[pct-l] re illegal campfires...etc.

[Edward Anderson]

Hi Firefly,
I read your rant, and I share your concerns about alcohol stoves. Too risky. With the emphases on UL more and more hikers will be using them - just to save perhaps three ounces net, including wasted alcohol. If you are going to cook on the PCT, a canister stove is a far better choice. You can see the flame and also control it. You can shut it off. 
Please give my regards to FireWalker. I have a good picture of you riding off on Primo. I have included it in my PCT slide show. When I figure out how to do one of those "links", I will send it to you.
MendoRider-Hiker
 

________________________________
 From: Georgi Heitman <bobbnweav at gmail.com>
To: lauraann at peoplepc.com; pct-l at backcountry.net 
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 1:57 PM
Subject: [pct-l] re illegal campfires...etc.
  
Please notice that Laura posts from the Donner Summit area, far, far away
from SoCal.  Sometimes I think that those living below, oh, say Kennedy
Meadows South, feel they have a lock on the wildfire issue.  I know that's
not true, but sometimes it does feel like it is.  I love the area Laura
lives in, and my very favorite Girl Scout camp is just outside of Soda
Springs.  The thought of a wildfire thru this, oh so beautiful land leaves
me stricken!
I too, have a home in the woods, and not only is it much closer to the
PCT, maybe a mile as the crow flies, but in 2009, a lightning storm of epic
proportions lighted 39 separate fires in our valley, two very near my
home.  While this was a lightning storm, not a human error, the results
were quite devastating as we were still in a serious four year drought.
Our two fires grew into one large one and came within about a half to
three-quarters of our home, which, by the way, had something like 21
hikers, three volunteer helper angels, three cats and FireWalker and me in
residence during the storm, not an easy thing to evacuate, as those who
were there will recall.  With so many fires burning in this area our
available firefighting power was spread so thin (the Station fire was
raging down south, consuming everything in it's path and huge amounts of
manpower) that if the angels that watch over folks who live in the woods
hadn't sent serious rain, I'm not sure we'd have a home here today.  And
this was in Shasta County, NoCal.
It doesn't matter where you live, vacation or hike, people, fire is fire,
it can't control its self, the onus is on US, you and me, to keep it
harnessed and safe.  That's why the silly folks from the NFS and CDF (in
CA) restrict open flames in parts of their forests, and the NPS does the
same.  That's why I'll never stop arguing against alcohol stoves and we
even stopped supplying it to hikers.  Salt not withstanding, they're
dangerous, but more the point, fire ANYwhere is a force to be reckoned
with.  Those folk who light fires 'because they need it to cook and so it's
all right' are wrong and they perhaps need to determine in advance which
are the areas they will travel thru that have open flame restrictions and
plan for another type of meals as they hike those stretches.  They can take
heart from those who hike stoveless from border to border, it can be done!
Especially for short periods of time.  Phone calls to upcoming ranger or
forest service stations, police or sheriff departments can give folks the
latest in their areas fire conditions and restrictions as well as reinforce
that holding a fire permit does NOT void any local restrictions.  The north
state has had two wet seasons out of the last seven winters...this is year
number eight, and its been a very dry one so far.  Please don't come up
here planning to light fires, anywhere...it's neither safe nor necessary.
As Ned would say, 'be careful out there', (and not just with yourselves).
I've just reread this and it sounds sorta like a rant, and I guess it is,
but that's O.K., I'm postin' it anyway!
FireFly
P.S.  Oh, and Oregon and Washington have been known to burn too, especially
Oregon.  Having said that about OR, while I was helping out for a bit last
Sept. at the Dinsmore's Hiker Haven in WA, there was a wildfire burning
near enough to Baring/Skykomish to see the smoke and feel the concern of
the local folks.  To me, who lives in a land that hikers call 'high
desert', this area was far too lush and green for a fire to pose much of a
threat, but not to them.  And if memory serves, fire ran amok in the
Pasayten  Wilderness only a few years back.  Screw ambiance...think and act
responsibly, folks.....!
_______________________________________________
Pct-L mailing list
Pct-L at backcountry.net
To unsubcribe, or change options visit:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l

List Archives:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
All content is copyrighted by the respective authors. 
Reproduction is is prohibited without express permission.