From james8313 at sti.net Mon Aug 2 23:02:33 2021 From: james8313 at sti.net (james8313 at sti.net) Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2021 21:02:33 -0700 Subject: [pct-l] Hiker killed by lightning Near Muir Trail Ranch Message-ID: <3407ab873aad7990ba6c04f07958b788@127.0.0.1> >From the Fresno Bee - 2 Aug 2021 Hiker struck, killed by lightning near John Muir Trail in Sierra wilderness of Fresno County A 37-year-old man was struck and killed by lightning near the John Muir Trail in Fresno County on Friday afternoon. The man was identified as Nicholas Torchia of Fresno. The Fresno County Coroner?s Office determined Torchia died by electrocution caused by lightning. Torchia was struck by lightning near Muir Trail Ranch, a remote, roadless location east of Florence Lake, while he was on the Sallie Keyes Cutoff, a short segment between the John Muir Trail and Florence Lake Trail. The Fresno County Sheriff?s Office got a call about the incident around 2:20 p.m. Friday and Torchia?s body was recovered around 6 p.m. once a California Highway Patrol helicopter was able to fly in during a break in the storm, sheriff?s spokesman Tony Botti said. ?Torchia took cover by leaning against a tree,? Botti said, ?a tree which was then struck by a lightning bolt. Torchia fell to the ground. His fellow hikers came to check on him and he told them he didn?t feel well and then became unconscious. A doctor and a nurse who were on the trail tended to Torchia by administering CPR for three hours. Despite their great efforts, he ultimately passed away.? Stacy Corless, a Mono County supervisor, was at Muir Trail Ranch then and said her friend was the doctor who administered CPR. Corless hopes the family takes some comfort knowing medical professionals were there with him, in addition to a pastor who was hiking the John Muir Trail. No one else was injured by the lightning strike. Lt. Kathy Curtice, in charge of the Fresno County Sheriff?s Office Search and Rescue team, said she?s unaware of anyone else ever being struck by lightning in Fresno County, although afternoon thunderstorms are common in the Sierra Nevada. Her career in search and rescue spans a couple of decades. In 2017, a family camping farther south, around Jennie Lake in Tulare County, were struck by lightning and survived. Muir Trail Ranch is a popular resupply spot in the John Muir Wilderness for hikers on the John Muir Trail, which spans 211 miles from Yosemite National Park to Mount Whitney. Much of it overlaps the longer Pacific Crest Trail. Officials on Monday weren?t sure where Torchia was heading or had been. Corless said she heard from others who were fairly certain he had been hiking the John Muir Trail. Corless said the lightning storm Friday seemed to start suddenly with little warning. She thinks Torchia was likely struck by one of the earliest bolts. ?When it started, there was a huge flash of lightning and a huge crash of thunder all at once that likely was the strike,? Corless said, ?but I can?t say for sure. ... It was a really severe storm. It rained for several hours and bad weather continued until maybe 5:30 or so.? Curtice said it was unsafe to fly in earlier because of the storms. She said a search and rescue team was preparing to hike in to the location around 8,000 feet in elevation when a break in the storm occurred and a CHP helicopter was able to instead retrieve Torchia?s body. While the chances of being struck by lightning are slim, those in a thunderstorm are advised to drop down to lower ground, and stay away from objects that can be conductors of electricity, Curtice said, including metal and tall objects. Curtice added that she doesn?t want those tips to be construed as any kind of blame for the victim. It also appeared Torchia could have been hit by the first lightning strike of the storm, she said. ?It?s just a tragedy,? Curtice said. ?It was someone who was up recreating in the wilderness. It?s a very unfortunate accident.? ***************************https://webmail.sti.net/tuxedo/?_task=mail&_id=12659971716108bd4697e0e&_action=compose#reply-to Yosemite James From pctl at oakapple.net Sat Aug 21 09:47:42 2021 From: pctl at oakapple.net (David Hough reading PCT-L) Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2021 07:47:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [pct-l] no progress on PCT this weekend Message-ID: <202108211447.17LElgSV009810@server-f.oakapple.net> While I was setting up a car shuttle for a one-way hike from Ebbetts to Sonora Pass, Toiyabe NF was issuing an order closing the PCT from Sonora Pass to Carson, so now the PCT is closed from Sonora Pass to Ashland. There's some good reasons for that - winds gusting to 45mph along the crest today would make any fire start a major concern. Toiyabe thoughtfully allowed day use of all other trails (except Tahoe Rim Trail) and overnight camping in regular car campgrounds. But I will be exploring parts of the Tahoe Yosemite Trail that I've never visited, from Clark Fork or from Kennedy Meadows north. Maybe backpacking tomorrow night if the winds ease. TYT is lower elevation and in this area entirely within Stanislaus NF which so far has not issued any blanket closures. There's some smoke in the air but so far it seems tolerable. The fires are well to the north. Highway 50 is closed, but 88, 4, and 108 are still open. From pctl at oakapple.net Fri Aug 27 19:54:11 2021 From: pctl at oakapple.net (David Hough reading PCT-L) Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2021 17:54:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [pct-l] what can you do when the PCT is closed? Message-ID: <202108280054.17S0sB01012550@server-f.oakapple.net> Carefully consulting all available resources, I planned a shuttle hike from Ebbetts Pass to Sonora Pass. This was perfectly legal on Thursday 19th. On Friday 20th I started to set up the shuttle. On Saturday 21st I was planning to finish the shuttle, but learned that Toiyabe NF had closed the PCT from Sonora Pass north - in combination with other closures, that means all the way to a couple miles east of Mt Ashland where the PCT finally leaves Klamath NF and Region 5. What to do? Parts of the PCT are on the west side of the crest, in Stanislaus NF, which is not (yet) closed. So I thought about hiking from Iceberg Meadow up Disaster Creek to the PCT near Disaster Peak, then south as far as the trail to Boulder Lake, where I'd reached on my previous hike in this area. (These places might be somewhat familiar to persons who've tried to hike the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail, which I've been working on piecemeal for 50 years). That didn't work since these side trails are a LOT steeper and rougher than the newer parts of the PCT. So I got as far as Paradise Valley, which isn't a bad place to view Disaster Peak and appreciate bovine beauty and equine trail mementos (pretty much the same everywhere between Sonora Pass and Ebbetts Pass). On other days I covered a bit of the TYT from Sand Flat Campground on the Clark Fork up to Woods Gulch, and then from Kennedy Meadows North up to the junction with the Kennedy Creek trail. LOTS of hiker and equestrian traffic on the trails out of Kennedy Meadows North. In contrast, it was possible to find a campsite in the Clark Fork region even on Saturday night. I'd been up Kennedy Creek to Sharon Lake about 40 years ago but seismic activity must have made the trail steeper and rougher since then. What about through hikers, assuming there might be some in future years? Yogi's book recommends Walker/Coleville over Bridgeport as being cheaper, which they are, but it's all a very tough hitch from Sonora Pass. And while Walker and Coleville have some advantages for section hikers and others with cars, they are not as hiker-friendly as Bridgeport - spread out further and fewer facilities. The Post Office in Coleville is a mile out of town. So is the nice lodging at Meadowcliff KOA, but in the opposite direction. Otherwise a nice place to stay. They light up the cliffs at night. As for fine dining, the Walker Burger closed at 7pm, leaving the remaining choice a 10 mile drive to the Topaz Lake Casino, just over the state line of course. (If you haven't done the whole 395 trip, you might not know that Topaz Lake, like Tahoe, was accidentally divided between CA and NV.) The casino dining room was open until 10pm, and the food was just OK. They were understaffed like everybody else. The TYT used to be a road walk from Kennedy Meadows North to St Marys Pass, just west of Sonora Pass. Nobody recommends that - it's steep, winding, and narrow, but lots of people drive as if it weren't. So what's a through hiker to do? Sonora Pass is probably two days away from Kennedy if you go back the way you came to Bond Pass so as not to miss a single exciting PCT mile. You'll probably want to hitch instead. Getting from Kennedy Meadows up to Sonora Pass is probably vastly easier than getting from Sonora Pass to anywhere else. But Sonora Pass is where your PCT hike ends this year. Good luck! If you opt to exit via Sonora, the Alladin Motel is nice and next to a nice restaurant, and close to an Enterprise Car Rental (important for one-way section hikers). But Sonora itself is very spread out, too much to be a good trail town, although you can probably find everything you need eventually. There's a nice brewpub on S Washington street in the old downtown. There were some good points - a few flowers still blooming here and there, and no water worries on these rough access trails - water is running often enough that you don't need to think about it - quite unlike crest trails. From pctl at oakapple.net Tue Aug 31 09:29:22 2021 From: pctl at oakapple.net (David Hough reading PCT-L) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2021 07:29:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [pct-l] All California National Forests closed through Sep 17 Message-ID: <202108311429.17VETMVH009683@server-f.oakapple.net> That's what I call a serious closure - https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/30/all-national-forests-in-california-will-close-to-visitors/ If there are any through hikers still persevering, they should be at Cascade Locks by now. From gary at hbfun.org Tue Aug 31 12:06:21 2021 From: gary at hbfun.org (gary at hbfun.org) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2021 10:06:21 -0700 Subject: [pct-l] All California National Forests closed through Sep 17 In-Reply-To: <202108311429.17VETMVH009683@server-f.oakapple.net> References: <202108311429.17VETMVH009683@server-f.oakapple.net> Message-ID: <45dadc5565b41189cb9cdd1cc2751112@hbfun.org> The Angeles has now posted the order on their website. Rec.gov just now canceled my permit for Pine Creek Pass. :-( Gary On 2021-08-31 07:29, David Hough reading PCT-L wrote: > That's what I call a serious closure - > > https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/30/all-national-forests-in-california-will-close-to-visitors/ > > If there are any through hikers still persevering, they should be at > Cascade > Locks by now.