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  1. #1
    Registered User barefoot's Avatar
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    Default Tapping a Spring

    We recently purchased some land in the NC mountains that has two springs. I would like to tap them with a pvc pipe like on the the trail but I'm not sure how. Right now its oozing out into a gully down the mountain. Do you dig a trench and lay the pipe in, pound it in, etc? Any ideas maybe from our trail maintenance guys? Thanks

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  3. #3
    Registered User Skidsteer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by barefoot View Post
    We recently purchased some land in the NC mountains that has two springs. I would like to tap them with a pvc pipe like on the the trail but I'm not sure how. Right now its oozing out into a gully down the mountain. Do you dig a trench and lay the pipe in, pound it in, etc? Any ideas maybe from our trail maintenance guys? Thanks
    Excavate a 3' x 3' rectangular hole in a strategic spot below the spring. Set forms for a 2 1/2' x 2 1/2' poured concrete spring box with walls 1 1/2' tall and at least 3" thick. Pour the concrete then line the bottom with the smoothest river rock you can find on site. Build a headwall of the necessary length up to where the spring is flowing the strongest and install a pipe large enough to carry the flow. Carefully grout around the pipe to secure it in place.

    In less than a week you'll have 4 gallons a minute gushing from a spot precisely 2 feet to the left of your piped spring.
    Skids

    Insanity: Asking about inseams over and over again and expecting different results.
    Albert Einstein, (attributed)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Skidsteer View Post
    In less than a week you'll have 4 gallons a minute gushing from a spot precisely 2 feet to the left of your piped spring.
    Murphy's law

    The trouble I have with campfires are the folks that carry a bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other.
    You never know which one is talking.

  5. #5
    PCT, Sheltowee, Pinhoti, LT , BMT, AT, SHT, CDT, TRT 10-K's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skidsteer View Post
    Excavate a 3' x 3' rectangular hole in a strategic spot below the spring. Set forms for a 2 1/2' x 2 1/2' poured concrete spring box with walls 1 1/2' tall and at least 3" thick. Pour the concrete then line the bottom with the smoothest river rock you can find on site. Build a headwall of the necessary length up to where the spring is flowing the strongest and install a pipe large enough to carry the flow. Carefully grout around the pipe to secure it in place.

    In less than a week you'll have 4 gallons a minute gushing from a spot precisely 2 feet to the left of your piped spring.
    I was reading this and thought, "Dang, Skidster is being serious!"... Then I got to the punchline.

  6. #6

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    When I lived at my Tipi in the NC mountains, I had a water seep below the ridge about one hundred yards and spent a good amount of time turning the seep into a piped spring. First thing I did was find the highest point of the seepage, then I dug a trench about five feet long and two feet wide and about a foot deep, or deeper. I wanted to build the trench long enough to catch all of the spring seepage.

    After this, I lined the trench with heavy duty plastic and ran it up the side all around. Then I punched a small hole at the lowest point of the trench (downhill) and pushed a black plastic pipe into the plastic and into the trench, and sealed all of this with clay and mud I dug out of the trench earlier, and then placed many rocks over the mud and clay with the pipe running underneath. I covered this trench with some old roofing tin I found, just to keep out the falling autumn leaves. I ran the pipe about 15 feet downhill to get a good slope going and dug out a pit big enough to store one of those big rubbermaid trashcans, and placed the pipe on the high side lip of the container and in a couple days the rubbermaid was full of water (I had a very slow-flowing spring---but it doesn't take much when you have a good reservoir).

    I got all of my water from the rubbermaid trash container---you can put a screen over the container to keep out rodents and leaves and stuff. If you really need a supply, you can run a second pipe off your first container downhill to another container, thereby catching the runoff, and you'll end up with a hundred gallons or more of fresh water once they fill up. They say a spring with a flow rate the size of a wooden match will keep a family of four supplied.

  7. #7

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    More: The challenge for me with the spring was having it all freeze up during occasional winter cold snaps---the lowest it ever got at my Tipi was -14F, and it commonly got to 0F. Having the rubbermaid container mostly buried in a pit below the spring helped alot to keep the water from completely freezing solid, but infrequently it got so cold that everything turned to stone. So, during the winter months I always kept a good supply of water stored in my lodge---forty or fifty gallons---and used china-mart type six gallon containers for this purpose as my place was woodstove-heated and kept the water thawed even in the worst winter storms.

    My tipi was atop a ridgetop and a mile away from my car, so I had a foottrail running up the mountain on a switchbacked path I cut over time. The spring was about a hundred yards from the tipi and about 200 feet below, so I always got my water in two 6 gallon containers, one in each hand, and humped these up two at a time to the lodge. With a 100 lbs of water, you walk real slow and stop often for a breather. It helps on the steep parts to cut steps using the wood from old locust trees.

  8. #8
    Registered User Doc Mike's Avatar
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    I use a spring at my house and there are companies that will come in and do the entire thing for you. I used a back hoe to dig a very large hole at the spring. Set 1200 gal concrete tank in hole drilled about 200 holes in the uphile side of the tank and put an overflow pipe out the top of the downhill side. Dumped 10 ton of limestone on uphill side of the tank. Placed submersible pump in the tank to pump to the house, then covered the entire thing back up. Best tasting water ever, never froze up, and never runs out.
    Lead, Follow, or get out of the way. I'm goin hikin.

  9. #9
    Registered User CaptChaos's Avatar
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    Default Great topic

    Guys, I have found this posting very useful. I have wondered how to tap a spring myself and never really knew anyone that had the experience to ask.

    Thanks also for the link to the paper about springs.

    This type of material is what makes White Blaze what it is.

    Capt Chaos
    Capt. Chaos

    Col. John "CaptChaos" Knight
    Bowling Green, KY USA

  10. #10
    Registered User barefoot's Avatar
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    Default

    I appreciate the comments. Doing my internet searching I've read a lot about how people are using spring ponds, and well houses etc. But I don't think this is how they tap springs on the trail! I'm thinking they just dig the trench and lay the pipe in and cover it up.

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by barefoot View Post
    I appreciate the comments. Doing my internet searching I've read a lot about how people are using spring ponds, and well houses etc. But I don't think this is how they tap springs on the trail! I'm thinking they just dig the trench and lay the pipe in and cover it up.
    Many piped trail springs are not "true" piped springs and I always treat or filter the water at such piped springheads.

  12. #12
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    +1 Tipi Walter...most of the so-called "piped springs" I've seen on the trail were set up in small creeks to make water collection in your container easier.

  13. #13
    Whats over the next hill? Pioneer Spirit's Avatar
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    Farmers used to build milk houses around springs to not only catch the water but to cool milk cans. Most were rock structures or concrete blocks. They held a couple feet of water with an overflow pipe.

    I have two springs on two different properties. One is untapped at the end of a small gully in the woods and is a shale/sandstone base so it could eaily be blocked up.

    The other has a 3 foot in diameter clay pipe sticking up and produces lots of water. Used to be for cows.
    Of course that's my opinion and I could be wrong.
    Buckeye Trail 2,700 miler.

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