uh-oh. This is not good.

Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
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dave54
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Re: uh-oh. This is not good.

Post by dave54 »

asabat wrote: I guess it depends on what type of recreation. For hiking and climbing, I find too many areas in the forest closed, either completely because it's the "land of many uses" ... or fish and wildlife issues...
????

Some of the best hiking, most solitude, and least sign of human use is in some of the multiple use areas. As I alluded to in my earlier post, Wilderness is just another land designation, nothing special or unique about it, except Wilderness trails often get more foot traffic than non-Wilderness trails. Some non-Wilderness trails near here get less traffic over the course of a year than the Wilderness trails get in a single weekend. One July I hiked the trail to Ridge Lake, just south of LVNP, and my footprints were the first ones on the trail. In September the same year I hiked in again, and I saw only one additional set of tracks other than my originals from July. I have stayed at Heart Lake on a three day weekend and saw no one else the entire trip. Neither of these are in a Wilderness (I have camped in my RV right in the middle of multiple use forest and not seen another soul on a 3 day weekend -- you just have to know where to go). One the other hand... If you don't start into Long Lake in the Wilderness by midday Friday you may not be able to find a campsite for all the other people that preceded you...

You can spend all the time you want in the local overrun trendy Wilderness. I'll be elsewhere at a non-publicized 'multiple-use' area with solitude, more wildlife, and less sign of human impact.
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AldeFarte
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Re: uh-oh. This is not good.

Post by AldeFarte »

Dave. Good point. You have that spot on. Some of my favorite places in the sierra's are right under the nose of the crowd. And it's fun finding them.There is a lot of country up there. jls
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asabat
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Re: uh-oh. This is not good.

Post by asabat »

A current example - a popular trail in a local forest has been closed since summer because a fire went through. The word now is the trail will be closed for TWO YEARS until they can make it "safe" again. They will not use volunteer trail crews as the danger is "too extreme." This in spite of heavy storms, snow, and wind this year, that no doubt has toppled the dangerous burned trees. Personally, I believe that a trail like this in NPS jurisdiction would be opened much sooner than two years.

Please understand, I'm not saying one agency or another is the best. I'm saying I don't see huge impacts to self-propelled backcountry users no matter who is there, but have tried to point out that, at least in So Cal, IMO the USFS does not place recreation as a high priority.
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