Old thread, I know.
Spent a good amount of time up and down this section last sunday and some more time looking at it on the map. I hadn't been on Washington Turnpike since summertime 2016, and the difference is really drastic. It looks like some work is still being conducted out there, clearing stumps and the like. There's an excavator parked on the east side of the road, and lots of piles of stumps and roots that they may be prepping to burn. It sure looks like a wasteland out there, but I guess I see the logic in building a firebreak there. It goes nearly to the Batsto in the southwest, and the wading in the northeast, so the area between the rivers that makes up most of Wharton is "dammed off" so to speak. I do wonder if this will facilitate a change in policy, to let the fires burn more freely, since the area is contained on three sides.
One other thing- the road has really been graded well, with almost no bumps despite all our crazy weather. One can easily drive 65mph through there, if you wanted. I was going 50 at one point and a guy in another truck came up behind me and was getting pretty annoyed that there was no room to pass. I ended up turning off to take a look at the ruins on Iron Pipe road and he sped off at top speed.
