[pct-l] Fire and the trail from Sonora Pass to Echo

[Tom Grundy]

Good to hear.  Sorry to have jumped the gun with interpretation of that
picture of the toasted 'this way to Ebbett's Pass' road sign!  Apparently,
rumors are not worth much.  Who knew!  Click those links to get the fire
perimeter maps and details, and keep fingers crossed for a while yet.

On Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 10:41 AM, Douglas Tow <douglastow at gmail.com> wrote:

> I spent the last four days driving this entire area, feeding hikers at
> Sonora Pass Monday, driving hikers at Sonora Pass, Kennedy Meadows,
> Bridgeport, and South Lake Tahoe on Tuesday, and feeding hikers at Ebbetts
> Pass on Wednesday and Thursday (yes, despite that many signs say Ebbetts
> Pass is closed).  I personally spoke Wednesday and Thursday, variously, to
> CalTrans, the Forest Service, and the Alpine County Sheriff as they passed
> by in their trucks.
>
> The current status is this:  The entire trail from Sonora Pass to Echo is
> open, hikable, safe, and without smoke that would cause problems.  Hikers
> pass closest to the fire (yet still quite some miles away) between Ebbetts
> Pass/Highway 4 crossing and Carson Pass.
>
> 1.  You cannot drive from the east to go up Highway 4 to go to the Ebbetts
> Pass/PCT crossing.  The signs on Highway 4 coming from the west say "Closed
> at Alpine Lake" but this is not true:  The closure is about 18 miles
> further than that, so a car can get to the actual PCT crossing 200 yards
> east of Ebbetts Pass.
>
> 2.  I spoke to hikers at Echo Lake on Tuesday, and they did not have any
> difficulty.
>
> 3.  At least one Forest Service flyer is misleading, in that it says "PCT -
> Ebbetts Pass closed."  What it meant to say was that cars were not able to
> access Ebbetts Pass to meet or provide support to hikers, except that cars
> did come from the west to do just that.
>
> 4.  CalTrans personnel in a truck at Ebbetts Pass said Thursday that
> Highway 4 MIGHT reopen for full passage on Friday, June 26.
>
> 5..  Between LAST Friday and Monday, there was one point where the Forest
> Service or other jurisdictions took hikers off at the Highway 4 crossing to
> civilization, due to uncertainty about the direction of the fire's growth.
>
> Chipmunk
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