Chimney Peak Fire Aftermath Revisited

A careless and totally irresponsible person built a huge campfire in the early afternoon of June 1, 2016, which ignited the nearest tree and a fire roared up the canyon.

Chimney Peak Fire on June 1 as viewed from Kennedy Meadows

On August 6, we decided to visit the start of the fire and follow Chimney Peak Road up from the start of the fire up the canyon which more or less is close to the actual path of the fire.  It was quite something to stop and visualize how it made it's way up and over to Kennedy Meadows Road.

At one point about half-way, we stopped and walked a trail which used to go into a Pinyon forest.

Eerie but mostly extremely sad....for I will never see trees here again, I believe my grandchildren will not see trees here....perhaps my grandchildren's children because:

It takes a long time to grow a forest;
It takes a longer time to grow and alpine forest
It takes even a longer time to grow an arid, alpine forest
It takes even longer to grow a Pinyon Forest....For,
The only way to replant a Pinyon Forest is for the raucous Pinyon Jay to plant it.
They can take up to 20,000 of the peanut sized Pinyon pine nuts and bury them for future food.  But they can only remember where they put about 80% of them.  Of the remaining 20% a few may germinate.  But who knows when the Pinyon Jays will decide to start planting here??

A short distance will reveal the damage

The black sand now scorched by the sun was too hot for the dog to walk upon

Already some green, how can that be?

Stood in the center, of the burnt area, a strong breeze blew a hot wind, trying to imagine the June 2 inferno

This is what's left of a grand old Juniper, who by the looks of it, gave the fire a good fight, but it too lost

Eerily it seems the wind has blown the black ash away to guide ones way

I take many pictures of trees as I look at them as a wonderful art piece.  Sadly this tree gave its all in this sculpture.

Mountain Motorcycle Maintenance & Motoring Weekend

I have come to learn a family cannot have too many motorcycles.  I only have three, all Yamahas, a 2007 XT 225, a 1984 XT600 (cannot get it started) and my ride of choice a 1983 XT550 aka "The Beast".  Son Brian has a similar sized herd but, on average, are considerably younger than mine.

Regardless of age they all need some TLC now and then and our plan was Saturday maintenance and Sunday ride.  So some got new oil & filters, some just got looked over and The Beast got new clutch plates and pads.  I wore them out practicing the new technique (for me) of, at low speed, controlling the speed with the clutch rather than the throttle. We started on my bike at 9:00 pm on Saturday and by 12:30 am The Beast was ready!

About twelve or thirteen hours from the previous picture.....Here we are about half way to our goal of Monache Meadows.....Up the paved Five Mile Road to the Jackass turn-off and an old forest service road, and one single track behind me.  Son Brian and I enjoying the cool of the forest shade.

One more single track and then the famous undulating Monache jeep trail down to the Meadow.   

 In our ride we completed a circle of the entire meadow, including a stop for lunch in the middle.

 Here is me and The Beast and my neighbor, Max in the waaaaay back.....by choice I might add.

 We asked our relatively new neighbor, Max, if he wanted to join us.  He enthusiastically did.  I had no idea that he'd been riding and racing dirt for 50 plus years.  Let's just say his skill level is on another planet, compared to mine.  Later Max's wife would say she was using the SPOT tracking function and she was a little concerned, because our average speed was so slow....mmmm, couldn't figure out who the cause of that would be.

Had a great ride back, except for maybe when  a rock jumped in front of me and I again laid The Beast down, and broke the brake handle.  Fortunately, I had a spare.....this event took place not far from where I laid a bike down and broke a clutch handle on a trip a year or two ago....had a spare of that too.  I have come to the conclusion, that in mountain dirt riding one of the most important things to learn is how to safely get off a bike....this I am getting good at.

But the overall highlight for me was a big first for me...I managed to just keep going and jump/climb over a tree which was over the trail...not a large tree, maybe eight inches in diameter and a couple of inches off the ground...all my practice paid off....give it gas, pull up on handles, weight to the back. Magically the bike easily climbs over...hubba hubba

It was a great Mountain, Motorcycle, Maintenance & Motoring weekend!

Chimney Peak Fire Update

June 2 9:00 a.m.

Went down Kenndey Meadows Road about 13 miles and was met by the Sherif's Dept.

My discussion with Deputy:

Kennedy Meadows Road Status

1) Kennedy  Meadows Road is still closed.
2) Expect it to open today.  No idea when.  Primary reason for being closed is Fire Fighter safety as there is a lot of equipment and personnel on the road.
3) If there is a ROAD CLOSED sign at bottom of 9 Mile...DO NOT Drive up.  The Deputy said he's written several tickets to individuals who ignored the sign and came up.

Fire Status and Rumors (not given by any official statement)

1) Fire is under control but a lot of work being done to prevent a flare up, still very dangerous fire.
2) Fire rumored to have started at Chimney Peak Campground...meaning "man" or "PCTer" caused.

The following picture is looking primarily west.  Chimney Peak Campground is way back and further to the left.  Note the current fire line on the mountain...gray vs green or dark.  Fire also went up the valley to the left (not seen in picture) and crossed KM Road. The Hot Shot said they need to stop it where it is at.

From Kennedy Meadows Road

 I had a lengthy discussion with a "Hot Shot" who was spotting and learned about how they fight fires, train, call in tankers etc. which I will write further about in a future post.

What Does This Fire Season Look Like?
Lastly, I asked him how he thought this year might be for fires versus the last couple of years, thinking that with our increased winter precipitation, it'd be much better. Much to my surprise he said, "Worse!"  The reason is:
 We need two or more years of wet winter and springs to get the "heavy" forest fuel less combustible.  With only one wetter  year it will start fairly quickly.  The kicker is that with all or our precipitation there will be an overabundance of "light" fuel (grasses and the like) which is beginning to dry out.  It takes almost nothing to get this fuel going to set off the heavy fuel.  So our wet winter is a double edged sword.

We must all be careful.

Chimney Peak Fire, (as viewed from Kennedy Meadows)

June 1, 2016, 3:57 p.m.

I looked up from my mountain perch and did not like what I saw!!!!!  

FIRE in the Distance!!!

Photos look southeast over Kennedy Meadows (Ducor and Grumpy Bears in center, slightly left).

3:52 pm 6/1/2016

A quick telephone call and I learned that the fire is ten or so miles down Kennedy Meadows Road, near the Chimney Peak Ranger Station on the west side of the road. (I was later to learn that the fire eventually jumped Kennedy Meadows Road.)

Arrrgh! Cell phone battery dies and no charger!!  I watch for a while then decide to go charge phone and return with phone and charger.

6:01 p.m., June 1 2016

6:03 p.m. June 1 2016

 About 6:20 p.m. we hear the whine of a siren coming down 5 Mile Road. From our perch, we eventually see two green Forest Service fire engines screaming down Kennedy Meadows Road.

6:25 p.m., June 1, 2016

At about 6:25 we hear the rumbling of a prop plane off to our rear and right.  To the west we see a big blue tail (and assume) it is a fire fighting tanker lumbering on.  It is flying south and as it goes beyond the distant ridge it banks left and heads directly towards the fire. It descends and it soon disappears from our sight.  

About five minutes later, two small four-engine jets with red tails follow the same path.  A quick Google search. Google photos suggest these two slow moving jets are also most likely tankers for fire fighting. 

6:43 p.m, June 1, 2016

7:37 p.m. June 1 2016

For the last thirty minutes or more we cannot see any more billowing smoke with it just hanging almost static. We are now assuming things at the scene are probably getting under control.  The scene doesn't change much as darkness overcomes the landscape.

June 2, Pre-Dawn

I awoke before light and as the dawn was coming into full bloom I hiked up to yesterday's vantage point and was pleased to see completely clear skies with no signs of smoke.

June 2, 2016; dawn 6:03 a.m.

A trip down Kennedy Meadow Road today will be in order.