Yesterday after helping a friend move some heavy machinery from his shop to storage, I went for a little ride in the foothills south of acton, ca., on the north side of where the last huge wild fire had burned thru.
Some of the terrain looked like a combination of the trinity test site at Alamagordo, N.M.( the manhattan project) & the moon. A month ago I tried to ride this area but Snow & ice kept me below 4500 ft elevation, yesterday I was able to ride up to 5500 ft. The rains we have received recently have been rather short duration events, which has been a blessing for this devastated area, by minimizing mud flows & erosion while allowing water to slowly saturate the burned & crusted gray soil.
It's very clear where the aquifer exists & where is doesn't. Some areas are already sprouting up new vegetation on one side of a giant drainage, while on the other side for a few miles, it's still devoid of all plant life. All the 2 track dirt roads are in good shape, the forest trails will be closed for a while to allow the usfs to assess the condition of every thing, & nature to do it's work on new vegetation, this area had not burned in some places in 60 years. My little adventure only lasted for 2 hours of putting around, seeing many creeks running & some birds& a coyote & a whole bunch of barren land, caused by an arsonist, the point of origin some 40 miles south of my location.
An old friend ,neighbor & co-worker, who had retired a couple of years ago, had lived in the area for 30 years, lost his ranch & the home he & his Mrs. had built, so did another friend 50 miles to the south east, from the same wild fire. :(
Some of the terrain looked like a combination of the trinity test site at Alamagordo, N.M.( the manhattan project) & the moon. A month ago I tried to ride this area but Snow & ice kept me below 4500 ft elevation, yesterday I was able to ride up to 5500 ft. The rains we have received recently have been rather short duration events, which has been a blessing for this devastated area, by minimizing mud flows & erosion while allowing water to slowly saturate the burned & crusted gray soil.
It's very clear where the aquifer exists & where is doesn't. Some areas are already sprouting up new vegetation on one side of a giant drainage, while on the other side for a few miles, it's still devoid of all plant life. All the 2 track dirt roads are in good shape, the forest trails will be closed for a while to allow the usfs to assess the condition of every thing, & nature to do it's work on new vegetation, this area had not burned in some places in 60 years. My little adventure only lasted for 2 hours of putting around, seeing many creeks running & some birds& a coyote & a whole bunch of barren land, caused by an arsonist, the point of origin some 40 miles south of my location.
An old friend ,neighbor & co-worker, who had retired a couple of years ago, had lived in the area for 30 years, lost his ranch & the home he & his Mrs. had built, so did another friend 50 miles to the south east, from the same wild fire. :(
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