[pct-l] Deadly Storm Wipes Out Road at Mt. Hood

[Wayne Kraft]

It may be a while before there is any assessment of damage to the  
PCT. Access to the trail is cut off at many popular spots  Lolo Pass  
Road, for example, which crosses the PCT just north of Mt Hood is  
wiped out and may not be open for a while.  During this storm huge  
amounts of rain were dumped in short periods of time and it was  
extremely warm.  Hourly records kept for a location at 7000' at a  
location above Timberline Lodge showed 24 hour periods of heavy rain  
during which the temperature did not dip below 50 degrees.  Any  
accumulated or lingering snow was doubtless added to the deluge.   
There are not many rain gauges up there, but to give some  
perspective,  Saddle Mountain, a popular hiking destination in the  
Oregon Coast Range recorded 17 inches of rainfall in five days.  I  
anticipate that the Zigzag and Little Zigag Canyons that the PCT  
crosses just after it passes Timberline will show substantial  
erosion, that the Sandy River, about 10 miles from Timberline will  
have damaged the trail in some way and that the Muddy Fork may have  
demolished the brand new bridge on the Bald Mountain alternate.  I  
would love to see some of this first hand, but it is not likely to  
happen.  I am concerned that, until the situation stabilizes, there  
is a risk of multiple landslides with hikers caught between them with  
no way out.  Once this situation stabilizes, the trail will probably  
be covered by snow soon thereafter.  I mention the Mt Hood area  
because I know it best.  There may be similar problems to the south  
of Mt Hood and, I am sure, up into Washington

This will be a crucial year for volunteer trail maintenance activity.


On Nov 9, 2006, at 10:05 AM, Jim Keener wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> Does this affect the PCT? (URL to sfgate.com):
>
> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/11/09/ 
> national/a094316S57.DTL
>
> J J
>
> http://electricpath.com
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________ 
> ______________
> Want to start your own business?
> Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.
> http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index
> _______________________________________________
> pct-l mailing list
> pct-l at backcountry.net
> unsubscribe or change options:
> http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l