Latest work progress report on the 50 miles of logjam.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5367033.pdf

They are clearing fast. Met a couple of the trail crew heading out today, one to man a chainsaw, the other to work on Glen Pass.

Thanks for posting that.

The news on Agnew Meadows (will not open 2012) is bad, but good to know in advance, at least. The status of the High Trail and River Trail out of Agnew is good to see, but... hmmm.

Not looking good for the Great High Sierra Fishing Adventure we had planned for August.

is this worse than normal, sounds bad.
I thought we had a mild winter.

Strong wind event came from an unusual direction.

This is bad. Should I cancel my mid-August to early September JMT hike now before committing $$$ in airline tickets and logistics? What to do...

Ryan,

It seems like you should be fine by mid August. The situation is often discussed on
the Yahoo group "JohnMuirTrail" Have a look at today's message http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johnmuirtrail/message/22889

To me that looks like pretty good progress and with over two months until your start date it is hopefully all cleared.

Manfred

Edited by Orienteering on 05/23/2012 18:37:27 MDT.

Ryan. I have been following this pretty close for the last couple of months, and I think you will be fine going in August. The crews are working very fast on clearing out the damage. In a rare common sense decision from our government, they are allowing private companies to come in and do clearing of the trees out in return for letting them keep the lumber for resale or firewood. The decision to allow outside contracters and workers in will easily double or triple the speed in which this mess will get cleaned up. You may run into a few problem areas, but the worst sections should be clear by then.

The damage was done by a series of micro-burst storms in the region in November. It was similar to the damage that happened several years ago near Deer Meadows area that had a one-two punch of a fire one year and a micro-burst storm soon after knocking down hundreds of trees in that area. It was a pain to navigate around the downed trees, but not a show-stopper.

Edited by rp3957 on 05/23/2012 19:15:42 MDT.

Thanks for the info, it eased my concern. Nice to see they figured out an effective and timely method by letting commercial crews have the timbers.