[pct-l] pct-l] update: Chips Fire explodes

[Eric Lee]

Clifford wrote:
>
It would seem that whoever might have started the camp fire went to sleep
earlier without putting it completely out, awoke later when the fire may
have been out of control, and left in a hurry in the middle of the night. I
wouldn't be surprised if they left in such a hurry, and in the dark that
they left behind many clues as to who they may have been.
>

It's always temping to speculate about things like this and to try to fill
in the missing details with our imaginations, but remember that we don't
have very many facts at this point and we'll probably never know the true
story.  There's a good possibility that a long-distance hiker was
responsible for this fire, but there's also a good chance that it was
someone else.  We just don't know.

Judging from the InciWeb maps (which are approximations) it looks like the
fire started at or maybe just before mile 1292 on Halfmile's map.  There's
not much there - just a side-hill traverse, switchbacks, and brush.  I hiked
that piece of trail about three weeks ago and I don't recall any decent camp
sites in that area, or at least not ones that had enough room for a campfire
as well as a place to sleep.  I was there in the morning, so maybe I just
wasn't paying attention.  From what I remember, though, it seems like an
unlikely place to have a campfire.

Maybe it was somebody taking a smoke break.  It was a weekend - was there a
concert at Beldon Town going on at that time?  Maybe somebody got bored with
the music scene and decided to wander up the trail for a bit, hang out, and
smoke interesting things.  Who knows?

Regardless, though, I agree that thrus or section hikers who regularly have
campfires on the trail are insane.  The benefit just isn't worth the risk.

Eric