People Power & the Perdition Trail

[arundodonax]

I think a better route would be convincing whomever oversees the property to allow a trail crew to upgrade the trail to "unmaintained" status, and then keeping it officially unmaintained but hikeable for those in the know.

[-Q-]

out of curiosity...if you caught hiking the perdition trail, is there a fine??

i have passed by the trail junction many times, but never taken the plunge. i think thats gonna end soon hahaha

[Lurch]

Yes, and they have. I believe the sign says the FS can issue a $800 citation

As for the "Get a convict work crew to do it!" it's not exactly that easy, or cheap. You'll still need to pay for transportation, you'll need to pay for corrections deputies (enough to be able to manage a crew, in the wilderness) and you'll need convince them to hike into the woods. Not to mention the county isn't going to want the liability.

[-Q-]

ouch, $800?!?!

i wonder what happens if i drop the name 'splintercat' as they bust me

[IDratherbehiking]

out of curiosity...if you caught hiking the perdition trail, is there a fine??

i have passed by the trail junction many times, but never taken the plunge. i think thats gonna end soon hahaha

The Perdition Trail is closed for a great reason, the earth is unstable up there and you will send debris raining down onto cars and hikers down below.

Read the trip reports! Nearly everybody that hikes the closed trail brings up their own safety concerns!

[CuriousGorgeGuide]

I disagree. I don't think the trail's slope is any more dangerous than when the staicases were re-formed. I just think the closure is a matter of $$ and priorities, not because the slope is overly treacherous. Just my IMHO.

[Stevefromdodge]

I don't think the terrain is too treacherous to support a maintained trail.

On the other hand, I think the proximity to the highway means that a construction crew would need to be more careful and use more safety devices than if they were creating an average piece of trail in an average forest.

As the trail currently exists, it's dangerous. If it was improved, it wouldn't be.

[IDratherbehiking]

I don't think the terrain is too treacherous to support a maintained trail.

On the other hand, I think the proximity to the highway means that a construction crew would need to be more careful and use more safety devices than if they were creating an average piece of trail in an average forest.

As the trail currently exists, it's dangerous. If it was improved, it wouldn't be.

Stevefromdodge summed it up nice!

I would love to see the trail reopened and maintained. I do not want to see that trail open tomorrow in it's current condition. You can imagine what would happen if they were to open it with hundreds, even thousands of people attempting to traverse it every week in it's current state.

[Splintercat]

Though I started this thread with the theme of "people power", I agree with Lurch that there are all manner of logistics and safety issues that would make it very hard to bring in cheap labor (ala prison crews) or volunteers, at least initially. So, that takes us back to a USFS project and some $$ to get there. I'm frustrated that we didn't have a restoration plan in place to an extent that could have been funded with ARRA "stimulus" dollars -- billions were spent, and an awful lot of it went to paving roads (including the Forest Service, I suspect) for lack of construction projects ready to go. Hopefully, the USFS has (like a lot of other agencies) put a few projects on the front burner, in the event that another ARRA comes along.

That said, this project is a prime candidate for political posterity, so another option is to appeal to our delegation to restore this bit of history. It looks like it falls within Rep. Blumenauer's district (a supporter of trails) and both senators, of course.

There's also the corporate sponsorship option, and I don't think anyone has really explored that -- so, if you know the CEO of one of the many sport-oriented corporations in the region, for example (thinking shoes, jackets, etc, that are designed here), maybe they'd be willing to put their logo and wallet out there to sponsor the restoration?

On the geo-hazard aspect, I agree with Steve's last post -- that there might be special construction considerations, but that the terrain here isn't any more gnarly than what the rest of our gorge-face trail system is built on. I still like the idea of incorporating an interpretive element relate to the fire. Don's photos would be a great addition to that! It's so easy to hike through the super-green landscape of the Gorge, and not realize just how violent the origins of the landscape really were (and still are).

Tom