[pct-l] WTA on Suiattle River Crossing repair

[Jeff Whitmer]

I wish I had known about this far enough in advance to provide my thoughts
to the Forest Service.

I volunteered for Sequoia National Forest for a summer. Most of it was
slinging a misery whip (cross cut saw) to clear massive trees. Almost
everyone we saw on the trail was genuinely appreciative of our efforts to
clear the trees, but almost everyone asked why we used the 100 year old
technology rather than a modern chainsaw. There are many reasons why I
preferred the crosscut, but the official reason was "wilderness." The NFS
wouldn't allow anything else in the wilderness. I asked every person I met
and no one had any objections to using a chainsaw in the wilderness. Less
than a mile away the NPS used chainsaws in their designated wilderness. The
Forest Service is very old and backwards. We were eventually cleared to use
chainsaws to reclaim a long forgotten trail that has many, many similarities
to the PCT in glacier that has been "cut off." And this wasn't even a
National Scenic Trail! It was a "going away gift" from the district ranger.

I know excavators and explosives are a lot different, but the general mood I
took away from that summer is that most wilderness users are okay with
putting up with non-wilderness approved devices for the the purposes of
trail maintenance. Of course, the bridge is a whole different story, as that
is "permanent structure." Permanent until the Suiattle decides to do away
with it again, that is.

Anyways, if they can make a bridge that they are confident will last a long
time, I will be one of the first to sign up and help them, if they are
taking volunteers.

Perhaps Ken Murray will chime in, as he pitched in quite a bit with the
chainsaws in the Sierra.

-Jeff

On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 5:36 AM, Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com <
diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:

>
> On May 9, 2009, at 6:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> >
> > Seems like all the hikers have gotten across the area for the last
> > 6 years
> > in all kinds of wild weather just fine. Why fix what's not broken ??
> >
> > PCT MOM
>
> For stock?
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