[pct-l] Trail closures

[Marcia Powers]

The maps that someone posted a link to had the forest closure boundaries. The entire area within the boundaries is closed to any activities.

When we hiked the CDT the forest was closed because of fire hazard. The forest ranger in Grants, New Mexico knew that hikers would go into the closed forest to hike the CDT route. His solution was to issue CDT thru hikers special permits so that he knew exactly who was in the forest and where they would be. The permit was for the few days necessary to get through the closure. There was a water drop so we didn't have to leave the route to get water. Permit specified that we could not be more than 50 feet from the trail. That was a win win situation and I wish that the forest service would do that for the PCT hikers in April.

It is hard to know what a burned out trail looks like. I have seen damage that is limited to burned snags that threaten to fall onto the trail. I have also seen burned trail with frequent downed logs over the trail. Climbing over them is a very sooty, dirty, slow chore. We also hiked through wilderness area on the Idaho Centennial Trail was so severely burned that we sank into the ground where tree trunks had burned beneath the surface of the soil. There was no clue as to where the former trail had been.

ADZPCTKO will have the final word as to a reroute or trail opening.