Upper Entiat Valley - Closed

[crabcreekhunter]

That is a waste of money, is the upper valley going to be open atleast?

[crabcreekhunter]

If they take that bridge out I think a little motocross double is in order to clear it on a dirtbike :-)

[muleracks]

There current Closure Orders call for a complete closure from mile post 31; so the upper 22 miles of the Entiat Valley are closed.  No hiking, mushroom picking, hunting, nothing in the closure which is the entire upper valley.

We can challenge the closure with letters to Supervisor Williams at the Wenatchee OWL office and Jim Pena at Portland's Region 6 office.  The local Entiat group called Access Entiat is up in arms following the BAER meeting on Nov. 30 at Entiat.

[crabcreekhunter]

Thanks mule racks, I know the closure order was just making a joke... I will definitely write a few letters.  With all the rain we had October/November if anything that wasn't stable enough would have come down or did come down.  And hoping we get a heavy snowpack this year to "stabilize" things more.  There has been lives lost in the valley from slides/floods but it's the nature of a valley, some threat will always be there.. It isn't right to deny us access.  At the very least, til it's stable enough to reopen for camping let us access it from current closure boundaries such as a true wilderness should similar to a Bob Marshall wilderness per say for that time but install plans to reopen it later for easier access

[NOCK NOCK]

Heard last night that a new District Ranger has been picked for the Entiat. It's not Whitehall, a guy from Arizona is what I heard.

[muleracks]

Forest Supervisor Mike Williams is from AZ;  wish you were wrong about the Entiat District Ranger come up from down there too.
Randy Whitehall did a great job as the District Ranger for the few months he served.   Maybe the Entiat will never get reopened without a fight.

[NOCK NOCK]

FYI, Upper Entiat area is set to open Friday 6-23-17. Not sure about side roads yet.

[Ridgerunner]

That is awesome news!


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[haugenna]

That area hasn't seen a deer season or legal hunting pressure in what, 4 years?

[muleracks]

Finally both the Entiat Trailhead (Cottonwood) and the Entiat North Fork trailheads are open and the trails are not maintained but are open to the public.
They have been closed since 2014.  The Wolverine fire of 2015 has caused some changes.  Here are some Google Earth images.

[Stalkin Prey]

Hope everything's open and looking healthy. Headed that way this weekend.


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[muleracks]

Hope you had a nice hike in the upper Entiat.  The trails are open but trails are hard to follow in places and the logs have not been cleared (in the areas where there are logs.  The trees killed in the 2006 Wilderness fire mostly burned away in the 2015 Wolverine fire.  22 miles of the upper valley burned in 2015.  None of the trails have been maintained since 2013; some work is being done this summer but........... (no chainsaws)

[muleracks]

Another photo of the Entiat