Road Closed

Man... Yesterday and today I went bike riding in places where I had to pass "Road Closed" signs. Yesterday I had to pass 3 of them. Now I am usually a law abiding guy, in fact even now, I am trying to stay out of their closed areas but they have road closed signs up when the actual closed area as defined by the Forest Order posted on the Plumas web page, is miles off. Yesterday I went up Janesville Grade after looking closely at the closure maps. I ran into the first road closed sign at the bottom of the grade. Come on now! The actual closed area is at the top of the grade going back toward the west. The area to the east of the road is not in the closure. So on the way up the grade I pass another closed sign, still about a mile or so below the actual closure. This closed area thing is supposed to be for safety purposes but I have no idea where there are any safety hazards, I didn't see any and I worked in the woods all my adult life. I could just go on ranting about this closure but what good will it do. Instead I will continue to use my National Forest as I see fit and stay away from the fire area.

Now today I went up on Gold Run Road all the way to the top. It was a good hard ride, climbing to the top of that hill, but inquiring minds needed to know what it looked like on the other side and it was worth it. (Only 1 Road Closed sign on the way up here) The picture is looking back toward the area where the fire started and the edge of the fire is quite a way off. It was awfully hazy and you really can't see much but it was gratifying to see so much green forest where I was afraid of seeing devastation. I'll be staying out of that country for a while until they get done working that fire. Oh yeah, Fuck the Road Closed signs!

62,500 Acres

Yep, 62,000 acres. That's a big piece of ground! As you can see from the picture there was a wind shift today. This is the break the firefighters needed to get some line established. The head of the fire yesterday is where that smoke is coming up from, but it's blowing back into the burn so that's a good thing. It's not over yet but this is the big break and if they don't take advantage of it, who knows what will happen. My money is on the fire management team getting control of it now.


On a lighter note, I had a nice bike ride up into the Susanville Ranch Park trail system today. I have taken quite a few pictures of this beaver pond already, but the interesting thing I was thinking of when I took this is that the green cover on the dam is all because the beavers push mud up to cover the sticks and logs they use to form the core of the dam. It's totally artificial but not by human hands. Anyway, some of my mental ramblings when out and about..

The carnage continues

OK, that's about enough of this Moonlight fire. If it burns for a couple of more days it will run out of fuel when it hits Honey Lake. Shortly after I took these pictures it got a little darker in my house so I decided to take another little ride up to Skyline Park. I took a couple more pictures but these aren't them.

It's obviously moving again but there wasn't much wind today. A fire that size generates it's own wind anyway, but it would be nice not to see it gobbling away for a change. I just read an estimate of 40,000 acres. If you compare todays pictures with the ones I took a couple of days ago you can see how far this thing has burned. I hate to think of what might happen if this thing comes off the escarpment behind Janesville. I really think that is unlikely unless we have a SW wind event, which isn't predicted in the next few days. I heard Janesville Grade is closed again so that pretty much keeps me out of my favorite bike riding areas. Come on now, put that fire out!

Out in the Boonies

Man, what a great day! Irrespective of the huge fire burning nearby, I had a fabulous day exploring an area I have never been to and had no idea a road existed in. I was out near Dodge Mine and I was planning on hiking into this little valley I found on my maps and in Google Earth but as it seems, people riding ATV's have opened up an old road back into it. There is a nice camping spot at the end of the road right by Last Chance Creek. This is one of the most pristine spots on the east side of the Plumas and it hasn't had fire in it for a long time, so I hope the monster that is lurking to the west doesn't come this way.

About that, I read this morning that the wind shift had allowed the firefighters to gain some ground, but looking at the column in these pictures I can say for sure that it blew out big time today. Driving down Highway 395 it was so smoky that you had to have headlights on as you can see in the picture. This fire has gotten so large that it has the potential to burn all the way to Honey Lake Valley, taking out some beautiful country with it. I would really hate to see that happen but it's up to the whim of the weather now.

Moonlight Fire

I had a few things to do today and I didn't get out of town... but then that was a good thing. The fire near Moonlight pass really started to pick up late in the day due to the strong winds. I rode up to Skyline Park and sat on the bench for a while and just watched the smoke column increase. I read that this fire was 1100 acres this morning and whether that was accurate or not, it's grown considerably today.

Out Riding

For the last several days I've been out in the woods riding my bike in places I haven't been to in years. In fact, yesterday I took a road that I've never been up before and the road ended up petering out before it got to the top of ridge. Needless to say it was a case of forging ahead cross country or going back the way I came. It was a grand adventure and since I knew the country so well I knew exactly where I was and came out right where I wanted to. Along the way I came across these two lightning struck trees that were blasted to pieces. It's a good thing this lightning strike didn't start a fire because of the heavy fuels and the remoteness of this spot.


After I got back to my truck I had a beer and while I was drinking it I noticed the aircraft flying overhead. It seemed a little odd to me so I thought there must be something going on. I drove up the road a little way and looked back to see this smoke coming from well inside the Wheeler fire. I've been up on that road and happen to know that there isn't much left up there to burn. In fact the area this smoke is coming from is surrounded by nuked zones.

Today I went out Gold Run and up on Diamond Mountain for one my favorite bike rides. After lunch I was riding along and I noticed a smoke down the valley. This fire looks like it's right along the road that I rode up this morning. It didn't get much bigger, they got on it right away.


Funny thing was that yet another fire started back up behind Gold Run later in the day and I saw it on my way back to Susanville. In fact, at this very minute it's putting up enough smoke so that I can smell it and its filtering out some of the sunlight. This one is well up in the Plumas, let's hope it doesn't get as big as the last fire they had.

Fitch Canyon

Fantastic day! I can't say I can describe today any other way. I went up to the Fitch/ Cottonwood canyon areas to do a little bike riding and follow a road that has been closed for about 18 or 19 years. I had a couple of lightning fires along this road years ago so I was doing my usual trip down memory lane thing. As you can see from the first picture, the road has grown over a bit and had been ripped so it was a little soft for going up hill. I had to walk my bike most of the way up the canyon but it was a nice walk and once I got up on top I tied into the road system that is still open.

The road hasn't been used much and there were no other tracks than mine on it, as you can see from this other picture. I ended up going down past Doyle Reservoir into Fitch Canyon and back down Cottonwood creek where my truck was parked. I got there just as a real active lightning cell passed overhead, it started pouring and some of the lightning was pretty close. This was a very cool part of the day. The storm was a short duration intense thing and I had to move out from under the big trees I was parked under after a lightning bolt hit very close. It's generally a good thing to do to stay away from the biggest trees around in an area when avoiding lightning.

I'll be heading back up in that area tomorrow and I'll be looking for smoke as I ride long. I'd sure hate to see another big fire around here. Anyway, it was a fabulous day.