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SocalJim
ParticipantAdd to the “good news:” Snow fire at 3500 acres with 5% containment in the Snow Creek area north of Mt San Jacinto. Yosemite and SEKI closed. It was 104 fricking degrees in Santee (eastern border of San Diego) today. California cannot catch a break right now. Can we fast forward to 2021?
ParticipantIt looks like this is for ALL national forests south of Sacramento. Mind boggling. I think it’s safe to say that this is unprecedented, but understandable. I’ve been living under the smoke plume from the Valley fire in SD County. Santa Ana conditions forecast. And snow for the Rocky Mountains? Craziness.
Participant144 hikers per trailhead per day???!!! Holy crap, that sounds like a lot! I wonder if there’s any good data on recent trail usage.
ParticipantThere’s good news today on containment. Sounds like they’re making a strong effort to minimize impact on the SGW. Unfortunately, last year (I think) there was a rather small fire smoldering between the Mountain Home Village and Forest Falls area that was not really growing, but the FS kept the wilderness closed for a ridiculously long time. That history doesn’t bode well for reopening in the near future, especially since the Apple fire does present more of a threat than that small fire did.
06/02/2020 at 8:24 pm in reply to: Hunting SGWA, Vivian Creek (5/1) and Mineshaft Flats (5/23-5/25) with pictures #4201ParticipantJustin, appreciate the respectful response. BTW, if I were hiking in grizzly country, I might consider carrying a gun. I’d definitely have a large canister of bear spray handy. Black bears rarely mess with humans. Grizzlies, OTOH, are a different animal (pun intended). One of the few animals in the North American wild that I prefer to stay far away from. Just read about a couple in their 70’s hiking in eastern Idaho that walked into the area of a grizzly kill. The bear didn’t appreciate their presence. Fortunately, they got out of there with only minor injuries to the man.
06/02/2020 at 1:38 pm in reply to: Hunting SGWA, Vivian Creek (5/1) and Mineshaft Flats (5/23-5/25) with pictures #4197ParticipantA friend and I shared carrying a shotgun on a weeklong trip in NorCal decades ago. We did have problems with bears and our food (we were young and inexperienced), but never thought of firing it randomly in the dark, especially considering that we knew we weren’t alone in the area. I quickly came to the conclusion, borne out by decades of backcountry experience and based on the fact that bears usually don’t want anything to do with humans, that carrying any firearm in a wilderness area is adding unnecessary dead weight. I’m 68 and the only sign of lion I’ve ever seen is their prints. I think I heard one once when we were camped near a spring and the sound we heard (once) I can only imagine came from a cougar. Even bears sniffing around for food can be dealt with by a few well-placed rocks thrown at them. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen someone carrying a firearm in a wilderness area. I admit to being one of those who question the interpretation of the Second Amendment as virtually anyone who wants a gun can have a gun. And I’ve managed to live on this planet for 68 years without ever feeling the need to own a gun. That said, I have no objection to legal, ethical hunters. But meeting someone on the trail carrying a handgun… ugh, why? I don’t want to start a firestorm of debate here. This is just a long winded way of saying, if you ain’t hunting, a gun is quite unnecessary.
ParticipantI wish I was able to definitively say yes, the spring is flowing, but I haven’t seen it recently. However, from what I’ve heard over the years, High Meadow is “highly” reliable. Never heard of it running dry and at this time of year with snow just melting off, I’d guess that the spring is flowing great. If I had a trip planned up there now, I wouldn’t be concerned about it.
ParticipantI live in the San Diego area and am planning an overnight trip to SG soon. I will have minimal contact with locals so little chance that they or I pose a risk to each other. Since the great majority of backcountry use is dispersed and doesn’t routinely entail high risk, I actually feel that the state and feds are being awful slow and conservative in reopening backcountry use. I’m 67, so I take the treat of COVID seriously. Hence, I visit stores as little as possible, but get out and hike as much as I can where I can.
ParticipantAccording to Idyllwild locals, Humber Park is open. Trails are open for day hiking. Overnight trips are still not permitted in the state park.
ParticipantI’ve been doing some research to see what dispersed camping areas are open in the SJ/SB areas. It seems that the yellow post sites in the SJ area are closed for now (doesn’t make sense to me, but…). There is legally available dispersed camping in the San Bernardinos and the San Gorgonio area. Got my Cal Fire permit online to use stove (or fire) in about five minutes.
Shawn, you’ll get a variety of responses regarding the wisdom of taking young kids camping. I consider myself a reasonably cautious person, but you can’t raise kids in bubble wrap to protect them. My daughter and son first went backpacking with me at age five. Any dispersed camping site in SoCal isn’t likely to take much longer to get to medical aid than if you’re in a campground. I wouldn’t be waiting on an ambulance, but I would want to know in advance where the nearest medical help is located and how to get there.
ParticipantHumber Park has been open for a few weeks. Permits are required for backpacking and day hikes in the state park. For US Forest Service lands, day hike permits are recommended, not required. Since state parks are closed (sorta), not sure if they’re issuing overnight permits. USFS obviously is for SGWA, not sure about San Jacinto. mtsanjacinto.info is the SJ forum.
ParticipantHumber Park is open and has been since the snow melted from the parking lot. Confirmed on the Mt San Jacinto message board.
ParticipantRanger Lon, I’d just like to give you a shoutout for being a friendly and trustworthy information source on the message board. I look for your posts knowing that I’m getting reliable info.
ParticipantSpeaking as a retired hospital RN who knows a thing or two about infection control and isolation procedures and has read anything published by infectious disease specialists on coronavirus transmission, chances of being infected while walking, hiking, and biking are close to zero. An infected person exhales virus by coughing or sneezing and in lesser amounts by talking and breathing. The virus is quickly dispersed in the atmosphere outdoors and the more windy it is, the faster it dissipates. Think of what happens to exhaled smoke outdoors for comparison. A study of 7,000 COVID patients that traced how they became infected found that two people were infected during conversation outdoors. That’s two out of 7,000. Someone would basically have to cough, sneeze, or pant in close proximity to your face to infect you during outdoor activity. I’ve been hiking a lot lately. I worry about being infected by careless people in Target and Vons, not by other hikers and runners.
ParticipantHi, sfabre194. Yes, you should definitely have a beer can with you. Bears love beer as much as humans. Not sure about the “beat can” in your subject title… Sorry, just having a little fun with you! Vivian Creek and the Forest Falls area seem to have most of the bear problems. I can’t recall if I’ve ever carried a bear can in the SGWA going back about 30 years. I’ve also never personally seen a bear there, but I know they’re around.
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