New, low gate on Mission Creek Road/FR9710

Went for a drive with a truckfull of dogs yesterday, intending to park at the Peavine intersection and hike past the closed gate to take a look at the washout repair on 9710 south of Cashmere. We were told last month by a Forest Circus employee that the road had been repaired so firefighters could use it.
Got about a half-mile off pavement, just at the end of the houses, and there is a NEW GATE! And of course, it's closed and locked. Happened recently; I don't remember seeing the gate last month. And more recently, there were footyprints and fresh tire tracks in the morning snow. So it looks like it was closed that morning.
This gate is a good two miles north of the Devil's Gulch trailhead. I have no idea why it's there and plan to call Monday to inquire. Given the Circus' policy of leaving gates closed once they install them, this has me concerned.


1911fan

UNot this again

Yeah. Plus it's on the WABDR.


1911fan

Cool, time to make a go-round.

Howdy 1911fan,

It would appear that the same stupid thinking that has locked up the wet side of the Cascades has migrated to the dry side, you have every reason to be concerned as its NOT going to get any better.

The area of the fires from Hwy 97 to beyond Mission Cr and the Naneun R SF remain Closed. However, the "I 90 grooming" group email from Tim Foss said that the Blewett Sno Park and winter recreation will be open.

USFS really does not monitor or manage beyond the Sno Parks much at all in winter.

But, sad to say, from my decades around here I expect non-winter closure of all of those areas for a year 'Official' worry about falling snags and unstable boulders because of the fire.And although I know that some trails before were not logged out by USFS for 3-4 years at a time (I logged them when not done by USFS!) the restoration/ logging of trails provides delay and closure for x?? years...:huh

Some years back the Supervisor closed Mountaineer Cr (Stuart/ Colchuck/ Enchantments access) for the prime hiking/ climbing season so that the new concrete Road (!) bridges could cure properly. No one was allowed to hike through the extra mile, hopping the creek- it was easy on the old Trail bed a few feet over in the woods- I used to jog it! But on a Forum it was stated by USFS that a crossing log over a creek would be too hazardous- except then and now just 1000 ft uphill a log crossing is 'officially' used ove the creek on Eightmile Trail...:huh

It is what it is, the giganto bureaucracy does not blink nor care....

Sorry, my cynicism is fine-tuned from experience...

You probably need a form 27B-6

I bought a wood cutting permit last week and even though I knew evryone at the FS, a visiting ranger was nice enough to take 1/2 an hour of my time to make sure I had all 14 documents with me after I collected my wood and was nice enough to go over every single rule there is about wood cutting. At one point I even said "Now, I'm the only local that even buys a permit" as they didn't even have any here (maybe they sold their 2 for the year, LOL) but the visiting ranger plodded on. My friends just smiled at left for a "safety meeting."

Washington may be a "safe" state but the Feds are still not safety minded... Neanderthals.

I got a call from Bob yesterday. The low gate is temporary and is there because they are doing road work on the lower section. As you all know, the road has washed out often. They are putting in waterbars and culverts to reduce this. The road is closed, temporarily, so they don't have to deal with traffic while they dig ditches across the road and so on. He said he could not get ahold of an engineer yesterday to get a reopening date.
Guess that makes sense. I saw a lot of surveyor droppings (grade stakes, etc) on my last few trips up there. If I understood him correctly, the gate will go away.


1911fan

I think he had a different safety meeting in mind

My statement still stands...

Bob called again yesterday, after having talked to the engineers. Gate will be closed until spring, so the new dirtwork and gravel can settle in without being disturbed. He restated that it's a temporary gate, there for the road construction period only.
The washout above/south of the Peavine Canyon intersection is NOT fixed. Too big of a project and they are waiting for grant money, which will probably be in 2014. We talked about 9710 being on the WABDR, which the FS had been unaware existed until firefighters kept having people ride through. He'd gone to the website and thought it was pretty cool.
So, great news: I pointed out to him that with the WABDR getting a lot of publicity, people are going to ride the Beehive Reservoir-Cashmere section, regardless of closed gates, because that's how people are. (Go read the WABDR thread for evidence.) With the washout, there's a distinct risk of injury. He wanted to know if, as a motorcyclist, I thought it would be a good idea to make a temporary repair that would make it safer for riders! Oh hell yes, so we talked about it for a while.

Dunno what'll happen, but I think he thinks it's a good idea and is going to try to get it done.


1911fan

Thats good news, thanks for your work on this.
Now if only we could get the state to embrace motorcycle tourism........

Awesome!

They must know that all that's needed is a 36" wide path - so minimal effort req'd.

Don't know if I should be surprised about the USFS not knowing about the WABDR.

I talked to the Gifford Pinchot office at St. Helens last year and had to educate them about the WABDR. They were quite impressed and surprised about the webpage, DVD and potential tourism. Guess they didn't share this with the regional office.

1911Fan - Thanks for pursuing this and for letting us know. I ride that area a lot so, good to hear it is not going to be permanent. I am curious now about how much of that area and table mountain / blewett will be open for those of us that snowmobile this winter. Have heard they are not opening Reecer creek and that parts of 9716 / 9712 from top of Blewett are impassable due to trees, slides etc from the fires. Meant to go check it out last weekend but ran out of time. Sounds like you and ADVNCW spend a lot of time up there, please post up if you hear or see anything.

Thanks,

Tom

Below is the email attachment from USFS on 10/29. Cle Elum USFS says Blewett will be open for winter recreation. I have not talked to Leavenworth USFS recently- I figure they are pretty busy, The Boundary is the Pass and the ridge crest.Maybe I will stop and talk to WRRD Leavenworth next week. The area remains under closure with the posted Order from the Forest Supervisor so I would not go in there until posted open. You may never get caught, but if you are the unlucky one the LEO would write you one of those REAL expensive Federal Citations.:huh

Please remember, the Chelan County side over the crest to the north of the groomed Rd 9712 is Winter Non-Motorized Area since the 1980's. The few signs on the County Line/ District Boundary may have been disturbed.

USFS info below-

Subject: Table mountain fire and recreation facilities - what we know and don't know

Hey, everyone: I’m sending this message to as many people as I can, but I don’t have a complete mailing list of everyone who might be interested, so I ask you to please pass this information on to anyone else who you think might want to know about recreation and the Table Mountain Fire.

A lot of people have been asking about what recreation facilities have been lost in the Table Mountain fire. We are just starting to get into the interior of the fire, so here’s my take on things we know and don’t know at this point:

The Table Mountain A-Frame rental cabin (formerly called the Boeing Cabin) burned to the ground. It’s unclear whether they had time to wrap it in a fire blanket or not. The Ellensburg Ski Club hut, and the historic ”Riders Cabin” have also both burned to the ground.


The toilets in the area, including those at the Ken Wilcox Camp, seem to all be fine.
At Haney Meadow, the historic cabin has burned down, despite being wrapped in a fire blanket but amazingly there is little other damage to the Ken Wilcox Campground Only one campsite was destroyed, a few hitching rails broken, and of course the woods around the camp are black, but not near the devastation we expected.


I’ve looked at a few of the trails in the area. I know the bridge across First Creek on the 4W329, right by the irrigation diversion, survived, and we know one of the new bridges on the Naneum-Wlison trail has burned, but we don’t know about other bridges. There is, of course, much downfall everywhere we’ve looked. I’m also sure there will be epic logout needs next spring. We got some money to install drainage and remove burned bridges this Fall, but right now the snow is keeping us from doing that. Hopefully it will warm up next week.

As to ski trails, I know that some of the Wilson Rim ski trails were used as firelines, and that some of the newly-installed junction signs and blue diamonds burned. Over on Tronson, the burn was fairly moderate in that area, and I do know the bridge built by the ski club last year survived, so I’m also optimistic that many signs may have survived, as well.

Same goes for the snowmobile trails. Some of these roads have been opened by the fire crews themselves, but not all. The District Ranger has decided the area will be open for winter recreation, and most routes will be groomed, but people will need to be aware that snags may fall at unpredictable times, especially on windy days.

I want to say that many, many groups and individuals have volunteered their time to help repair the damage next Spring (or this fall in the case of the ski and snowmobile communities). We greatly appreciate this, and will welcome your help when we can safely work on these facilities.

I will try to send out these periodic updates whenever we learn new information.

Tim Foss
Trails manager
Cle Elum Ranger District

That 1911fan sure is a swell guy!
Thanks for your info and work!
T

I educated our local office and now they've even got a brochure about the WABDR to hand out to the public.

Thanks for keeping us up to date 1911fan!