[pct-l] PCT Trail Maint Florence Lake and Rescue

[Ken Murray]

Of note:  My trail maintenance group was involved in this rescue, and although not mentioned in this report, one of the main issues was that the hiker activated a SPOT, and the two helicopters that spent collectively over 7 hours looking for her could not find her, because it apparently incorrectly identified her location.  The trail crew, which had US Forest Service radios and was monitoring the radio traffic, was aware of what was going on, and was also talking to hikers walking through the area, and was able to ascertain where she actually was.

==============
Here are the details of the just-completed trip. 

PCT Trip: August 5th through August 13th

 

On Friday August 5th we camped at Florence Lake to acclimate to the altitude. On August 6th we hiked to and established base camp. On August 13th we hiked out of camp. Below are the totals for the six work days in between. 

 

We maintained two separate camps near where the PCT crosses Senger Creek in the John Muir Wilderness Area. The camps were about 1000 feet apart with one camp working north towards Seldon Pass and one working south towards Paiute Creek (NP boundary). Below are the totals:


The northern group's (led by John Bradford and Mike Nolan) completion of work , all on the PCT, is as follows:


Water Bars installed: 17
Water Bars cleaned: 16
Rocked* :  3 miles of trail
Brushed: 1 mile
Constructed: 50 feet of puncheon on trial which was previously a channel of water rather than a trail

The southern group's (Tony's) completion of work is as follows:
Water Bars installed: 0
Water Bars cleaned: 72
Water Bars repaired/re-set: 10
Dips cleaned: 7
tree obstructions removed**:  33
Rocked*:  2.45 miles
Brushed:  6.55 miles


Grand Total of the two groups:
Water Bars installed: 17
Water Bars cleaned: 88
Water Bars repaired/re-set: 10
Dips cleaned: 7
tree obstructions removed: 33
Rocked: 5.45
Brushed: 7.55 miles
Constructed: 50 feet of puncheon


Notes for the southern group:

Included in the amounts of the southern group is work done on PCT feeder trails, specifically the Sallie Keyes Cut-off trail and the Florence Lake trail to PCT. If you wish to know these non-PCT numbers from the total above, they are: 41 Water Bars cleaned;  4 Water bars repaired/re-set; trees removed: 5; rocked: 0.9 miles; 2.4 miles brushed;

We reached the Paiute Creek bridge (NP boundary) on Wednesday but could only rock/brush 0.3 miles of trail (out of a total of the far 1.8 mile segment of trail). The crew was on the verge of heat exhaustion as it was nearly a 12 mile round trip hike and 1,500 foot elevation change in addition to doing the work. If you need a more detailed background, I can provide the numbers for each segment of the trail. 

Tony Cortez
Crew Leader, PCT Crew August 5-13.2011

*Rocked means loose rocks removed from trail. The rocks were golf ball size or larger (especially the circular ones which could twist ankles). We did not remove the rocks  that were embedded in the trail or served a purpose of soil retention. 

** Saplings or trees which intruded onto the trail were removed- manually, axe, or saw; We did not buck any trees; 

End, Tony Report
----- *****-------

 Tony left out that on Monday August 15th, a JMT/PCT hiker had fallen and broke her ankle near our location, Tony sent the following in a cover letter, each crew leader files a trip report for work accomplished but under a separate cover letter send me details on what worked and did not work on that trip and how we can improve our program and  the work being provided to the USFS so that we continue to provide the highest possible events for volunteer yet maintain a credibility level with the USFS. So here is one paragraph of from a two page report from Tony.

Shane;

The Rescue- You'll get the details from others but at a higher level, here is my story. We monitored the activities of the aerial search on the radio. We correctly deduced that it was not anyone in our group. I did not want us involved in the search as the last thing the searchers need is fourteen civilians trampling on any footprints or otherwise interfering in their activities. From several encounters with hikers we gathered intelligence on where she might be. Once our group received the missing person's note, we became involved. The latitude-longitude from the note was relayed to Eagle 1. Once it was apparent that they could not find her, I instructed Kevin and Will to look for her and find her before dark. They went up to base camp, gathered supplies, and met with Dave. Dave conferred with them and agreed to send them up. The two of them are wilderness-savvy, work well together, know their limitations, and are experienced - I had trust in their abilities and decision making skills. I think the bottom line is they located her after the aerial search had given up, found her before dark, and before the next morning when ground SAR would probably be dispatched.  They did a great job, both physically getting there so soon and also communicating properly with Sierra Dispatch. I think this experience is what builds leadership skills and this was a good learning experience for the two of them. The experience will benefit them in life, gives them a good story, and helps develop leadership HSVTC needs. They were given the opportunity to fail and they succeeded. They are good boys.
_____******______

Additional info

The Sheriffs Eagle One flew 5.5 hours without locating the injured hiker

CHP H 40 flew 2.5 hours without location either and was standing by at the air base in Fresno awaiting two Fresno Sheriff SAR Team members they were going to air lift up and allow to search over night when our crew became involved. With our crew assistance the injured hiker was air lifted out around 7:30 pm and transported to a medical facility that evening.

 

Sincerely 


Shane Krogen

Executive Director


High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew
trailcrew.org