The main problem seems to have been all the Portland folks taking "social distancing" to mean driving long distances through rural areas to the only places they knew about: Instagram-worthy outdoor destinations. Apparently last weekend was super crowded!romann wrote: ↑March 28th, 2020, 4:11 pmIs it still legal to drive around in GPNF? What about car camping? Cycling/"bikepacking"? Fishing? I don't think they have answers figured out just yet.. The primary motivation for the order seems to be city people stopping at local businesses and spreading infection, so they may want to shut down ALL recreation.
The new orders were intended to curb that unsafe behavior, and if the authorities had to go to the length of specifying exactly what could possibly be allowed and disallowed, it would have taken them weeks to get around to these closures, and of course we don't have weeks.
The secondary problem is that, just with people being out on the road and out in the hills, a certain number of inadvertent infections with occur, as well as a certain number of vehicle accidents and SAR situations, which means more risk of inadvertent infections, as well as increased burden on the healthcare system. Of course, any one person's risk of such is very small, but reducing the population's overall risk right now helps our healthcare system. That's why it's frustrating to read legalistic, nitpicking comments about what's legal and what's not legal.
The rules were not written with legalistic interpretations in mind, but rather with crystal clear intent: don't travel for recreation.