Early Winter

It's starting to look like an early winter. I took a drive today up Gold Run road to see how much damage was done by the Moonlight fire. Before I reached the summit I started to encounter snow. The slushy snow and muddy roads made it a little slippery up on top. Considering that I had forgotten my chains I was a little apprehensive until I came down the other side to some better road conditions. I went by Antelope Lake on the way back so I stopped near the boat ramp to eat my lunch. The lake is a little low this time of year and considering how dry it's been this summer I was surprised that the lake had as much water as it had. I never saw a soul up there so I had the whole place to myself. No bike riding today I'm not fond of riding in the rain.

Mental musings

Well, since most of the time I am by myself it gives me lots of time to think. Not that it's a bad thing, mind you, since it also gives me ample opportunity to work on issues I have. Recently I built a computer for my grand daughter Laura, and I had a very weird problem with it. When I'm out on a trail or back road, it seems strange to be thinking about technology, but that's where I can usually work on those types of crazy problems.

I solved this problem, as I always do one way or the other, but the answer didn't actually come to me on a bike ride. Needless to say that is where my inspiration usually manifests itself. Yesterday I rode out in an area I like to go and never saw a soul. The leaves are turning and fall is in the air. I'm heading out to a new place this morning and then tomorrow back over to the coast. Maybe I'll have a few pictures of a new area to post this evening...

Beautiful Forest

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? OK, I admit it, this is anything other than a beautiful forest setting. In fact, it is the result of many years of fire suppression. I took this picture up in Rogers Canyon yesterday and I was thinking that I am partly responsible for this. After almost 30 years working in this area, running around putting all the fires out, the result is a huge buildup of stuff waiting to burn. I say waiting to burn because if nothing is done to clean this up, it will most certainly burn before it rots away.

In my wanderings , mentally and physically, I have come to the conclusion that if we are to successfully manage national forests, we need to have a regular and recurring burning program so that fire is returned as the natural process to clean up the forest. Once established, it would be necessary to burn each year the fraction of the forest that reflects the burn frequency. Oh yeah! I'm dreaming now! While I know that prescribed fire is a big thing these days, the scope of a program that could effectively treat the large areas that need treating is well beyond funding. Oh well, it's gonna burn anyway, one way or the other.

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.