Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board So Cal Fires

BobT -- You're right of course. What threw me off was the mistaken assertion that the Rugids managed to get their kids disfigured for life. Everyone knows that the Rugrats (a) they get into trouble by themselves and (b) they always get out of trouble with no disfigurement.

Trailslug -- I'll just offer to shake hands.

DHMeieio -- The cat's out of the bag. The dean told one of us "fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

And the Rugids didn't stop moving those rocks around, even when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. I learned that on Fox News.

<a href="http://www.cuyamaca.statepark.org">
<img src="http://www.cuyamaca.statepark.org/dyar.jpg" align=right></a>Cuyamaca Rancho SP is closed (as well as <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/cleveland/news/2003/fire_closure.shtml">Cleveland NF</a>). It will probably be closed for some time.

Here's a photo of the park HQ and visitors center.

Click on the photo to see more CRSP photos. In the picnic area it looks like it snowed but that's ash.
Gary

Gary, Those pictures hit me like an arrow through my heart. I'd guess School Camp didn't fare too well either.

Scott,
What I read is that the school camp is ok, but not the boy scout camp.

Trailslug, Thanks for the update.

I drove through Cuyamaca State Park and the Laguna Mountain area on Tuesday. It is so sad about Cuyamaca. I sure am glad I finally climbed Middle Peak in August, before the forest was gone. The northern part of Laguna Mountain is also burned, but most of that forest survived, thankfully. Cuyamaca was my favorite place in the world.

Angeles National Forest reopened today, November 7, after being closed due to the Grand Prix fire and high danger of other fires. The recent rain, snow, and cold weather has reduced the fire risk. Parts of the San Bernardino National forest have also been opened including San Jacinto, San Gorgonio, and other areas away from the fire sites.

The word on the Boy Scout Arrowhead Scout camp @ Circle K is moderate damage. The fire proof cafeteria (built to protect the boy scouts in case of fire) survived the fire. The Administration building and building next to the pool was burned, along with the buildings in the rifle (maybe shotgun) shooting area. The pool was badly damaged and the fire was so hot it melted the asphalt. Across the camp many of the camp sites were burned out but the fire jumped around and did not get everything. No water or electricity left. From what I heard, they will rebuild. But I suspect that will take some time, and who would want to go camp in a black burned out area?

found out from all the firemen in my neighborhood what C.D.F means
cant deal with fire
and the forrest service what a joke!
nice job letting everything and everybody burn up

It is great that we live in a country where some know-nothing can insult some of the very people who, in recent weeks, put their lives on the line to protect other peoples' lives and property. On the other hand, reading such rot is hardly one of the high points of living here.

Why make a criticism of the Forest Service with actual content, backing it up with facts, when it is so easy just to smear the whole organization?

oh alan sweetie your so quick to post, do you have a girlfriend?
well maybe a boyfriend its ok these days you know!
If its some wonderfull fact in print or living color on one of your favorite TV stations , I urge you to just take a peek at how many homes and lives were lost?
and where the forrestdiservice was involved and the cant deal with fire crews

GaryM and diegohiker, thanks for your posts, I sat here on my truck in SE San Diego County and looked at the flames on the Lagunas, visible with naked eye even though they were 30 miles away. Power was out for almost a week.

I used to live in Crest, the place I used to live is still there, fire stopped only by banks of red apple iceplant my mom planted in the early 80s. Most of the neighbors and several of my close friends from elementary school had their homes burned to the ground, my old church burned partially, but the school (stucco) wasn't harmed.

It is, indeed, very, very sad that Cuyamaca Rancho SP will be closed indefinitely, I would like to help replant some of the trees and other vegetation that burned so fast and hot there's little chance of them coming back from the roots.

Can we please knock the bull**** off guys!

I thought this would probably be of interest since many of you can't see first hand the area where the Cedar Fire burned. Yesterday I flew around most of the fire area and shot a series of <a href="http://gary.mggm.net/photos/cedarburn" target="burn">photos</a>. It's pretty sad, the loss of lives, homes and wilderness area. I hope to go back a couple of years from now in the Spring and see the mountains green again.

The photos that have lat/longs are approximate based on the time of the photo compared to the track log from the on board GPS receiver. The camera doesn't record seconds on the time stamp so the times can be off +/- 1 minute (about 1-2 miles)

Gary

GaryM, those are great, albeit tragic pics. The first one you show is Peak 2703 (between Woodson and Iron Mtn.), which I've climbed a number of times. Until I found a use trail, I gave my blood on that mountain from all the chaparral that cut and tore me. It was way over grown! Back in 1995 I watched that peak burn, but about a year later it was green again. and in eight years was amazingly over-grown--enough to support another conflagration. Mt. Vincent had also been consumed in the 1995 fire, which was a help to me to climb its way-out-of-the-way, cross-country peak. Anyway, San Diego's chaparral is extremely resilient, and I assure you it will be back quickly. However, the great trees on Middle Peak, well, that's really sad. They were the biggest in San Diego county. Maybe the biggest ones survived, I don't know, but your summit photo looked pretty dismal. Thanks for sharing.

<img src="http://gary.mggm.net/photos/cedarburn/IronMtStickyMonkey.jpg" align=right>Wayne, I'm glad you reminded me of the 1995 fire there. I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it. I was <a href="http://www.races.sandiego.ca.gov/races/Incidents/IronMtn.html" target="races">working at that fire</a>, assisting with evacuations in that neighborhood just on the other side of Iron Mt in Ramona. That was not a pleasant day. But I also remember a great hike from Ellie Lane to Iron Mt that my wife and I did in Spring of 97. This photo was taken that Spring. As you can see, just two years later, the flowers were in full bloom. It does grow back again.

Gary

GaryM--WOW! Beautiful.