[pct-l] Alcohol stoves and fire bans

David Thibault dthibaul07 at gmail.com
Thu Sep 20 22:51:16 CDT 2012


Where I live in Southern Arizona this is actually pretty common.  Every few
years most of the hiking areas are closed for a month or two in the summer.

I try to understand the reasons but it still sucks knowing I can't go into
the forests for a walk - when I know that just walking thru the woods is
not going to start a fire.    Last year there wasn't a place to hike around
where I live (Tucson) without taveling at least 75 miles away  - with the
exception of some low desert - which is pretty much impossible to hike in
the dead of summer.

Day-Late



> Steel-Eye wrote:
>
> 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.
>
> .
>



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