Friday, May 22, 2015

Fire closure

In 2013 the Mountain Fire swept through areas that the PCT traverses, burning over 27,000 acres of land (thanks Wikipedia!). This section of the PCT remains closed. Last year some hikers attempted to cross through the closure and were fined $2,500 each. There is an official detour but it involves a lot of road walking and a very small campground. To avoid that, many hikers are hitchhiking the 17 miles from the Paradise Cafe to Idyllwild. David, Rebecca and I have done that and are staying in a hotel in Idyllwild tonight (we were lucky to get a room on Memorial Day weekend) and will be hiking the Deer Spring Trail and rejoining the PCT at mile 183 tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. Hiking buddies sound cool. Speaking of cool, oddly enough it's been running about 15-20 degrees cooler down there where you are than 1000 miles to the north up here in Portland. Looks like it gets warmer everywhere after the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the hitch hiking sounds better than the official detour. If they are closing off part of the PCT, it sounds reasonable to jump around it.

    ReplyDelete