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Kim Brown
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Kim Brown
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PostWed Aug 18, 2021 3:21 pm 
August 18, 2021 Penders Canyon Update: The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie issued the following closure order (Closure Order number 06-05-21-11) due to the Penders Creek Fire on the Darrington Ranger District. The fire was reported on the evening of August 13th and a Forest Service engine was dispatched to the incident early August 14th. The fire was located in steep inaccessible terrain. After some initial suppression efforts, fire managers determined that using Forest System Road #49 (Sloan Creek Road) as a confinement perimeter for the south flank of the fire would be the best option. The potential for fire adjacent to that road necessitates the closure order for several roads and trails within the North Fork Sauk River drainage. We anticipate that this closure will be in place until a significant weather event occurs. We know that this is an inconvenience to the public and will continue to assess fire behavior models to determine if the closure order can be revised. Please feel free to contact 971-334-7674 if you have questions. ======================================================== I haven't seen any closure orders, so while I understand the road is closed, I don't know that it makes sense that the trails are, but that's what the notice says. You can't get to the N Fk trail heads, but maybe you could use the N Fk, Pilot Ridge, or Bald Eagle in combination if you get up there from N Fk Sky, for instance.

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
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Kim Brown
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PostThu Aug 19, 2021 7:14 pm 
closure map

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
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Foist
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PostThu Aug 19, 2021 7:59 pm 
Where is the fire exactly? I can't find Penders Creek and the fire doesn't seem to be on Caltopo or other maps of active fires.

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Exmoor
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PostThu Aug 19, 2021 10:21 pm 
mad.gif I could've saved myself a very frustrating day if I'd checked NWHikers yesterday evening. I was headed up to Glacier Peak for four days and found 49 closed. Returned to Darrington to try to make a plan with cell service. Since Suiattle was closed I decided to throw caution to the wind and try to go up the old White Chuck trail with limited intel indicating it was passable. Well, it's actually in fairly good shape until about 7 miles out when the trail seemed to lead down a washed out bank to the river, but there was not really a passable route past that. I turned around once the "ways this could go very wrong" to "I can do this successfully twice" ratio started looking exceptionally unfavorable for me hiking alone. Perhaps I'll make another attempt at it from the east side tomorrow.

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Kim Brown
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PostThu Aug 19, 2021 11:10 pm 
Penders Canyon comes down from Spring Mtn before the Lost Creek Ridge trailhead. This informational sign is no longer there. Probably taken out by hurtling rocks. Note the name of the forest, painted over, but you can still see it. Pre-merge (1974) The fire is not big enough to be featured on Inciweb or other fire sites. Exmoor, bummer. But what a neat trip anyway. Gotta have stuff like that in your life in order to recognize and appreciate the good, no? At least that's what Keats said. Or one of those mooney chaps across the pond....

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert

HikingBex
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Foist
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PostFri Aug 20, 2021 7:31 am 
Found it. Thanks Kim!

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zephyr
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PostFri Aug 20, 2021 11:10 am 
Exmoor wrote:
I turned around once the "ways this could go very wrong" to "I can do this successfully twice" ratio started looking exceptionally unfavorable for me hiking alone.
I love how you worded this. ~z

dixon
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Schroder
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PostFri Aug 20, 2021 4:04 pm 
It seems like they're being overly cautious for this one considering the small size of the fire and the weather forecast

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Kim Brown
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PostSat Aug 21, 2021 8:52 pm 
I think that given the bareness of the slope up high where this is, they are cautious about rocks hurtling down as they heat up....? That what my assumption is.

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
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Exmoor
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PostMon Aug 23, 2021 7:41 pm 
Kim Brown wrote:
Exmoor, bummer. But what a neat trip anyway. Gotta have stuff like that in your life in order to recognize and appreciate the good, no? At least that's what Keats said. Or one of those mooney chaps across the pond....
It was interesting to finally see the White Chuck area, after reading about it for so many years. It's a real shame what's become of that once thriving trail and how inaccessible that portion of the PCT has become. It didn't even occur to me that I could come in from the east side until I'd already pulled the trigger on the White Chuck, but that was the obvious answer. I took the Little Wenatchee trail up to the PCT and the PCT up the Glacier Peak area, which was longer but not horrible (note that my fingers do the typing, my feet might have different opinions). The weather was really disappointing with visibility rarely exceeding 50 yards and a decent amount of rain. Besides beautiful scenery, my other goal was finding interesting birds and in that I did have some success. A couple sightings of White-Winged Crossbill along the PCT in both Snohomish and Chelan counties, many Golden Eagles, a Northern Goshawk along the west side of Indian Head Peak, a family of White-Tailed Ptarmigan, and perhaps the largest flock of Baird's Sandpipers ever recorded in the cascades.

Cyclopath, ChinookPass
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Kim Brown
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PostMon Aug 23, 2021 8:59 pm 
Score on the birds!

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
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BeardoMcGrath
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PostMon Aug 30, 2021 4:57 pm 
I was on top of Cadet Peak Sunday and saw no evidence of smoke in the N Fk Sauk drainage (though Sloan probably hides the fire area proper from there). Coupled with the puddles at Barlow Pass it seems likely fire activity on the west side of the Cascades has been tamped down quite a bit by recent rains.

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gb
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gb
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PostWed Sep 01, 2021 6:11 am 
BeardoMcGrath wrote:
I was on top of Cadet Peak Sunday and saw no evidence of smoke in the N Fk Sauk drainage (though Sloan probably hides the fire area proper from there). Coupled with the puddles at Barlow Pass it seems likely fire activity on the west side of the Cascades has been tamped down quite a bit by recent rains.
I agree on the rain. At Baker there has been above normal rain for the past 2-1/2 weeks with more again this weekend. I did drive through Darrington and saw puddles and that would match with recent weather models. Convergent zones in this recent period have likely made the North Cascades - west side at least - moist to wet from the Mountain loop north to the border. The wetness appeared to go about as far east as Jack and Crater, maybe to nearly Rainy Pass. But I haven't been in that area.

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Nancyann
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PostWed Sep 01, 2021 9:19 am 
The west side of Glacier Peak received plenty of moisture starting on the 16th and continuing for several days, mostly in the form of heavy drizzle and rain showers, even some sleet. Vegetation is lush and green, you would never know we had a hot, dry summer. Maybe they are waiting until after Labor Day to open F.S. Road 49 just to be cautious.

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Kim Brown
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Kim Brown
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PostFri Sep 03, 2021 11:06 am 
Axxording to MBS' Facebook page today 9/3/2021, Penders Cyn is still on and roads & trails still closed. The Penders Canyon Fire is still creeping and smoldering. The fire is still approximately 30 acres in size. All road and trail closures will remain in effect until we have a season ending weather event (several inches of rain). Fire managers will continue to update their fire models to determine if changes can be made to the closure order. We are sorry about any inconvenience that these closures may cause.

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
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