Burn Area Report

From personal experience, I have hiked some of the "burned out" areas, Squints Ranch, PCT South of Splinters Cabin, Cedar Glen, & Cajon Mnt. as well as the "restricted areas" of The Pinnacles, Bradford Ridge Trail, and Millers Canyon in Silverwood. This is only slightly less illegal than the general public because one of my hiking buddies is a volunteer for the forest service assisting with re-forestation since the Willow Fire, but still civil disobedient nonetheless but IMO not immoral or unethical.

The only severely damaged/dangereous area that I have seen is the PCT bridge over Deep Creek just south of Splinters cabin. The bridge is very dangereous with the last fifteen feet missing because of a downed burned tree. My dog almost fell off with a drop of about twenty feet to the bottom. This would be about 5 miles south of the Springs. The rest of the trails are still well marked with only minimal damage around the hospital from loggers. Quite a few of the burned trees have been downed, I can onlly assume from the fire fighting efforts because no recent activity from the forest service have been done. As for danger to public I see very little, but if they lift the ban I can imagine the traffic of lookey loos with minimal hiking experieince and this could be a liability the forest service is not wanting.

It is quite sad the damage to the forest and the "moon scaped" look of the terrain of the burn areas. I am most concerned about conditions during the rainy season of Midwinter and Spring thaws. We might find that Deep Creek might be loaded with ashes and burn materials that could be hazordous to fauna and flora as well as troublesome to those primates that frequent the springs. But nothing is being done about the erosion issue on the less populated North side of the mountain. So my guess is that they are going to let nature take its course and toll. Which ironically, human meddleing with nature (fire supresssion, tree density, and missmanaged forest) is one of main causes of this dissaster.

As for the closure of the Springs, I have seen no signs informing people (Bradford Trail) and apparently very little enforcement. On my few visits to the springs, I was surprised at the number of people who have been either civil disobedient or ignorant - my guess is the latter from discussions with some visitors. As for the condition of the springs, every thing seems normal and relatively clean. The damaged Anniversary pool has been repaired and the PVC drain pipe recovered. It actually has been nice with less crowds and more solitude.

HMK