Why is PCT routed through Strawberry Junction?

[Rob]

Why is PCT routed through Strawberry Junction and not through Wellmans Divide and past the peak? Is it:

(1) A shorter route?
(2) To provide reliable water supply on western slopes?
(3) To avoid 1000 feet elevation gain past San J peak?

[SanJack]

1,2, and 3

[Rick M]

and (4) Less snow, "opens" earlier

[asabat]

And probably for the same reason the PCT does not go up San Gorgonio - the area is already "too popular" and they wanted to spread the use around.

[dhstein313]

Another educated guess is that the trail already existed. The PCT traditionally just joined existing trails where it could. The PCT through Fuller Ridge is in my GPS map along with most of San Jacinto. While in the San Bernardino's much of the PCT is not in my GPS. Since there is not a route off the San Jacinto heading North the obvious would choice would be to go around and use existing trails.

Another reason might be the PCT's pattern of going saddle to saddle w/o unnecessarily loss or gain in elevation. Saddle Junction and Black Mt Camp are probably less than a 1000 ft difference.

D

[asabat]

Or because there is more water available along the PCT route from Deer Spring and the headwaters of the San Jacinto River. But I suspect the state park folk didn't want the extra traffic to the peak. (The guidebook does mention that the PCT was routed around San Gorgonio because the area was already too popular.)

The next question is why the PCT takes 17 miles from Black Mountain Road to Snow Creek, and, more important, why at least one of the switchbacks does not touch the creek half way down. I know that second question was asked by some trail builders in the 70's.

[dhstein313]

The bottom portion of Snow Creek is privately owned. I have gotten a nasty note when I parked at a pull out before the gate and I have read a few reports of people summiting SanJ via Snow Creek and you have to kind of stealth through the bottom. Still toward the middle and top I think that it is BLM land - some poor planning - I guess. Or maybe since the houses below Snow Creek probably drink the water they did not want contamination.

D

[asabat]

Yes, but it's only one section (1 square mile) that's private. The rest is fed. But you're correct, they probably didn't want anyone in "their" watershed.

[Hikin_Jim]

Some of the land above Snow Creek belongs to the water company. They keep people out to prevent contamination. I think they are exempted from some treatment procedures (that cost money) as long as the water quality remains high and the area closed to public entry.

There may be other reasons why some sections of the PCT are so notoriously poorly laid out. Often, in older days, trails were built by the people who intended to use them. The trail builders therefore had a vested interest in making the trail short a) to keep costs down and b) because they would pay the price in person for a poorly routed trail.

With trails built in say the last 30 or so years, often a contractor -- a person who probably would never hike the trail after construction was completed -- was used by a hiring agency, frequently the USFS. Contractors were frequently paid by the mile as I understand it. The contractors built longer trails because it a) brought in more income and b) because they didn't particularly care if it caused hikes to be longer since they themselves had no intention of using the trail.

Also, in the older days, rangers patrolled the backcountry quite a bit more. There is no teacher like personal hardship to drill it into one's mind that trails must be as short, direct, and elevation efficient as possible. Today, many rangers never set foot on the trails. There are obvious exceptions, particularly in designated wilderness areas, but I personally encounter few rangers on the trail. The great majority of rangers that I encounter stay pretty close to their trucks. When the agency "calling the shots" on trail building isn't staffed by people who have the "efficient trails" imperative burned into their brains, is it really surprising when meadering, inefficient trails get built?

This is just gut feeling, but when one encounters something like the Van Tassel Ridge bypass that allows one access to Fish Creek in the San Gabriel Mountains (it climbs a steep ridge to bypass private property on a trail that was poorly slap dashed together), it's hard to imagine that experienced back country travellers were managing the project. Also, when I see things like "please collect all your water at S Fork Meadows" in conjunction with the San Gorgonio Wilderness, my immediate thought is "this person is just not a hiker." Sure, although it's a hassle, you can carry all your water for a day trip, but if one is going out for several days, it is well nigh unto impossible to carry the water one needs for cooking, cleaning, hygiene, and drinking.

Anyway, sorry for the tirade, but I think one of the reasons that more newly built sections of the PCT are so poorly routed and inefficient is the government/business conditions under which they were built.

[halhiker]

No correct me if I'm wrong (I have no doubt about that) but didn't the PCT initially go down through Cabazon or was that only listed as a mail drop?