The Fires

The smoke will be with us for some time. The losses will be with us far longer.

My heart aches for those who have lost their homes. Many years ago, a colleague assured me that people who choose to live in the forest accept that this day might come, the day when fire takes it all away. [But, still ... ]

When the Tubbs Fire blew over the ridge into Santa Rosa a few years ago, I took a deep breath. That could have been my town, embers flying miles over the hills to land on our rooftops. When a nearby community was put on an evacuation watch, I decided it was prudent to gather a few things together, just in case. I stashed my sleeping bag and tent in the trunk of my car; I could think of a few friends who wouldn't mind having me camp in their backyards. [Socially distant.] An evacuee's RV has been tethered to a neighbor's house for several days.

The red splotches on Cal Fire's Incident Map are not abstract to me. I have biked the back roads through so many of them (annotated here with black lightning bolts).

As it happened, I chose to click on HamCam 1 just as flames crept into view on a ridge below Lick Observatory. I couldn't bear to watch. [Thanks to a heroic effort, only one unused building was lost.] The valley on the back side burned; it must look very different from this view, which I captured near the base of the fire lookout on my most recent visit.

There will still be a spectacular view of the Pacific from Meyers Grade.

But the landscape, I expect, no longer resembles what I pedaled through a few years ago.

The northern end of Swanton Road drops steeply down to Highway 1, not far past the intersection with Last Chance Road (where the fire tragically cost a man his life). I had no idea there was a community up that road; umarked, I'd always presumed it was private, perhaps leading to an out-of-sight ranch.

This intersection of Alba Road and Empire Grade, I believe, has been incinerated.

 

Did this quirky spot near Big Basin survive? [Doubtful.]

The park—California's first state park—has burned.

There are reports that this beloved tree survived. As you can see, this was not the first fire in its (long) lifetime.

We are so small. What have we wrought?