

[01:15:06]I don't see myself pulling it any other way. If there was a tree tree over there, that'd be ideal.

[01:15:12]But I'm going to give it one try pulling it without that tree. One more try.

[01:15:22]Let's time lapse that.

[01:15:57]All right, our last attempt. Let's put pressure on that.

[01:16:09]Okay, give it a break.

[01:16:11]I don't like how it's having a issue there shutting off.

[01:16:18]Might have dirt in that switch.

[01:16:24]Nice.

[01:16:26]And wow, I don't even have to go down there.

[01:16:33]It's coming right off. Perfect. All right, let's reel it back up and we'll clean that pipe up a little bit. That was a satisfying noise, that boulder moving.

[01:16:43]You can see earlier in the week, the moose investigators were here taking a look at the wash out and they decided not to go across themselves.

[01:16:52]No tracks on the other side.

[01:16:54]An ATV has gone through here, but I don't think since Oh, it looks like the moose did decide to go through here.

[01:17:01]Let's work on this a little bit. See if we can get some of this to drain back now that the big rocks out of the way.

[01:17:15]Now that's a debris blockage. Not beavers.

[01:17:25]Nice. Let it pile up on the other side.

[01:17:27]And we're going to release it over there. if this doesn't already do that.

[01:17:35]Did they log around here? Cuz this looks like logging debris. All right, the other side's all blocked up now. So, we got to head on over to the other side now to release this.

[01:17:48]Never would have been able to do that if the rock wasn't moved.

[01:17:54]So, here we are on the other side.

[01:18:01]Let's have ourselves a look.

[01:18:17]Oh no. Camera, what are you doing?

[01:18:25]Wow. We didn't send all this through.

[01:18:27]This was just built up in there. I had no idea.

[01:18:35]At least it's fully open now to prevent any more erosion.

[01:18:49]Can you move rock?

[01:19:35]All right. As open as it's going to be.

[01:19:39]Too many big rocks.

[01:19:44]Nice.

[01:19:47]Check that out.

[01:19:50]Here's what it looked like before.

[01:19:56]And here's what it looks like now.

[01:19:59]Big difference. That murky water will clear up really, really fast as soon as it's done eroding what was built up here. We drain that back good, too.

[01:20:12]Here's what the entrance of the pipe looked like before.

[01:20:18]And here's what it looks like now.

[01:20:21]Yeah, that debris will surely clog it up again.

[01:20:26]Preventative maintenance. You're always going to have to do preventative maintenance.

[01:20:32]That was a fun workout, too.

[01:20:36]We did good.

[01:20:39]Thanks for watching, everyone.

[01:20:41]Have a great day. Unless we happen to find something else before daytime.

[01:20:50]Nice little spot to clean up my gear, clean off the big high boots. Look how clean that water is.

[01:20:58]So beautifully clean. And it just gets dirty here where it's helping erode whatever's left.

[01:21:17]We're following behind a bird friend.

[01:21:22]He keeps waiting for me because I got to go slow through the mud. Oh, there he goes again.

[01:21:33]He's going to wait for me. Yep. No. Oh, nope. He's done. He's going off. But he did that for quite a couple minutes before I decided to start filming him.

[01:21:45]It's bad, bad roads.

[01:21:50]All right, this is definitely the worst part of the road of the day.

[01:21:56]Look at some of these ruts. Imagine if this was raining or a couple days ago how bad this would probably be.

[01:22:15]Yep.

[01:22:16]We thankfully missed mud season on this.

[01:22:19]This is a spot you'd probably get stuck a couple weeks ago.

[01:22:32]This area probably still has ice under it. Those wet areas like that.

[01:22:48]Once you're done with those and you're on a smooth section, it feels so smooth.

[01:22:54]Then you got to go slow right here because remember if we keep to the left side, you're going to sink really, really bad.

[01:23:05]That's kind of silty.

[01:23:09]And now we're at that section where it's all washed out up and over this hill.

[01:23:13]And there's going to be that giant hole in the road somewhere we got to be cautious of.

[01:23:25]Well, we got to come back like two hours later to see if there's any troublemakers. Nope. No attempt at the black pipe, which is near the home. What about the one down here, the bigger one?

[01:23:36]Any evidence of beavers trying to jam it back up? Yes, there's a troublemaker right there. There we go. There's our troublemaker just went under. See those bubbles? Step out. What did you just do?

[01:23:51]I think there's too much current for you to really jam it up.

[01:23:58]You got anything going yet? Nope. Too much current. It'll probably wash out anything you try to build until the water's back down.

[01:24:06]Oh, he resurfaced. There he is.

[01:24:14]There's our troublemaker.

[01:24:18]He's alone as far as I can tell at the moment.

[01:24:22]Well, since we're going to have to come back here and unblock it again, I'm sure in a week or so, let's put a camera out.

[01:24:31]First one of the year. Start. Ready for motion detection in 30 seconds. So, now we're going to close this up. Latch it.

[01:24:42]And it's hard to tell where they're going to build their dam.

[01:24:47]But I'm going to put it right here. The worst case is it's not going to really film much of anything. But I'm going to stick it right here. Just trying to think how much tilt do I want it to have. I think that's good.

[01:25:04]Let's see. How much tilt do we want? Is there a Sometimes an imperfection can make it a little better.

[01:25:16]That's true enough. I think that's okay.

[01:25:22]Hey, you maybe did get something in there.

[01:25:31]Anyways, the worst case is it films nothing. A lot of times beavers are elusive and they can be under the water and not trigger that. They actually have to have a good portion of their body or debris above the water to even trigger these cameras. That's why it's hard to build a time lapse with those motion footage.

[01:25:54]I can set that camera where it would take like a 5-second video clip every hour. Sometimes that's more practical of a way to do it, but I'm going to leave it on motion detecting.

[01:26:09]It's got 50% battery. We haven't used those yet this year, but I think maybe we'll get something.

[01:26:17]Come back in two weeks and grab that camera.

[01:26:23]Yep, that beaver's long gone now.

[01:26:28]But he'll have it clogged up again by morning. This water will get down where it's not gushing that much in a matter of hours. Oh, nope. He's still over there.

[01:26:38]As soon as we leave, that guy's definitely coming. Oh, he has debris.

[01:26:42]He's literally dragging sticks over here. Look at that.

[01:26:48]All right, everyone. It's getting into the evening now, and I just happen to get out here to use the bathroom. And look what we found.

[01:26:58]Look at that. Up in the small tree, there's a porcupine up there eating small branches.

[01:27:08]I'll get a little closer to him, but I'm not going to go right up to him.

[01:27:13]It's a good chance to get some fairly close-up shots with our zoom lens.

[01:27:20]Now, these guys sometimes will run away from you, sometimes will come towards you with their quills up. So, you got to be careful.

[01:27:30]They're not in like in the cartoons. I cannot, despite many people thinking, shoot quills into you. Wow, look at that. It's like a 2-in diameter branch that he's in.

[01:27:49]Look at that.

[01:27:55]Got to be careful. See how he's going to go down the tree?

[01:27:59]Nope. I guess he's not.

[01:28:06]really cool creature.

[01:28:09]You can see his quills have stood up since I came up here.

[01:28:17]Look at that.

[01:28:21]He might be on his way down to charge.

[01:28:24]These guys are an unpredictable creature.

[01:28:30]I've had stubborn ones in the middle of the road start walking towards your vehicle with their quills up.

[01:28:36]I've had ones in the middle of the road that I've tried to scare out of the road so they don't get hit and they start walking towards you.

[01:28:44]I don't think he's bothered by me. He's going further up.

[01:28:51]Yeah, this one's more scared of me than I than anything else.

[01:29:01]What kind of tree are you in?

[01:29:10]Fascinating guy. It kind of reminds me of a sloth.

[01:29:17]Really, really good climbers.

[01:29:37]One of the most feared creatures in the woods by everybody.

[01:29:45]See if I can get a shot from the other side.

[01:29:55]Yeah, we want the sun behind us for a nice picture.

[01:30:08]He looks sleepy.

[01:30:15]I love this guy.

[01:30:17]I'll leave you alone now.

[01:30:24]Goodbye.

[01:30:30]Going up there to see that guy was meant to be because I literally just spun the truck around and I was going to be done with this road because it was not exactly going where I thought it was.

[01:30:46]But by walking up to that guy, you see him up there still. By walking up to that guy. Oh, look. He's He's coming down. He's gonna probably run once he gets to the bottom.

[01:30:57]But by walking up there, a slightly different vantage point. There's a flooded road down here, and I want to see why. Yeah, that guy's coming down fast. He is not going to be there when we come back.

[01:31:10]Yeah, there's a flooded road right here.

[01:31:15]Always got to check these out.

[01:31:20]Yeah, that that that is a tire cutter.

[01:31:22]That cover is absolutely destroyed.

[01:31:25]Nothing we can do. This road's not being maintained at the moment at all. The only ones using it are off-road enthusiasts and ATVers, so it can stay a mess.

[01:31:43]Oops.

[01:31:45]Almost almost could make that turn.

[01:31:49]Let's see if he's still up there. Couple minutes later, I think he ran.

[01:31:55]I don't think he liked being approached like that.

[01:31:59]But he was eating right in front of me at the same time. Let's see if he's still there.

[01:32:04]No, I guess he didn't run for it. He just went back to the position he was when we found him. Here's a very, very rocky spot, which I'm guessing is still slightly frozen. But all these rocks you're seeing here weren't there before.

[01:32:20]They all got shoved up by the frost. And there's certain trails right here. If I had my tires in them, I'd likely sink. But it's definitely not as bad as it would have been even just a week ago.

[01:32:36]We're going to try one more route before it gets dark.

[01:32:44]Days are getting longer fast. It's already 6:30 and we still have nearly 2 hours of daylight left.

[01:32:52]I'm not filming them all because there's just so many. But I have had so many coverts like this today. Frost is lifting them up.

[01:33:01]But we're not marking any of these.

[01:33:04]Because these roads are not open for logging. The only one down these are off-road enthusiasts, which would all already be looking for that type of thing.

[01:33:17]All right, we did have enough daytime to make it to the other end of this road, which we're not going to take because that's where that massive wash out is that's been there for two years that they're not fixing. Now we're lined up on the other side of that road where we pulled the big rock.

[01:33:36]We're not going to go that far. There's no need to. I'm trying to get to a certain culvert.

[01:33:43]Doesn't matter one way or another. These roads are not going to be used for logging this year. I'm just trying to navigate to it to see the condition of these pipes.

[01:33:53]But this road was very muddy, but we did make it through. I'll show you some of the mud on the way out of here.

[01:33:59]There's another culvert.

[01:34:02]We have ran over dozens of abrupt culverts that have made their way up out of the road.

[01:34:09]Bad situation.

[01:34:11]This road needs substantial repairs and covert replacements before it could ever be reopened again. It's not going to be reopened this year. I don't know when they're going to plan on logging this one again, but it's not in the books right now.

[01:34:30]It's greatly deteriorating without any repairs planned.

[01:34:37]Oh my gosh, it's a moose.

[01:34:43]Hello He's starting to grow some antlers. Look at that.

[01:35:02]Sad to see him scuffed up. The moose have been looking good the past couple of years, but he's scuffed up because he's scratching against trees trying to get ticks off himself.

[01:35:17]Bye-bye, moose.

[01:35:21]Let's see what we can find up here.

[01:35:24]I hope today's video was interesting, everyone.

[01:35:28]Thanks for watching and have a great day.