[pct-l] Cutting a Fuller Ridge trail

[Bighummel at aol.com (Bighummel@aol.com)]

Hi Mike,

If you do this, the information that you gain would be highly useful to 
hikers at the ADZ and you can, and anyone else with pertinent information (as 
Meadow Ed is not the only one with information on trail snow and water conditions), 
can pipe up at the water report session.  

Additionally, Squeak (Jason Cramer) and I had thought about trying to break 
trail on Fuller Ridge from the north side, starting at Black Mountain 
campground on the same weekend.  I don't know if my schedule or my body condition will 
allow this.  

The problem with this is that early in the Spring the road to Black Mtn 
Campground is often closed and thus entails a long walk from the gate up to the 
campground.  However, as with all PCT hikers, no distance is ever too far to walk!

Best regards,

Greg Hummel

In a message dated 4/6/2005 10:13:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
maurer@earthlink.net writes:
Hi all,

After Trail Fest this weekend and before the Kick Off on the 22nd I 
think I'm going to have time to try and cut a trail across Fuller Ridge. 
As a reminder, I was up at Saddle Jct about 3-4 weeks ago and mentioned 
I might be able to do this for the Thru Hikers. My plan is more of a 
work trip than a hike - I'll plot the PCT every 1/4 mile on my GPS, hike 
up to Strawberry jct out of Idyllwild and basically follow the GPS, 
trying my best to stay on the trail. my goal is to carry crampons, ice 
axe and snow shoes. I will hike to Black Mountain campground and turn 
around. On the way back I will wear snow shoes (if I haven't already!) 
to try and make the trail as visible as possible. I plan on doing this 
friday April 15. I may also take some strips of orange material to tie 
to trees and shrubs.

I do have one philosophical question, though. I'm doing this so that I 
can be of service and help this years Thru Hiker pack get through the 
snow. It occurred to me though that maybe you Thru Hikers WANT the 
adventure and experience of breaking your own trail through Fuller 
Ridge, and that having someone lay it out for you might take away from 
the hiking experience as a whole. The last thing I want to accomplish 
here is to interfere with your adventure. If I end up cutting the trail 
I'd be happy to provide some sort of a summary at the Kick Off. 
Greg/Carl - perhaps you can tack me onto the end of Meadow Ed's water 
talk on Sat. afternoon? Otherwise, anyone can find me at the Gossamer 
booth all weekend. Either one works for me.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. As a reminder, I get these 
messages as a digest, not individually, so my responses might be slow.



Mike Maurer
Gossamer Gear