[pct-l] Fire Closures in General

[Lou Filliger]

I've read some of the posts here about the fire closures, specifically the ones through 
Plumas.

I'm very upset about the closures.  I've been upset about it for 2 weeks now and the anger 
is not going away.    I was planning to hike through there and had to cancel.  Now, I 
realize full well that the people whose homes were endangered were a lot more 
inconvenienced by the fires than I was.  I also realize that the forest service may be 
acting "in my best interest" (in their opinion) by ordering the closures.

I find both of those things to be irrelevant to the issue at hand.   I'm an adult, and the 
government is not my parent.  If I choose to accept the risk of hiking through a dangerous 
area I should be able to do so, as a free citizen of a supposedly free country.   I 
especially don't buy the argument that the trail needs to be closed so that "if a problem 
occurs, valuable resourses will have to be pulled away from the fires to come rescue me." 
I don't ask for rescue, I don't want rescue, and in fact, I would not accept rescue if it 
came.   If someone tries to rescue me without my having asked them, it's their 
responsibility, not mine (and part of a faulty department policy if you ask me.)  And my 
staying out of the closed area won't help bring back the houses of those unfortunate 
people who lost them.

It's part of the adventure of going into the back country that, for one reason or another, 
you may not come out again.  Now the government has taken this right away from us as they 
will eventually take everything else.  Why not stand up and make a stand about it while we 
still have a chance to, before even our right to complain is taken away? It's only a 
matter of time - it will happen in our lifetimes if things keep going at the rate they are 
now.

So, to me, the question of crossing a closure order is the wrong question.  I am a 
law-abiding citizen and would never cross a closure order.  The question is why haven't we 
put a stop to these arbitrary closures, or, more precisely, why don't we put a stop to it? 
I am not my brother's keeper, and vice versa.  I hope this message gets archived in its 
entirety; if everyone started speaking out like this the bureaucrats would finally be 
forced to do what they were hired to do, namely, allow us to use our nations' parks and 
wildernesses as we see fit, unfettered, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

Sincerely
Lou Filliger