Trapped hunters
11-11-2006, 09:38 AM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Vancouver Washington USA
Posts: 2,913
RE: Trapped hunters
This is what I found so far.
Thursday, November 9, 2006
By ALLEN THOMAS and ERIK ROBINSON Columbian staff writers
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Washouts, landslides, downed trees and plugged culverts from four days of wicked rain and flooding have left more than 30 major roads throughout the Gifford Pinchot National Forest impassible or damaged.
Eleven inches of rain fell on Mount St. Helens between Thursday and Monday.
The U.S. Forest Service issued a preliminary list of the road damage Wednesday. The damage to the roads comes in the middle of the popular Western Washington elk hunting season, which continues through Sunday.
"We're just in the triage mode,'' said Peter Frenzen of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. "We've got limited personnel and equipment, and we're just starting to get an idea of what has happened out there. The reports change with every passing shower.''
Dave Cox, Skamania County undersheriff, said he has visited all the elk camps around Mount St. Helens and all the groups have a route out. One bunch of hunters and their livestock are isolated on the east side of Smith Creek, but flows are expected to drop enough to permit a crossing in the coming days.
"They are choosing to stay there,'' Cox said of the hunters. "We made it clear if it comes to an emergency evacuation we'll take them personally, but not their belongings.''
Bill DaFoe of Washougal said his hunting party was camped about a half-mile from Climbers Bivouac when the storm hit. Heavy sheets of warm rain created fast-moving creeks out of nowhere.
"All we could do was stand there and watch it dig a four-foot trench by our camp,'' DaFoe said.
Campers were able to leave by foot and with four-wheel-drive trucks.
Although the rains have tapered, there could be more problems ahead, Frenzen said.
"There are a lot of trees coming down in this saturated soil,'' he said. "We had fire crew folks out trying to buck trees and clear roads and they had more trees falling behind them.''
Up to 6 inches of snow was forecast for elevations above 2,500 feet Wednesday night. That could make the situation worse.
"If we get snow or wind loading those trees, we could have them coming down all over,'' Frenzen said.
An estimated 20,000 sportsmen hunt elk in Southwest Washington and about 6,000 in the game units immediately around Mount St. Helens. The Gifford Pinchot gets 1.8 million visitors annually.
DaFoe said hunters are worried they may not be able to remove camping trailers and motor homes before falling snow blocks debris-covered roads.
"My camper can't handle four feet of snow," he said.
DaFoe acknowledged the widespread extent of the damage to forest roads, but he has been pressing the Forest Service to start clearing upper-elevation areas first.
"Their first priority is to start from the bottom and work their way up," he said, "when in reality it's not going to snow there."
Chris Strebig, spokesman for the Vancouver-based forest, said officials are asking people to stay out of the 1.37-million-acre forest if at all possible.
At least one active timber sale, on the Mount Adams Ranger District, has been temporarily halted due to the weather, and Strebig said forest officials have temporarily suspended permits for special forest products such as mushrooms and Christmas tree boughs.
"It's too muddy, too wet, too dangerous," Strebig said. "We just don't want to add any people into what could be a dangerous situation in the forest, with trees being unstable."
Hunters may have other plans though.
The best four days of deer hunting -- the late buck season -- starts Nov. 16.
Pinchot road closures
Some of the most heavily used roads in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest are closed.
Road 23 connecting Trout Lake and Randle has a washout at Baby Shoe Pass. Road 25, connecting the upper end of Swift Reservoir to Randle, has slide debris, plus the bridge across the Cowlitz River is under water.
Road 2329 near Takhlakh Lake is washed out at Keenes Horse Camp.
Road 51, connecting the upper Wind River with the North Fork of the Lewis River, has a slide blocking one lane near Lewis River Road 90. Road 90 is hazardous 1.5 miles west of the Curly Creek road due to water and slide debris.
Merrill Lake Road 81 has several washouts. The Blue Lake trailhead on Road 8123, historically a trouble spot, has been covered with a new deposit of debris.
Road 83, which leads to Marble Mountain Sno-Park, Lahar and Lava Canyon, is strewn with boulders and washed out at the June Lake Creek crossing.
Road 60 between the Wind River and Trout Lake is under water at Goose Lake. Roads 53, 54 and 56 between Chelatchie and the Wind River Valley all are closed with washouts, slide debris or water.
Road 99 leading to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint on the east side of the volcano has slide debris two miles beyond Cascade Peaks viewpoint.
-- The Columbian
Thursday, November 9, 2006
By ALLEN THOMAS and ERIK ROBINSON Columbian staff writers
Advertisement
Washouts, landslides, downed trees and plugged culverts from four days of wicked rain and flooding have left more than 30 major roads throughout the Gifford Pinchot National Forest impassible or damaged.
Eleven inches of rain fell on Mount St. Helens between Thursday and Monday.
The U.S. Forest Service issued a preliminary list of the road damage Wednesday. The damage to the roads comes in the middle of the popular Western Washington elk hunting season, which continues through Sunday.
"We're just in the triage mode,'' said Peter Frenzen of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. "We've got limited personnel and equipment, and we're just starting to get an idea of what has happened out there. The reports change with every passing shower.''
Dave Cox, Skamania County undersheriff, said he has visited all the elk camps around Mount St. Helens and all the groups have a route out. One bunch of hunters and their livestock are isolated on the east side of Smith Creek, but flows are expected to drop enough to permit a crossing in the coming days.
"They are choosing to stay there,'' Cox said of the hunters. "We made it clear if it comes to an emergency evacuation we'll take them personally, but not their belongings.''
Bill DaFoe of Washougal said his hunting party was camped about a half-mile from Climbers Bivouac when the storm hit. Heavy sheets of warm rain created fast-moving creeks out of nowhere.
"All we could do was stand there and watch it dig a four-foot trench by our camp,'' DaFoe said.
Campers were able to leave by foot and with four-wheel-drive trucks.
Although the rains have tapered, there could be more problems ahead, Frenzen said.
"There are a lot of trees coming down in this saturated soil,'' he said. "We had fire crew folks out trying to buck trees and clear roads and they had more trees falling behind them.''
Up to 6 inches of snow was forecast for elevations above 2,500 feet Wednesday night. That could make the situation worse.
"If we get snow or wind loading those trees, we could have them coming down all over,'' Frenzen said.
An estimated 20,000 sportsmen hunt elk in Southwest Washington and about 6,000 in the game units immediately around Mount St. Helens. The Gifford Pinchot gets 1.8 million visitors annually.
DaFoe said hunters are worried they may not be able to remove camping trailers and motor homes before falling snow blocks debris-covered roads.
"My camper can't handle four feet of snow," he said.
DaFoe acknowledged the widespread extent of the damage to forest roads, but he has been pressing the Forest Service to start clearing upper-elevation areas first.
"Their first priority is to start from the bottom and work their way up," he said, "when in reality it's not going to snow there."
Chris Strebig, spokesman for the Vancouver-based forest, said officials are asking people to stay out of the 1.37-million-acre forest if at all possible.
At least one active timber sale, on the Mount Adams Ranger District, has been temporarily halted due to the weather, and Strebig said forest officials have temporarily suspended permits for special forest products such as mushrooms and Christmas tree boughs.
"It's too muddy, too wet, too dangerous," Strebig said. "We just don't want to add any people into what could be a dangerous situation in the forest, with trees being unstable."
Hunters may have other plans though.
The best four days of deer hunting -- the late buck season -- starts Nov. 16.
Pinchot road closures
Some of the most heavily used roads in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest are closed.
Road 23 connecting Trout Lake and Randle has a washout at Baby Shoe Pass. Road 25, connecting the upper end of Swift Reservoir to Randle, has slide debris, plus the bridge across the Cowlitz River is under water.
Road 2329 near Takhlakh Lake is washed out at Keenes Horse Camp.
Road 51, connecting the upper Wind River with the North Fork of the Lewis River, has a slide blocking one lane near Lewis River Road 90. Road 90 is hazardous 1.5 miles west of the Curly Creek road due to water and slide debris.
Merrill Lake Road 81 has several washouts. The Blue Lake trailhead on Road 8123, historically a trouble spot, has been covered with a new deposit of debris.
Road 83, which leads to Marble Mountain Sno-Park, Lahar and Lava Canyon, is strewn with boulders and washed out at the June Lake Creek crossing.
Road 60 between the Wind River and Trout Lake is under water at Goose Lake. Roads 53, 54 and 56 between Chelatchie and the Wind River Valley all are closed with washouts, slide debris or water.
Road 99 leading to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint on the east side of the volcano has slide debris two miles beyond Cascade Peaks viewpoint.
-- The Columbian
11-14-2006, 03:54 PM
#5
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Somewere on Mt. St.Helens
Posts: 347
RE: Trapped hunters
Just got back, couldn't raise anyone on the radio. Found a couple of abandon camps were I go hunting. The mice will have a field daywith the trailers this winter that can't be taken out.
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