Peril And Rescues Spike Along Pacific Crest Trail In Wake Of Federal Cuts

CALIFORNIA — Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is a challenge, especially for adventurers making the entire run from Southern California to Canada, and this year, it's harder than most. Following cuts by the Trump administration, plans to clear downed trees and rebuild storm-battered stretches in 2025 have been scrapped.

Costly and hazardous, air rescue operations have become common place along portions of the trail.

"The Pacific Crest Trail has been quite busy for us this season," a Riverside County Sheriff's Department's Remote Rescue Team spokesperson said on Instagram.

This week, a hiker activated her Garmin emergency device as she clung to a cliff face, the trail having eroded beneath her boots. That rescue was one of 8 in that area this year, many more than typical, according to the department.

The sheriff department's Rescue 9 team was called out on Sunday just after 10 a.m. to the Whitewater trail area, just south of San Bernardino County, to aid a hiker who became stuck on a position below the Pacific Crest Trail. By estimates from a Reddit channel that focuses on the trail, she may have lost track of the actual trail due to erosion and ended up in a precarious position.

When the rescue team arrived, she was exhausted and shaking from holding that position for over an hour, wearing a heavy pack and clinging to the rock face on uncertain footing.

Read also: Watch: Woman Clings In 'Death Grip' To Cliff Below Pacific Crest Trail

A Long And Winding Trail Is Disappearing

The Pacific Crest Trail, spanning 2,650 miles from Southern California to Canada, has just become more challenging.

Eric Kipperman’s job is to greet them at the start and lay bare the difficulties ahead.

He has lately begun warning that the journey may be even tougher.

“This year, we’re going to have less trail work done on the trails, so just know that going into your hike, safety is the most important thing,” Kipperman, a hiking guide, told a group of backpackers from Europe and the United States at the trailhead near Campo, California, an hour’s drive east of San Diego. He cautioned there is “no trail” at all in parts of the 2,650-mile (4,265 kilometers) path through California, Oregon and Washington state.

"In some places there is no trail at all," said Kipperman. Rain-caused erosion at the southern end of the trail, specifically in the Whitewater area, has resulted in washouts in some places, leading to difficulties in finding trail markers, as a higher-than-usual number of hikers have gone off the map and into trouble. And that is only part of it.

Kipperman blames the Trump administration for cuts to trail improvement. Plans were to rebuild "storm-battered stretches," now, those are all but halted. This year, the Pacific Crest Trail Association is operating with a third less government grant money than planned.

According to the AP, the U.S. Forest Service called the situation “dynamic and evolving.”

"The Trump administration has let go some 3,400 workers at the U.S. Forest Service, and nearly 1,500 at the National Park Service, including trail repair specialists. The associations said the cuts also led to the rescinding of job offers for seasonal crews with technical skills to rebuild boardwalks, bridges, and campsites and train thousands of volunteers.

Courts have ordered federal agencies to rehire thousands of workers, according to previous reports, but some of those workers do not plan to return.

“For hikers, they’re going to be crawling, navigating, working their way through downed trees across the trail that won’t get cut out,” Justin Kooyman, director of the Pacific Crest Trail operations, stated. “It’s going to make for a little more rough and tumble.”

JULIE WATSON, Associated Press contributed to this report.