[pct-l] Sierra City to Belden to Chester

[Meridith Rosendahl]

I'd forgotten about the massive blowdowns in the Sierra last year.  Same was
true of the southern Cascades and the Castle Crags north area.  What happens
is that the trees, particularly the lodgepole pines, get heavy with snow in
their crowns, a big wind comes along and snaps the tree off part way up.
Shroomer (and everyone else who had to climb through that mess) would know
if there were also uprooted trees covering the trail.

This year with no storms  since December (until the mess that's happening
now) there may be fewer treefalls on the trail.  However, there were some
big winds associated with the present storm and gusts up to 40+- mph.

Just keep asking about conditions either on the list or you can call the
Lassen Nat'l forest office in Chester for conditions in the forest.  Those
of us who live in Norcal will probably offer some info about trail
conditions here on the list as well.

On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 11:49 PM, Scott Williams <baidarker at gmail.com>wrote:

> There was still considerable snow on some sections from Sierra City to
> Chester last year well into July, but the worst part of the Northern Sierra
> for us was the blow downs.  Folks that skipped the High Sierra and headed
> north before the trail crews had cleared things spent a lot of extra time
> climbing over massive fallen trees, and countless smaller ones.  One
> estimate early in the season was over 300 trees down per mile.  We're
> talking hundreds of miles.
>
> By the time my group got up there the trail crews had cleared many miles,
> but we still had plenty of climbing over a horrible trail mess.  For one
> typical section I counted trees in the trail we had to climb over.  I didn't
> count trees that were not a problem, and got to 85 in a quarter of a mile.
>  I lost count after that and just kept cussing.  That slowed us down as much
> as the snow had further south, and this was in late July.  May is pretty
> early for any place in the Sierra unless you're prepared for snow, and want
> to camp in it.  But then, a big melt off can change everything in a week or
> two.
>
> Shroomer
>
>
>