ENF starts fire restrictions

Starting June 14th, Eldorado National Forest is restricting fires:

Link to FS page (same as below)

Fire Restrictions

Pursuant to 16 USC 551 and 36 CFR 261.50(a) and (b), and to provide for public safety and protect natural resources, the following acts are prohibited within the Eldorado National Forest and the Moore Creek Fire Restriction Area on the Stanislaus National Forest, as shown on Exhibit B and described in Exhibit C.. This Order is effective from June 14, 2014 through the end of the 2014 fire season.
1. Building, maintaining, attending or using a fire, campfire, or stove fire, except within the stoves and fire rings provided in the Developed Recreation Sites, as shown on Exhibit A. 36CFR 261.52(a).
2. Smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a Developed Recreation Site shown on Exhibit A or while stopped in an area at least three feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable material. 36 CFR 261.52(d).
3. Welding, or operating an acetylene or other torch with an open flame. 36 CFR 261.52(i).
4. Operating or using any internal or external combustion engine without a spark arresting device properly installed and maintained in effective working order. 36 CFR 261.52(j).

Pursuant to 36 CFR 261.50(e), the following persons are exempt from this Order:
1. Persons with a permit from the Forest Service specifically authorizing the otherwise prohibited act or omission.
2. Persons with a Special Use Permit from the Forest Service for a recreation residence in a recreation residence tract, may build, maintain, attend or use an elevated charcoal grill, propane grill or campfire at their recreation residence, provided that they have a valid California Campfire Permit and comply with the terms of the permit.
3. Persons with a valid California Campfire permit are NOT exempt from the prohibitions above. However, persons with a valid California Campfire permits may use a portable stove or lantern that uses gas, kerosene, jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel.

These prohibitions are in addition to the general prohibitions in 36 CFR Part 261, Subpart A.

A violation of these prohibitions is punishable by a fine of not more than $ 5,000 for an individual or $ 10,000 for an organization, or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both. 16 USC 551 and 18 USC 3559, 3571, and 3581.

Executed in Placerville, California, this 11 day of June 2014.

_______________________
LAURENCE CRABTREE
Forest Supervisor
Eldorado National Forest

Executed in Placerville, California, this 12 day of June 2014.

TNF sets fire restrictions

Starting today, June 1st, 2014, fire restrictions are in place on the Tahoe National Forest.

Forest order 17-14-03

Please be extremely careful out there this year. We’ve had three weak winters and the forest are very dry.  Let’s no lose what we love to enjoy by being careless with fire.

Updating Wikipedia

I’ve been asked why I chose such a dividing title for my website. I don’t think it’s as dividing as it is accurate. So much is written and talked about on the El Dorado side of the trail that I thought the Placer side deserved a little attention.  In a perfect world, there would be one website with everything anyone would ever need to know about the Rubicon Trail. I started that site years ago for RTF but after handing it off and after RTF changed the format, interest waned and the site is sort of stale.

Today, I came across the perfect example of what I claim above.  I visited the Wikipedia page for the Rubicon Trail. There is an introductory sentence then a description about the Rubicon. This is how it read, before I changed it a little bit:

“The maintained portion of the route is called the Wentworth Springs Road; it begins in Georgetown, California, a hamlet in California’s Gold Country. The road continues from its intersection with State Route 193 towards Wentworth Springs, where the trailhead for the unmaintained portion of the route exists adjacent to Loon Lake. The trail portion of the route is about 12 miles (19 km) long and passes in part through the El Dorado National Forest.”

It seems normal and accurate enough, right? What about after it passes through Eldorado National Forest? So, I added a little bit and left the incorrect spelling of El Dorado National Forest. The County is El Dorado while the Forest is Eldorado.

The new paragraph, underlined words added:

“The western maintained portion of the route is called the Wentworth Springs Road; it begins in Georgetown, California, a hamlet in California’s Gold Country. The road continues from its intersection with State Route 193 towards Wentworth Springs, where the trailhead for the unmaintained portion of the route exists adjacent to Loon Lake. The trail portion of the route is about 12 miles (19 km) long and passes in part through the El Dorado National Forest as well as the Tahoe National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. The eastern maintained portion is known as McKinney Rubicon Springs Road.”

And now the red headed step child side of the trail has been represented.

Reno FOTR Meeting

On Saturday the 12th, there was a Reno area FOTR meeting held at the Blind Onion pizza parlor on South Virginia. It wasn’t a huge turn out but we had a good conversation about the Rubicon Trail.

John Briggs updated the group about the Placer County grant of $294,000 to be spent on the Tahoe side this summer. The contracts need to go out to bid and once the contractors have done the ‘heavy equipment work’ the county is expecting the volunteers to finish off the water bars, drains and rolling dips. Plan for Sept/Oct.

I talked about “To Do List” for the Tahoe side. Some of the issues brought up in the past will be completed this summer. The Basin has cut some of the branches along the paved section to the staging area but the limbs still need to be picked up and disposed of. Placer will be repaving holes and repairing the paved section. The areas of the trail that hold standing water will be worked on.

Rusty will again be leading a crew to work on hardening and stabilizing Cadillac Hill. I’ll be maintaining the three water bars on Cadillac Hill as well as blocking one illegal bypass.

Representatives of local clubs were asking what they could do, so we’ll be working with them to select a project on the trail.

The full FOTR meeting will be held May 3rd in Placerville at the DOT office. The public is welcome if you’d like to drive over the hill. Once that meeting is held, we should have a clearer direction of what FOTR would like to take on this season.

Thanks go out to Paul for making the meeting happen. And thanks to those who took the time to show up. If you have comments about what you would like to see done on the trail, post up or contact FOTR directly.

Rubicon closed again

Due to the recent storms and the warm temperatures, there is too much water flowing on the Rubicon Trail, so it has been closed through Friday.

I’ll try and post up as soon as I hear it has been reopened.