[pct-l] No PCT trail fire closure south of Seiad Valley - Marbles PCT Open

[Deems]

I waited until I got to work this morning to get the current USFS view of 
this story. The PCT was not closed south of SV, tho it did burn from the 
Marble Mtn Wilderness border to Big Ridge and Buckhorn Mtn. The fire blew up 
on Wed Oct 1 due to the high winds coming in on the impending rain storm, 
the first rain in over 3 months. The Panther fire which was at 48,000 acres 
and fairly stable for some time in the Marbles, woke up and blew down the 
Burney creek valley into the Elk creek drainage and blew up both sides of 
the Elk Creek canyon into a nearly 20,000 acre new fire storm, all in one 
day! I picked up the hiker mentioned on Wed in Medford and dropped him/her 
off at the SV Store on Thur morning, but I had no idea the fire had moved so 
far east; nearly 5 miles. We both watched the huge column of smoke mixed 
into the rain clouds blowing in from the west as we drove down Hwy 96 to SV. 
When I got into work on Th morning, I learned that the fire was in the upper 
Grider Creek drainage, so I told them I just dropped off a PCT hiker at the 
SV Store and they are headed south. That is when the USFS Rec Officer hiked 
out and met the hiker and advised him/her that you are hiking into a fire 
that we don't know much about. The FS was just getting into gear, didn't 
know the extent or intensity yet, couldn't fly over the fire because of 
clouds, and Big Ridge was in the clouds. When contacted on the trail by the 
FS, the hiker was given the option of continuing on, but declined and was 
given a ride back to a warm dry house. The information was radioed back and 
forth all the way up to the Forest Supervisor, with respect to the hiker. 
The PCT was hiked and reviewed by the Rec Officer on Friday 10/2 and was 
found to have burned very hot and the choice by the hiker and FS the day 
before was a wise one.
~~^^~~^^~^^~
But now the PCT is fine for hiking, it rained for three days, and was never 
officially closed by the USFS. You will however see some freshly fall burned 
forests on the north end of Big Ridge. The Big Tree at Buckhorn Springs did 
not burn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Retro reports a new PCT fire closure south of Seiad Valley California,  and 
a second hand
report of the FS removing a hiker from the closed section.

No reports on the NFS Klamath web site or  the ONCC web site.

http://postholer.com/journal/viewJournal.php?entry_id=5840