Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

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Guy
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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by Guy » September 18th, 2017, 5:19 pm

retired jerry wrote:.......

For the Dollar Lake fire, they were able to get into the wilderness area with chainsaws and do a lot of maintenance. There will be some advantage to having this fire.
Yeah, hopefully the same emergency allowance will be made for chainsaws here too. If not we could end up loosing significant trail miles.
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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by Raven Falls » September 18th, 2017, 9:55 pm

I've heard very little in terms of reports on the fire's progress (or, hopefully, non-progress) today, other than "Yay! It's raining!" From inciweb's most recent map, it would appear that the fire's border is still slightly west of Starvation Creek State Park. Has anyone heard any more news about whether it seems likely the park will be spared?

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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by justpeachy » September 19th, 2017, 6:37 am

Guy wrote:Yeah, hopefully the same emergency allowance will be made for chainsaws here too. If not we could end up loosing significant trail miles.
Didn't the Forest Service give up on a number of trails in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness after the B&B Fires? I'm thinking of Sugar Pine Ridge, specifically, but I know there were others. I know that's a much more remote and inaccessible area than the Gorge, and a different national forest, but it's not the first time trails have been abandoned after a fire, and won't be the last. It's a troubling trend.

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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by aircooled » September 19th, 2017, 7:32 am

justpeachy wrote: Didn't the Forest Service give up on a number of trails in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness after the B&B Fires? I'm thinking of Sugar Pine Ridge, specifically, but I know there were others. I know that's a much more remote and inaccessible area than the Gorge, and a different national forest, but it's not the first time trails have been abandoned after a fire, and won't be the last. It's a troubling trend.
Sugar Pine, yes. Minto Pass Trail south from Marion Lake was not officially abandoned but badly neglected. I suspected that with few people willing to brave the gauntlet of blowdown every 20 or 30 feet they would then have an excuse to close it due to "lack of use." I fear a number of Gorge Trails will be "Perditioned" and others, rumor has it, may not open until 2019. (That's not a typo) USFS will protect us, for our own good of course.

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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by Guy » September 19th, 2017, 7:44 am

aircooled wrote: I fear a number of Gorge Trails will be "Perditioned" and others, rumor has it, may not open until 2019. (That's not a typo) USFS will protect us, for our own good of course.
Hike to Bull of the Woods LO from Elk Creek TH. Open and ready for use ;) This is what I fear:

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Blue Grass ridge on Hood would be another example of a trail that was pretty much left to it's own devises after the fire.
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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by jdemott » September 19th, 2017, 7:52 am

For the Dollar Lake fire, they were able to get into the wilderness area with chainsaws and do a lot of maintenance. There will be some advantage to having this fire
Your recollection is a little different than mine. I remember hiking in the Dollar Lake area the year after the fire and chatting with a Forest Service trail crew who were, somewhat painfully, clearing downed timber with a hand saw. They told me that there had been a brief waiver of the wilderness rules about power tools to allow removal of some standing timber that posed the greatest safety risk, but that most of the work had to be done by hand. When I saw them again at the end of the day, they hadn't made a lot of progress.

With the likelihood of severe erosion in the gorge, there will have to be a lot of work to stabilize the trails, not just clearing with chainsaws.

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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by Guy » September 19th, 2017, 7:59 am

jdemott wrote:

With the likelihood of severe erosion in the gorge, there will have to be a lot of work to stabilize the trails, not just clearing with chainsaws.
Totally Agree, but doing the clearing part with chain saws will still save many thousands of man hours that have to be either paid for or volunteered.
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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by mattisnotfrench » September 19th, 2017, 10:35 am

Guy wrote:
aircooled wrote: I fear a number of Gorge Trails will be "Perditioned" and others, rumor has it, may not open until 2019. (That's not a typo) USFS will protect us, for our own good of course.
Hike to Bull of the Woods LO from Elk Creek TH. Open and ready for use ;) This is what I fear:

Image

Blue Grass ridge on Hood would be another example of a trail that was pretty much left to it's own devises after the fire.
I'm going to make it a personal mission to get a trail crew in this area sometime next year if possible, even if I have to lead it myself. The way that area has been neglected is just sad, and unnecessary. I have it on good authority that a crew brushed out and fixed the Jefferson Lake Trail on the east side of Jefferson earlier this year - one of the brushiest, thorniest and longest trails in the entire region - so if that can be fixed, so can this.

As for trails in the Gorge being abandoned, I'm not worried about any of the official trails other than Moffett Creek and a couple others that don't see much use (and even those have their champions). In time they'll all be logged out and usable, even if it takes a couple years. I'm more worried about the unofficial trails we know and love, especially Rock of Ages Ridge and Munra which seems to have been hit fairly hard from what I've seen of long-distance photos. They weren't official trails so there may be less ability to bring them back. Now would be a great idea to bring them into the official trail system, but I'm quite worried about those and a few others (Rudolph Spur, Ruckel Ridge, etc) that might never be part of the trail system again.
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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by Don Nelsen » September 19th, 2017, 10:59 am

Raven Falls wrote:I've heard very little in terms of reports on the fire's progress (or, hopefully, non-progress) today, other than "Yay! It's raining!" From inciweb's most recent map, it would appear that the fire's border is still slightly west of Starvation Creek State Park. Has anyone heard any more news about whether it seems likely the park will be spared?
I drove SR 14 to and crossed at Hood River and came back on I84 yesterday (9/18) late afternoon. Very little smoke left in the gorge and only small wisps rising in the area from Defiance to the west side of Shellrock. No big plumes or evidence of anything but left over "warm" spots and smoldering areas. West of that, only a few very small areas of minor smoke in just a few spots. Looks to me like it is over and will be completely out when the rain finally soaks into the logs and trees burning inside and underneath.
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Re: Eagle Creek Trail (Gorge) Closed by Fire (July 5)

Post by jdemott » September 19th, 2017, 11:17 am

Totally Agree, but doing the clearing part with chain saws will still save many thousands of man hours that have to be either paid for or volunteered.
For sure. I hope they are able to use power tools and equipment for both clearing and stabilization. The job is so big that I doubt it will get done otherwise.

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