High Sierra Topix

I was in Death Valley last week for a couple nights with other Coleman collectors and talked with an older guy who was with some motorcycle riders at Panamint Springs Resort. He noticed we had stoves and lanterns and mentioned some places on the Kalifornia coast had banned liquid fuel stoves, opting for propane. Have you heard of this and where? Is this accurate info?
Duane

I'm not a Coleman white gas collector. I'm a user. I always have my stove and lanterns with me on camping trips. I have not heard of a ban. The northern California coast is usually green with low fire danger even in summer. I could understand this at inland areas and maybe the Socal coast in the heat of summer. I could not imagine sizzling my morning bacon and eggs on a propane contraption.

Same here. No propane/profane.
Duane

The California coast has had campfire bans in the campgrounds, and complete bans of all flame in the wilderness area. Campgrounds always let you use stoves, but wilderness, you may need to have cold coffee, stop smoking, leave your stove in the car, because the ban is total and complete.

Of course it's also miserably hot in summer being low elevation, and the poison oak is thick in places, the trails overgrown and sometimes disappearing into the brush - so not exactly the time of your life for folks who do not appreciate adventure. Still.

And oh yes - Sykes is still closed, as the trail on Pine Ridge is gone in some places. Going to take a while.

I guess bpers need to experience cold meals or use those self heating meals.
Duane

They only check for bear cans and permits. Don't touch my stove!

hikerduane wrote:some places on the Kalifornia coast had banned liquid fuel stoves, opting for propane.

As long as it's inside the cannister and under mild pressure, propane is a liquid fuel, so the way they're classifying that is a bit unclear. A propane stove that's running could start a fire just as easily as gas/diesel. If a propane canister ruptures, I'm not sure how quickly it evaporates into a gas or to what degree it could spill into humus (organic soil) and act as an accelerant.

I know how long it takes for a propane tank to empty. I've seen it first hand. Some women were unscrewing their propane tank next to us at Tioga Lk. It was cold and the valve didn't seal. Like an idiot, I tried to screw it back in w/o gloves on. Not the smartest move. It was a large canister. It took 4 hours for the can to vent.

Ahh, the memories.

I did once have a very large flame-up on my coleman peak 1. That was also fun. Melted the plastic control valve knob. I still reached in and shut it down.

I'll stick to white gas any day.

I think the individual may not have realized that the area concerned, the Los Padres National Forest, gets extremely hot and dry in the summer.

What usually happens is that fire restrictions go into effect sometime during the summer. Usually just open campfires, smoking, etc are banned but you van still use a backpacking stove.

Occasionally, like during some of the drought years the fire restrictions ban the use of backpacking stoves, too. So that means cold camping.

Our last big wildfire, the Soberanes Fire, was started by an illegal campfire. That and torrential rains during the ensuing winter did an amazing amount of damage. Palo Colorado Road will likely not open all the way to Bottchers Gap for years. Same with the western part of the Pine Ridge Trail.

Trail maintenance in the Ventana Wilderness is mostly done by volunteers.

It amazes me how oblivious people can be to the consequences of their actions.

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Forgot to mention: the fire restrictions are typically lifted after a certain amount of rain falls, usually in late autumn.

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