Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Sadly,

a large part of the Colockum landscape, through which we toured in April, is now toast.





This rad old orchard that was established by homesteaders and that we camped in is probably char now.



Yes, it's a natural process, but it's still sad.

4 comments:

Jason Gilman said...

Saw all the smoke driving home through the Gorge Sunday and realized it was on the other side of the Columbia, but didn't make the connection. Glad you were able to experience (and share) that area before the devastation.

Meg said...

Yes, some stuff will be gone forever. But not all, and a lot will grow back quicker than you can possibly imagine.

We drove out to Vantage tonight... Whiskey Dick bay is still intact and I have pics, although I'm assuming it will burn within the next 24-48 hours. NOT gonna be sad to see that poison oak fried, lol.

Super tough country to fight fire in though. You can see why they're basically just waiting for it to get to roads on the south side where access is better... Sending crew and gear in most of that would be a suicide run.

Pat S said...

Meg, always love and respect your perspective. Having been out there during my one short visit makes me totally "get" how how unique this landscape is, at a gut level.

This fire makes me feel so incredibly lucky to have done this traverse when we did. The trip was already extremely special and now it's gone to a different level.

amidnightrider said...

It's only nature till we factor in humans. It then becomes a tragedy. It will come back greener and better than ever.