[aestivate]

[aestivate]

[Jamin Smitchger]

My point is, the type of people who think trails are the best thing since Adam are willing to hack and flag their way through the wilderness and leave a trail behind them. As a result, the hordes make a well beaten foot path up there and soon the place has fishermen and people galore. You people out there who build cairns and flag routes are really damaging the wilderness and ecology of these places. It may take 20 years for a route to become popular, but when it does, the trail up there will be an erosion problem and also bring hordes to the place until it is trampled to death (even the Robins were pristine once). Eventually, if the route becomes popular enough, the FS will end up building a trail there just there like Lake Serene.

[mvs]

Okay, well, yeah, I can't speak for the folks hacking and cairning and flagging their way up brushy valleys with enthusiasm. I think that's a bad thing too. I guess I'd take comfort in the earlier comment about trails going back to the land pretty quickly around here. Lately I've read about several old trails that I'd love to hike - if they still existed.

[aestivate]

[REJ]

Eeegads! I never realized how horrible an impact that trails and travel in general can have on our precious wilderness areas. It is clear that we need to reevaluate our outdoor plans in the future. I believe that we should all vow to drastically reduce or even stop hiking, backpacking, climbing, flagging, lopping and fishing as these activities clearly have great negative impact on the wilderness. Personally as part of my sacrifice to protect the wilderness, I plan to look into such wilderness friendly activities such as car camping, mountain biking, 4-wheeling, ATV or motor biking. These activities clearly have no impact on our beloved wilderness areas.

[aestivate]

[Jamin Smitchger]

I totally agree.

[lopper]

The brush will win. My 1935 USFS map shows numerous trails that are no longer "in inventory". You can still see blazes and tread remaining along many of these old fire and mining tracks. I agree that hacking away, willy nilly, at brush in the backcountry is a bad idea. But I must say that helping delay the demise of the North Crest Cutoff, Castle Ridge 1188, Red Pass CCT, Kelley Creek, etc. etc. etc.....is not so bad. I think our hiking community could benefit by more of this "grandfather trail" mileage being taken out of mothballs. We can certainly use more alternatives to the gravelled and handrailed monstrosities like Si and Serene.

[Jamin Smitchger]

But in the 1930's did we have a good trail to lake serene, the pct, and many other trails which have been created in the past century, I think not. As for the grandfather trails that you want taken out of mothballs, do you want them taken out of mothballs by allowing them to become gravelled and handrailed like lake serene. Also, the trails to mines and such were not really hiking trails anyway.

[polarbear]

Is Lake Serene in a wilderness area? Would the trail have been constructed differently if it were? What about that abandoned trail along Troublesome Creek. I think someone reported awhile back that a flood had obliterated much of it...

[REJ]

Graveled trail and hand railing on trails! That's nothing! They have paved trails at Mt Rainier! And what about all those bridges, signs and toliets in wilderness areas? The vast majority of user defined trails in wilderness areas were created as access routes for climbing, fishing, skinny dipping, drug running and other such unnecessary activities. Banning cross country travel, climbing, and fishing, etc. in wilderness areas and limiting legal foot access to existing authorized trails seem to be the only logical solutions available to stop the blight of unauthorized trails, flagging and lopping in wilderness areas. Without such as a travel ban it appears that the quality of our precious wilderness areas will continue to decline. Remember only authorized trails have a constitutional right to exist. All unauthorized trails must to eliminated to protect our precious wilderness areas from the blight of human activity.

[Jamin Smitchger]

Wrong, travel in the backcountry should be allowed. Just don't build a trail while you're up there. By removing all flagging and ciarns on routes, all of us can make a difference in the amount of solitude in the wilderness..

[mvs]

[WhiteJacket]