[pct-l] Denatured alcohol...

[Gary Wright]

On Mar 21, 2007, at 10:27 PM, Donna Saufley wrote:
> An intended thru-hiker inadvertently started a fire in '05 with his
> denatured alcohol stove.  It wasn't knocked over -- the long, snaking,
> invisible blue flame reached out and started brush on fire, even  
> though he
> had cleared the area well and thought he had enough bare earth.

And there were *two* fires started by thru-hikers in 2004 just before
Whitewater Canyon.  One was a stove accident (not sure what type) and
another was the unintended consequence of trying to 'leave no trace'--
the hiker was burning their used toilet paper instead of burying it
or carrying it out.  The TP-fire sounds silly but when I was in
Wrightwood in '04 the Forest Service had some sort of fire prevention
day event and they had maps showing the many forest fires that had
occurred near there.  One of the large ones was started by someone
burning TP.

In addition to the 2005 fire Donna mentions I think there was
another PCT hiker started fire in 2005 near Whitewater.

I learned my lesson just north of Warning Springs in 2004 when I
didn't clear enough space for my stove and a few blades of grass
caught on fire.  I had absolutely no trouble putting it out within
two to three seconds but it scared me quite a bit.

With the dry conditions being described this year for SoCal I'm
seriously considering doing my section hike starting in Agua Dulce
without a stove.

It is very easy for East coasters to misunderstand the ease at which
fires can start in the west.  Hot and humid is what we are used to
(I'm from Connecticut) not the bone-dry air of the SoCal desert.

Gary Wright (Radar)