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Re: Re:

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:29 am
by goldenhopper
TacoDelRio wrote:
NancyHands wrote:These guys buzz around at high speeds up there and they have no idea where or when there are going to be workers in the road, possibly around a blind corner. If you're bold enough to go past the barricade and use it like a bridge, you're likely to make another unsafe judgment once inside.


With all due respect, your view on motorcyclists is erroneous. Do you ride motorcycles on ACH and similar roads?



Not erroneous at all. I never said every guy on a road bike is unsafe or drives too fast, but please don't try and tell me that more than 30% of the dudes on Hwy 2 are out for a leisurely Sunday ride. I always pull out for them to allow for their fun, and have no issue with it under normal circumstances. A bike can travel much faster than a car on those roads and remain within safe limits, but a closed road does not accommodate for this and is a risky endeavor for rider and city worker alike. To answer your question, I do not ride, but I have two dead friends, one that can not ride anymore after hitting a deer at high speed in Yosemite a few years ago, one that has a high tech prosthetic leg just below the knee (who still rides and has the plate of roboleg) and had another close friend die as a passenger. I have never known anyone who died in a car wreck. You mean like this?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfn9T76zCSs[/youtube]

or this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pppBI6KHKxU[/youtube]

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 2:29 am
by goldenhopper
TacoDelRio wrote:What's leisurely for one person is fast for others, I guess.

A bike can travel much faster than a car on those roads and remain within safe limits


What do you mean?

I'm sorry to hear about your friends.

Cheers


Thanks for the well wishes Taco. I'm sure if you ride up there you have met a few of my current and past buddies.

I'm saying exactly what you said above. While some people think motorcycles are traveling too fast on ACH, a good rider is well within his/her "safe" limits even at speeds almost no car could sustain on those roads. At the same time everything changes when road is under construction. There is going to be gravel and dirt on the road, trucks, caltrans employees and other obstructions without any discretion to possible public traffic as THE ROAD IS CLOSED.

Whether or not one mans too fast is less or more than another’s has nothing to do with it. Even a fairly timid rider can easily travel faster than a car and crossing a road block and making a bridge over a trench does not exude timid behavior. The same would go for someone who could manage to get their car across the road...

I've driven those roads as much as anyone over the last 20+ years - at times on a daily basis. I know how many aggressive riders there are up there and as I said before, more power too them, but they still make bad judgments and I would argue that they do so more often than you would like to admit. You see I have no stake in the overall opinion of bikes on ACH as it makes no difference to me, but I'm guessing you have a stake in it? If so, this can cloud judgment and make room for less than objective thought on the subject. But of course I’m making an assumption since you have not said whether you ride up there or not. Though I seem to remember you posting pictures of you on a bike somewhere before - maybe facebook as we share a mutual friend there.

I'm just picking these randomly.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr9xwPReWnc[/youtube]

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 2:47 am
by goldenhopper
Claire. :)

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 4:21 am
by goldenhopper
I've had quite a bit of fun in my RX-8 on ACH. My skills behind the wheel redefine the limits of the automobile. :wink: 8)

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:07 am
by Rob
This article says they hope to have it open from La Canada to Red Box in December: http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/t ... 4592.story

Oh well, the added inconvenience of going up through Tujunga keeps the riff raff down to a minimum 8)

EDIT: May 16, 2011....ACH STILL CLOSED.

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:12 pm
by Rob
More mismanagement by the USFS. Now they plan to plant millions of non-native trees. :roll:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 5022.story

"If they are planting big-cone Douglas fir forests with Coulter pines, that is not an appropriate form of ecosystem management," said U.S. Geological Survey biologist Jon Keeley.


"We'll get as close as we can to the species mix that existed before the fire came through, realizing that we may not be 100% or even 80% accurate," Dumpis said of critics' concerns. "Facing arson-caused fires, smog, nonnative weeds and grasses, global warming and millions of annual visitors, we decided it was wiser to move ahead with this project rather than to wait or do nothing at all."

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:10 pm
by jspeigl
Significant portions of the 560,000 seedlings to be planted this spring on 4,000 acres were grown from seeds harvested from Coulter pines that evolved in separate mountain ranges, including in the Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino national forests, Forest Service officials said.


Assuming the trees survive, 50 years from now, do you really think that anyone will care that the trees are native to the Cleveland, Los Padre, and San Bernardino forest and not the San Gabriel? I think people will be happy just to have trees.

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 5:42 pm
by willytinawin
For any trees to survive, the brush would have to be periodically cleared. I've looked at places that were logged of all the big trees, afterwards the brush moves in and chokes out anything else that tries to grow.

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2011 4:21 pm
by Rob
The closure of many of the front country peaks has been lifted today. Tujunga canyon and Condor Peak are still closed.
USFS INFO

LA Times article

The very popular Colby canyon trail on Strawberry Peak has been off limits to any would-be trailworkers for the past two years and is now in terrible shape.

Image
Image
Image

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2011 3:35 pm
by testid
Rob wrote:The very popular Colby canyon trail on Strawberry Peak has been off limits to any would-be trailworkers for the past two years and is now in terrible shape.


That trail and peak are still in the closure area.

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2011 4:44 pm
by Rob
testid wrote:
Rob wrote:The very popular Colby canyon trail on Strawberry Peak has been off limits to any would-be trailworkers for the past two years and is now in terrible shape.


That trail and peak are still in the closure area.


According to the closure area map, yeah it's within that closed area...but, In the LA Times article I read this:
The reopening could not come soon enough for Tyler Wallace, a 32-year-old engineer and avid hiker, who was forced to seek another adventure Sunday when a forest ranger said Wallace would not be able to climb 6,000-foot Strawberry Peak for 24 more hours.


And, the sign at the colby Canyon trailhead that says "Trail not maintained, hazards may exist" was just placed within the last few weeks, and it replaces the sign they had there since the fire, that said "Trail closed".

Plus I'm done waiting. So yesterday I set out after work to hike the peak, thinking I might be the first one up there since the fire two years ago. Turns out, after reaching the summit, and checking the summit log (which survived the fire suprisingly) I found entries from 2010 and as recently as the day before. :)

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2011 4:56 pm
by testid
So the USFS has their thumbs firmly planted in their asses still. Map says one thing, sign says another, and a ranger spewing gibberish to the L.A. Times is taken as gospel. :D

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2011 7:46 am
by MCGusto
Rob wrote:The closure of many of the front country peaks has been lifted today. Tujunga canyon and Condor Peak are still closed.
USFS INFO

LA Times article


Thanks for the links Rob.

As for what is open and what isn't.... I was wondering about that Colby Canyon sign because looking at the map provided by the USFS it's clearly in the "blue zone" which is labeled as closed. But the sign sure seems to indicate otherwise.

Way back when I started this thread I had a similar situation with a ranger where I asked about the forest and what was open and what wasn't. At first he says, "The whole forest is closed." Then after I asked about certain areas on the front side of the San Gabriels above Pasadena he says,"Well, certain areas are open."

Truth be told, I think a lot of the rangers don't even know what's open and what isn't. I think they're kind of left in the dark more often than not, but who knows?

I had another incident up on the West Fork of the San Gabriel River to go do some fly fishing. After the Station Fire 2 miles past the parking lot the road was closed. On the way up there I stopped by the ranger station in Azusa to check and see if the area was open, and the ranger told me to go up there, check if there was a sign saying "Area Closed." If there was, it's was closed. If not, it was open.

???????

Go figure.
:?

Gusto

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 12:12 am
by johnm
Well its official...Today ACH is open all the way to Wrightwood

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/tn-gnp-0604-opening,0,1310581.story

No more trips up big T for awhile. :D

Re: Angeles Crest - The Aftermath of the Station Fire

PostPosted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 1:24 am
by Rob
April 15, 2011
Rob wrote:More mismanagement by the USFS. Now they plan to plant millions of non-native trees. :roll:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 5022.story

"If they are planting big-cone Douglas fir forests with Coulter pines, that is not an appropriate form of ecosystem management," said U.S. Geological Survey biologist Jon Keeley.


"We'll get as close as we can to the species mix that existed before the fire came through, realizing that we may not be 100% or even 80% accurate," Dumpis said of critics' concerns. "Facing arson-caused fires, smog, nonnative weeds and grasses, global warming and millions of annual visitors, we decided it was wiser to move ahead with this project rather than to wait or do nothing at all."


April 8, 2012
Well, sorry to read this....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 5393.story
Reforestation not taking hold in land burned by Station fire
Last April, U.S. Forest Service crews planted nearly a million pine and fir trees across thousands of acres scorched clean by the devastating 2009 blaze. Most of them shriveled up and died within months, as skeptics had predicted.


. "When we planted seedlings, conditions were ideal in terms of soil composition and temperature, rainfall and weather trends. Then the ground dried out and there just wasn't enough moisture after we planted."



Duh, it was moist in the winter, then in the summer it dried up...really? :roll: