Fire!

Wow, much has changed since yesterday. My cloud picture was the beginning of a batch of dry lightning that must have happened after I left the lake. I never heard any thunder while I was there but I was watching the Reno news this morning and they said there was a big fire near Antelope Lake. Being the old fire dude I had to go check it out.

So off I go to the bottom of Janesville Grade and starting up I see a flashing sign saying that because of the fire the road is closed. OK, now I can see it if there is a public safety issue here or something, but that fire is a good 20 miles in and in a fairly remote area. So I drive up the grade to crash this party and soon I come to the closure and there is a CHP there. I pull up and ask her just where is this fire? She says south west of Antelope Lake. I tell her that it's a long way from here and I was going up to ride my bike. "Oh well," she says. So I ask her if Milford Grade is open and she says she thinks it is, so back down and out to Milford.

The ride out to Milford, up the Milford Grade and out to Dry Flat was another trip down memory lane for me. I can't tell you how many times I have made that drive... MANY!!

I ended up parking my truck on Babcock road and riding the Babcock loop that I rode a while back. I wanted to get to where I could see the fires to see where they were. I rode up to the top and around the mountain to above the Indian Creek drainage. The biggest fire was still off in the distance from me but as I came around I came across an unstaffed fire. I walked out and looked at it, I couldn't tell how big it was but multiple acres for sure, I just couldn't venture a guess. It was backing across the hill and torching trees every so often, I took some pictures but they didn't come out like I wanted them to. I started down the road kind of expecting to meet a fire crew on the way to this but I never saw anyone all day.

The top picture was taken in the afternoon after the fire really started getting active. The middle one is one I took of the fire I went to, with lots of fresh retardent on the rocks. And the bottom one is from Dry Flat. That's one of my bike riding areas that is on fire! More pictures on my Web Album