Approaching storm & 3 day holiday weekend

[KWBoy]

2 Injuries from Mt. High are on there way to the landing zone at the caltrans yard for an air ambulance.

[KWBoy]

Another Injury...

[ChattyCathy]

Shirelindy has been very busy up there in Ski Patrol - hasn't been able to get away for her second job!

[LoriAnn]

I can see that Hwy 2 at Desert Front is at a crawl going downhill.  Is there an accident out there?

[Bob C]

I cam thru there about 2:30pm or so... wall to wall people, and gridlock in both directions.

The good news, is that I saw about 3 or 4 CHP units, and about 2 or 3 towtrucks, with cars on their beds. Looks like they might actually be towing some people who parked a little "too close" to the "no parking signs". I only noticed them doing this in vicinity of Mtn High East's entrance, but if they are towing a few people's cars, at least its better than 0% enforcement.

PS: Plenty-o-people walking on Jackson Lake today, too.

[LoriAnn]

Thank you....At the Caltrans Safety Task Force Meeting last Wednesday, I think we all tried to impress upon the Caltrans representatives and Sharon Runner's representative that we need enforcement of the exsiting laws to keep traffic moving.  We suggested to Dennis Green that this would be the perfect 3 day weekend to do a drive through. (or fly over)

[Bob C]

I forgot to mention, that I'm still not sure there's enough "no parking" signs up there. Yeah, I know, most people are ignoring them anyway, but I do think if they placed more of them closer together, or went the extra step, and starting using barricades or cones in the no parking zones, that things would be a little better.

I wonder how many of the cars have their Adventure Pass. I saw some, in windshields, but I'm sure a good majority of cars didn't have them. More enforcement of Passes would be nice, too.

Oh well.. some progress is better than no progress. Its never going to be perfect.. .let's face it. Hwy 2 & the whole Mtn High area just ain't designed for that much traffic.

[Wrightwood]

Bob there has been a good amount of effort made in the gridlock situation this year.

The Wrightwood Fire Safe Council sponsored two meetings in 2006 that got together both Caltrans districts, both CHP districts, SB County Fire, LA County Fire, Mt High, LA County Roads, some representatives from political offices, ANF and others. These meetings were followed up by a private meeting between Mountain High, CHP and Caltrans that has resulted in a cooperative effort to be more proactive when gridlock was anticipated.

Many solutions have been discussed and some have been put into place and are working. This forum topic was started after I received an email from Mountain High, that they were anticipating a large crowd this weekend.

That email was a result of these meetings - as trigger points have been established to make things happen before hand. Different signage has been planned and is in the works from the last that I heard. CHP and tow trucks were indeed working the Big Pines area today because they knew ahead of time and are included on the special email trigger point list.

All emergency services were pushed to their limits today. The number of calls across the desert for water salvage work was tremendous. I doubt Wrightwood Fire personnel spend more than 5-10 minutes in quarters all day!

Thanks CHP, Caltrans, ANF, SB County Fire, Mountain High, Ski Patrol, LA County Sheriff and everyone else that helped make today a little safer for all of us.