High country earthworks

About High country earthworks

The switchback road up toward Scout Mountain and the Mink Creek drainage ices over before almost anywhere else around Pocatello, since the canyon holds shade long after the valley floor has gone bright with morning sun. High country earthworks works that higher ground, plowing the driveways and access roads for the handful of properties scattered along those canyon roads where a standard truck plow would spin out on the grade. The work starts before dawn on a storm day, since the canyon can be down to one packed lane of snow and ice by the time anyone else is awake to notice. Culverts and drainage cuts along these roads need to stay clear too, or meltwater backs up and refreezes into ice the next cold snap turns into its own hazard. It is remote work by Pocatello standards, closer to the mountain than to the town it serves, and the canyon decides the schedule more than any calendar does.