[pct-l] Alcohol stoves and fire bans

CHUCK CHELIN steeleye at wildblue.net
Thu Sep 20 10:57:15 CDT 2012


Good morning, All,

Here's what happens: Anywhere, in any jurisdiction up and down the length
of the PCT, some manager who is under pressure to reduce human-caused fires
comes out of the office one day and dumps a big file on the desk of a
senior staffer saying, “Do something to make this problem go away!”

After reviewing the file and making appropriate inquiries the staffer
determines that the problem is not just that one clique of ultra-lite
long-distance hikers is peeved that the others don’t use the same little
stove that they do, the problem is that people, in general, are camping in
areas where there is simultaneously a high surface fuel load – meaning
sticks, dry brush, and grass, etc. – during periods when the humidity has
been low and the likelihood of wind is high.  That potentially can apply to
all of the PCT at some time during the hiking season except for some high,
barren-rock stretches of the Sierra, and parts of Washington when rain
rolls in from the Pacific.

The solution can’t include voluminous qualifications, caveats, guidelines,
advisories, exceptions, rules-of-thumb, or anything requiring on-site
review, judgment, administration, and enforcement; there is just no time
and no people to do that.

The apparent answer then becomes the closure of affected areas while the
unfavorable conditions exist:  That would mean closure for all recreational
use, not just on the trail, but everywhere and for everyone in the
jurisdiction; including but not limited to you and me, day-hikers,
weekenders, anglers and hunters, equestrians, dirt-bikers and off-roaders,
pot-heads, morons, MIT grads, do-gooders, and Aunt Tilley’s birder group.

Be careful of what you wish for, because you may get it.

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/



More information about the Pct-L mailing list