Parashant

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NissanBoy
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Re: Parashant

Post by NissanBoy »

I would love to make it for the Turkey weekend run, but there will be inlaws in town so that is definitely a no go. I probably won't make it back out there until sometime in Dec/Jan. Do you feel uncomfortable making trips out there by yourself? I was a little nervous on my older quad being by myself yesterday, but not enough to make me not enjoy being out there.

I will have to recheck my BLM maps, but I saw a couple of paths on the maps that were in the Paiute wilderness area and marked as off limits to mechanized travel, yet they were shown as open on the maps. It's not the end of the world, but good up to date maps would be nice to have. I was pulling out the front third member from my Pathy this morning and unfortunately I will need to invest in some more parts earlier than expected. The CV boots finally tore completely open on the passengers side. I already did the ball joints and boots on the drivers side. I guess that is just one more part I won't have to worry about for a little bit once I do get it all patched up. I am curious to see how long the front end will survive being locked before some explodes! I will try to post some pictures tomorrow.

Also what file type do you use to post your photos? It keeps telling me that my files are invalid.
Tommy
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Re: Parashant

Post by Tommy »

I do get a little nervous out there by myself occasionally. I occasionally get a little nervous in the middle of the night in my own bed too! I feel safer out there for the most part.

Oh, You mean getting stranded... I just have faith that I will make it out ok. I try to be prepared. I am in reasonable shape. I know where there is water most of the time. I'm pretty sure that if I can make it to one of three or four places I will probably be ok:

1) The schoolhouse. There are usually some canned goods there and I've seen people or fresh tracks even in the worst of weather.

2) The Shivwits Fire Camp. I heard a story about a guy who broke in there and used supplies and firewood. He turned himself in and paid for the damages. This could just be a story but I've seen firewood and a huge propane tank there before.

3)The cabin between Twin Points and Mustang point. There is food here and a spring that has always been flowing whenever I checked on it. There is a Hantavirus sign out front but I stayed in it before and so has my dad.

4)The Kelly Point Cabin. Similar to the above cabin.

5) Higher Ground. Unless my luck was extremely terrible I think I could wait out really bad weather long enough at any of these places to get a good enough break to climb high enough for cell phone coverage. It worked on Mt. Logan on Saturday and it worked when I blew my motor and climbed one of the mountains (I never figured out which one).

I bring good quality hiking boots, warm clothes, a good quality pack and plenty of water. I also have paper maps as well as topo maps on my laptop.Someone always knows roughly where I am going. It's a huge area and I like to go all over it. I work on my supplies all the time and try to bring a small pad and pen so that I can write down ideas as they come to me. This last trip I was confident that I had the possibility of a long walk out covered. I did however forget my sleeping pads, cot, and a few other convenience items...

I also carry tools, a high lift jack, two bottle jacks, a plug kit, etc...

One thing I really don't do is go out there in the summer, especially alone. It is just too remote and lonely a place to risk it.

With all of that said, sometimes it's just your time and I'll be damned if I sit home and worry about it.


For pictures I use photobucket. If you've never used it, it gives you several choices to copy and paste. I click on the bottom one. It looks like this:

Image
Tommy
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Re: Parashant

Post by Tommy »

NissanBoy wrote:I will have to recheck my BLM maps, but I saw a couple of paths on the maps that were in the Paiute wilderness area and marked as off limits to mechanized travel, yet they were shown as open on the maps.
Yeah, it's been a problem for us too. At times we want to go explore a new area on the way back and we have to calculate fuel. So we break out the maps and find a shorter route home from there. It can lead to trouble. There is a road (I don't remember the number) that goes from near the Grand Gulch Mine and heads more or less north (I think) that is closed at one end because of a wilderness area. It caused us major problems because a dozen vehicles to double back and go around wastes some serious fuel. If there was just a sign at the southern end it could have saved us a lot of trouble.

I use mostly TOPO maps. I hook my GPS to an old Panasonic Toughbook (from back when they were still tough) and I use IGAGE topo software. It uses copies of the actual printed topo maps and not a computer generated map like the Garmin software and most of the other stuff available. Because of this many of the maps are pretty old. This software includes maps in 1:250,000, 1:100,000, and 1:24,000 and occasionally they all show something different. I can fall back to the maps on the GPS but sometimes they are different as well.

We also carry the Gazeteer and Benchmark map books and the BLM map is very useful because it has all the road numbers on it. A combination of all of these is the best bet but still not always dependable.
rklein
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Re: Parashant

Post by rklein »

Howdy...Ranger Ray here...My ears were burning so I thought I best have a peak at the DesertUSA Parashant discussions. For those that may have forgotten, I'm the Chief Park Ranger for the Parashant National Monument, office in St George. Cell phone is 435.668.0701 & office is 435.688.3280 and...

Yes we did get stimulus $$$ for cleaning up range trash left by the rancher in the Tassi area of the Monument and $ to begin implementation of our Management Plan which includes closing some roads and placing some gates on roads to be used for Administrative purposes only, like the rancher servicing water troughs & corrals or the BLM providing fire suppression. The neat thing about these "closures" is the access will still allow for hiking, bicycling and equestrian use which will offer a more diverse use across the Monument.

Don't worry we're not closing routes to neat stuff, like Grand Gulch Mine or Copper Mountain Mine, or Twin or Kelly Points. But you should except to see some new lodgepole A-frame type parking designations, panel gates and closure signs. You'll also see a few new wayside exhibits that share information about a specific historic site or feature but we are also thinking about keeping the Parashant as primitive as possible while we meet the demands of those seeking a wilderness experience with the flavor of learning more about natural and cultural influences of the past.

Feel free to call me...I only check this website occasionally and with the upcoming holiday, looking forward to some family time. The Arizona Strip is wonderfully remote and primitive place and during my watch, I plan to do my best to protect/preserve its natural and cultural features so future generations can enjoy it as we do today...Happy Trails
Jim Hatt

Re: Parashant

Post by Jim Hatt »

Hello Ranger Ray! (rklein), and welcome to the forums!

Boy did I ever have you pegged wrong! I have an old Hiking Friend that I lost track of about 12 years ago, whose name is actually R. Klein. I have been waiting ever since the day you signed up for membership for you to make a post, so I could say hello, and extend my personal welcome.

Obviously you are not "Her" :lol:

Oh well... At least I can stop waiting now anyway.

It is nice to have a "Resident Ranger" in the forums here.
Thanks for the up-dates. I look forward to learning a lot about the "natural and cultural influences of the past" whenever you have anything to share with us.

Some of the forum members get a little "passionate" with personal opinions, especially where Environmental and Land Uses are concerned, but we strive to keep it friendly, (Up to and including the deletion of unacceptable posts and "Posters" if necessary) to maintain the type of atmosphere that everyone feels comfortable in.

I will make a personal effort, to ensure that you enjoy participating in ANY or ALL of the forums that catch your interest here, and I am sure the other Moderators will too.

Jim Hatt
NissanBoy
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Re: Parashant

Post by NissanBoy »

Ok so I posted some more photos from Parashant. The full album can be found here:

http://s919.photobucket.com/albums/ad32 ... %20Canyon/

Here is a little teaser!

Image
Tommy
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Re: Parashant

Post by Tommy »

rklein wrote:Howdy...Ranger Ray here...My ears were burning so I thought I best have a peak at the DesertUSA Parashant discussions. For those that may have forgotten, I'm the Chief Park Ranger for the Parashant National Monument, office in St George.
Nice to see you back here Ray. You may have read that I was at the top of Mt. Logan during the controlled burn. If I had your number I would have called you since I didn't know it was intentional. I called a friend who called another Ranger, Paul.


rklein wrote:Yes we did get stimulus $$$ for cleaning up range trash left by the rancher in the Tassi area of the Monument and $ to begin implementation of our Management Plan which includes closing some roads and placing some gates on roads to be used for Administrative purposes only, like the rancher servicing water troughs & corrals or the BLM providing fire suppression. The neat thing about these "closures" is the access will still allow for hiking, bicycling and equestrian use which will offer a more diverse use across the Monument.
How many roads are being closed? Since it takes some time for maps to be updated, can you say which ones will be closed?
rklein wrote:The Arizona Strip is wonderfully remote and primitive place and during my watch, I plan to do my best to protect/preserve its natural and cultural features so future generations can enjoy it as we do today...Happy Trails
Ray, that is music to our ears! Thank you for your hard work and caring attitude.
rklein
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Re: Parashant

Post by rklein »

Thanks for the welcome Jim...

Many law dogs like me use websites for researching bad guys involved in various crimes, I look at it as an opportunity to share and be available for questions. This may not be the forum to answer Tommy's question so I offer my email address for the more lengthy question and answer sessions, ray_klein@nps.gov

But I will provide an example of one of the road closures...the Amos Tank Road on Kelly Point has a portion of the road identified as Administrative Use Only. The overall 7 miles of road will be shortened to 4 miles with a gate installed at Dinner Pocket. The remaining 3 miles is only open to motorized vehicles by authorized personnel for the purposes of firefighting, annual deer survey counts, and search and rescue. It is open for hiking, hunting, equestrian and mountainbiking. The mountainbiking is restricted to the road surface and not cross-country.

There are approximately 8 situations like the one mentioned, on the National Park Service portion of the Parashant Ntl Monument. I will be working with our partners, the BLM to identify similar situations for road closures on the BLM portion with a guess-timate of 20 to 25 closures using this stimulus money.

You mentioned ranger Paul, he works for me...extremely knowledgeable of the Parashant and helpful when asked...his email is paul_krumland@nps.gov

Good Day and Happy Trails
Jim Hatt

Re: Parashant

Post by Jim Hatt »

rklein wrote:Thanks for the welcome Jim...

Many law dogs like me use websites for researching bad guys involved in various crimes...

Good Day and Happy Trails
No problem there Ray! We have a standing rule here that No "Bad Guys" are allowed! If one happens to sneak in when we aren't looking, we eventually get wise to him, and escort him out pretty fast. ;)

Several people have told me that you are not really new in this forum, and have been posting here longer than I have, but the profile for the username "rklein" shows that your first post was made on, Nov. 16th 2009. Do you have another user account here under another name, possibly from the old forum, which isn't active any more?

Jim

NissanBoy
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Re: Parashant

Post by NissanBoy »

Tommy,

How was the trip this past weekend?
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