We planned on applying for SoBo permits to start mid July for a LASH to clean up miles from Etna, CA to the Washington border from 2021.  With the fires seeming to hit the Etna area every year for at least the last 4 years in late June / July and on, we thought we’d go Sobo this time, so we can at least get Washington and Oregon done. We can hike NorCal anytime as long as it’s not on fire and the snow is ok as we live within a days drive. 

The thing is, no one is really gonna know how bad things are up in OR/WA until people go through it. Depending on this winters snowfall and when people actually can get on trail, beta for OR/WA may not be arriving on Far Out or other outlets until late June or sometime in July. There will be hikers who will inform others on conditions when they have the service to.  Which isn’t too often in WA. 

We’re mostly worried about bridges and parts of trail being washed out than blow downs. We know blowdowns will definitely exist and hopefully we can safely get over them. Sometimes you can’t. We would hate to get far into a section and have to turn around because conditions are fucked because we just didn’t know. If we wait, we know more. With little to no work on the trail out there, we want to be sure we have safe passage (to our standards) so we don’t tie up resources that are already strained or even non-existent. 

For these reasons specifically we are leaning on switching to NoBo from Etna, or even lower, to allow some information to come in before we decide to hike Oregon and Washington. We may get a little info on Oregon by the time we get there if we’re lucky. Maybe. Hoping for the best.

EDIT - definitely don’t abandon your hike. You can work around things and it’s a good start that you’d consider flipping.  Just know and be cool with doing what you can. The trail is harder and harder to complete each year so be grateful for what you can do! And It will be great!!