[pct-l] Belden closure

[Trekker4 at aol.com]

I have no  idea who sent me this:
    There's no fire burning in that stretch...at  least not at this precise 
moment, so you're in no danger of burning to  death.  It would seem to me 
that the sound of chainsaws, axes and such  would be noticeable from some 
distance and so would the sounds of a gang, or  even just a few guys/gals 
having lunch or dinner, maybe even the sounds of stock  animals.  Now, please 
don't take what I've written here as a suggestion  that anyone break the 
law....that avoiding trail maintenance workers makes  everything o.k, just because 
you never ran into anyone who told you to  leave...I'd never advocate 
breaking the law.  I'm only commenting on the  fact that the area in ?? isn't 
burning, and that perhaps walking around  some parts of the trail might be 
acceptable...I mean, you walk around blow-downs  and slide areas all the time, 
right?
 
 Yea,  my thoughts rather precisely. The PCTA site says something like 
"blowdowns and  poor trail conditions". Why don't they close all the other 
places with lots of  blowdowns; I reported close to 1,000 blowdowns last summer, 
but none  of those sections were closed; I clambered steeply downhill 
through a 200+ tree  blowdown pile just S of Sisters Mirror Lake last summer, but 
it wasn't closed. I  walked through a burn area still smoking in 2-3 spots 
right by the trail, but it  wasn't closed.   
That 5 miles was just as dangerous right after  the fire as it is now. 
That's like the three informal, decades old, and  unpoliced Border crossings in 
Big Bend that were suddenly closed 6 MONTHS  after 9/11, for "national 
security reasons", destroying the only real revenue  (tourism) for three, small 
Mexican villages.
    The substitution of common sense for some  poorly thought out actions 
has always been extremely inconsistent. There's not  much we can do about it. 
They've published no detour or walkaround  details, so how can the trail be 
closed? Besides, if one walks just off the  trail, is that walking on the 
trail? Is it illegal to walk beside a closed  trail? Who owns that forest 
anyhow? Just a taxpayer/owner askin'  questions...  


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