Bernard Suspension Bridge

River of no Return Wilderness, ID

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Flying in: River of No Return Wilderness from the air.

 

Approaching Flying B Airfield from the north.

 

Salmon Air's Cessna Islander, inbound with gear and crew.

 

Flying B Ranch from the air.

 

Historic Mormon Ranch, about 2 miles from the Flying B.

 

At Flying B air strip.          At Flying B air strip.

 

Unloading the Islander.

 

Flying B employees; George (R) was the groundskeeper and a favorite of the crew.

 

Carroll Vogel with Islander Pilot Dan Schroeder.

 

Compression buckling damage from below.

 

Forest Service employee checking the damage.

 

Ground zero, near mid-span.

 

Buckled stringers after deck removal. 

 

Buckled stringers after deck removal; new decking going down in the distance.

 

Note wear in deck boards from stock use.

 

Carroll Vogel cutting off the branch he's sitting on. 

 

Cut loose, but still suspended. 

 

Out with the old.

 

Jim Lemieux and new stringer.

 

Note "Flying B" motif on the tower, constructed of horseshoes.

 

These are the replacement splice plates, modifying the bridge for fitting a sway system.

 

Sway cable anchor prior to installation in abutment.

 

The legendary Filson, below new sway cable attachment.

 

Jim Lemieux and Keith Monohan.          Working in the basement.

 

More work in the basement.

 

Looking North from the bridge-downriver.

 

View upriver (south) from the bridge.

 

Staging and installing decking.          One of numerous floaters on the Salmon.

 

Keith Monohan and Jim Lemieux installing splice plate/sway cable attachment.

 

Keith Monohan, moments after Mack brought word from home that he was to be a Daddy!          Mack McFarland, one of the cool cats.

 

Jim Lemieux after Filson told him to get back to work. 

 

The basket and the bridge, with snow geese foraging in the background.

 

Too many deck boards still to nail down.

 

Working from the basket, installing new suspenders.

 

The view from 'way up high'

 

View of Flying B Ranch from the basket.

 

Fabricating the joint in the kick rail timbers. Step 1: Cut the heel.          Step 2: Cut 1/2 the lap.

 

Step 3: Cut the other 1/2 of the lap.          Step 4: A little chainsaw sculpture/clean up.

 

Kick rails ready for installation.

 

Keith, Kaya, Filson, Dinah, Jim, Carroll.

 

Fine tuning method A: Tweaking posts to plumb with a ratchet strap.

 

Method B: Tweaking posts to plumb with a jack and jack post.

 

Working in the basement.

 

Still too much decking to install.

 

Finally, installing kick rails.          View from the tower top.

 

Suspension bridge simplicity.

 

Finished, and ready to go home.

 

Bernard Bridge from the east.

 

Flying B Ranch and Bernard Bridge.

 

Bernard Bridge.