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Hot off the San Gabriel Forum:

http://sangabrielmnts.myfreeforum.org/A ... t2013.html

Baldy is hikeable, as is Cucamonga!

I've been waiting for some good news, but I didn't really see where on the ANF web site where they confirmed the reopening. Your link is to another site that claims it is.

I don't think Baldy ever closed. What they have closed is the Station Fire boundry. And it's closed for a year (which is illogical).

I'm totally pissed off. I (along with others) want access to this area. Personally I feel that, like so many things that are done by the USFS, this is not competent management of an area.

This is our land. We pay for it. Issuing arbitrary orders to keep us off of it and threat of fines is not right.

I doubt if this fine order is even legal. Do land managers have the power to arbitrarily make law and penalties?

SpiderSavage wrote:I don't think Baldy ever closed. What they have closed is the Station Fire boundry. And it's closed for a year (which is illogical).

Are you saying ACH will be closed for a year??? If that's true, Newcomb's Ranch will go out of business since it won't be accessible from the east either as the section Vincent Gap-Islip saddle will most likely close after the first significant snowfall...

Steve1215 wrote:The question is whether the Angeles USFS botched the effort to manage the Station Fire. The USFS may have seen an opportunity for a "controlled burn," then it went 90% out of control; homes burnt and lives lost.
--Steve

What is the extent of the USFS's legal responsibility to contain a fire to save the homes of those who choose to live in the foothills, particularly homes not within national forest boundaries? Just asking.

It's so weird that I used to spend so much time there, moved up to NorCal, and about 2 days after I left the whole thing burned. Unfortunate.

As for the management issue, and the comment regarding "controlled burning", USFS was scheduled to head in and clear out brush with these controlled burns. Center for Biological Diversity sued them for air pollution problems, arson started the blaze, and the rest is (ashy) history. Unfortunate that "activist groups" (however scientific they claim to be) sometimes get in the way of the same goal they are trying to achieve.

I think the closure is of course expected, and usually over a full season, but down where there's a negligible amount of snow in the winter, meaning an open winter season, a full year seems a bit extreme.

a full year does seem quite extreme... the limited access of the southern california forests is extremely frustrating to me... it does feel illegal, although I have no idea if it is or not... any lawyers out there have any interest in a test case?

through work, I have had access to many of the closed roads on these various forests... the public is essentially shut out of many of the best places down there... and I think fire safety is just used as an excuse... decommissioining a road and putting it to bed for wilderness preservation is one thing, but keeping the public off of a perfectly good road seems unfair

anybody been down to the manzana schoolhouse on the sisquoc river recently or driven up the crack road between the san rafael and dick smith wildernesses? cool places, but hard to get to these days... its too bad

I did Baldy from Manker Flats yesterday afternoon - it was open.

Today I saw smoke coming from the area between Cucamonga Peak and Lytle Creek, somewhere around San Sevaine. I hope its not serious.

New fire. Big one. West end of the Angeles Ntl Forest. I just drove past it on the 210 coming back from Jacinto this afternoon. Here is the link:

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1910/

dude, that's the east end of ANF

Yeah, the other west end. The one most people call the "east" end.

I saw that sign too, but I figured they just forgot to remove it because there were no other signs and plenty of people parked at Manker Flats.


The wind must be really pushing that new "Sheep Fire" along.

Some info on the Sheep fire on Inciweb site. Wrightwood went on mandatory evacuation about 10 this AM. http://www.inciweb.org/state/5/

Called the Visitor Center a couple hours ago (Sunday, 2pm). Ranger said Baldy's open for hiking.