Will the Trailhead Registry burn in a forest fire?
I posted an answer for a recent question about a forest fire that started after your hike began, that said:
Presumably you registered at the trailhead, and you have a friend who knows where you are. There should be aircraft in the area soon attempting to identify your location and risk level. Source
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The trailhead registry will probably burn in a forest fire. source
In my experience the trailhead registry is usually elevated on posts in a mostly cleared area. The paper register form is inside a closed boxed, that should protect it from the rain and any fire.
I assume that in the event of a new forest fire, the forest rangers would check all the trailhead registries in the area to assess for hikers at risk.
Googling images found mostly what I expected. I searched and did not find any thing one way or the other about what the likelihood of the registry burning before the rangers had a chance to retrieve it.
NOTE: In many cases hiker must register at the ranger station, or through some other means (electronic). This question is only about paper registry at the trailhead location.
1 answer
They probably will burn, see this one for example,
Also wood has a higher ignition temperature.
Sometimes they are in metal boxes on metal posts, but quite often they are wood or metal boxes on top of wood posts.
Also,
They don't always have paper.
The paper doesn't always have space for new entries.
People forget to sign them.
People forget to mark that they are out of the woods.
- People enter at one trailhead and leave by another.
So all in all, they are not a perfect source of information on who is in the woods.
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