Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Kick-Off Weekend?

I ran into some folks from the PCTA doing trail work yesterday and one of them (who knows Ken) mentioned that the kick-off was this past weekend...

Anyway, if anyone knows any of those folks, could you pass a message along that the section on the contour around Bear has several (4?) trees down across the trail... It looks like they've already gone north from Canebrake Road and were heading south from Kennedy Meadows when I ran into them, but they were way north (10 miles?) of where the damage was.

Another option is for me to ride up to Bear on the motorcycle and head down to the PCT with my 30" hand saw... Good upper body workout.

Richard,

Do you mean the Bear north of Fox Mill Spring and south of Chimney Basin Road?

I can get info to someone, or you can send an email to info@pcta.org

I know they are going crazy trying to deal with the massive blowdowns around Reds Meadow and suspect there are widespread blowdowns elsewhere no one's reported from yet.

Yes.

With the contact info you provided, I can send them a note. Thanks.

I hear that getting the Reds Meadow area clear is going to be a really big effort.

Yah, I've been hearing about this.... bummer! One year I was in the Pallisade Creek area and there were downed trees across the trail every couple hundred feet - NOT fun climbing over or going around!

Here's some of the pictures of the damage in the Reds Meadow area:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/photogallery/inyo/home/gallery/?cid=3635&position=Quicklinks

It's gonna be quite a job.

Richard, got the note below.

Small world!

There was another crew working from Walker Pass, as well. I believe that this group (Trail Gorillas) are working to get that whole section cleared of trees. In fact, may already have. Here was the note from Tom's wife, Beth:

Interesting. Sounds like they were moving faster than I thought they'd be able to. That's a lot of mileage that they covered, although the trail was in really good shape except for the few places where I had to climb over the trees. I could imagine how frustrating that would be with a heavy pack!

Anyway, I asked about Dr. Murray and got a funny look... then I said "Ken Murray - he does a lot of volunteer work..." Then he said he knew you.