Tuesday, April 5, 2011

scorched earth

We had an eventful week alongside my usual foothills trail route this past week.  

Amateur rocket launch set off a 2 acre blaze early in the week, then some copycatting reprobates set another fire on Saturday, not 100 yards from the previous.  

looking north @ scorched earth
looking south from same location at what once was
Hotshot crews and heliflights fought that 40-acre fire thru the night, saving our Sandias western slope from the devastating winds that followed on Sunday.  Hearty Thx! to all you responders!

Had my first chance to check the damage after work today, stopping short in shock, even though I thought I knew what was coming.

before, in the height of monsoon season

after, in the depths of stupidity
Nothing but raw, scorched sand where once was high desert prairie.

Most of the (wide) singletrack in the area was widened out by the firefighters to serve as firebreaks.  What once was singletrack, now more resembles jeep trails.  The vegetation might eventually recover, but I bet we've lost that singletrack forever.

schweet singletrack, gone
All in all, maybe a coupla miles of singletrack loop, few acres of prairie affected.  Bad enuf on the face of it, even more scary to think how much worse it could have been.

6 comments:

  1. that is a damn shame. a couple idiots can ruin it for the rest of us.

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  2. agreed- let's be careful out there! mike

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  3. Sorry to see this, I hope that the rains return things to normality as soon as possible!

    Lovely single track!

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  4. hey Justin! RE: rain, your hopes just might have helped push this front down ABQ way, we received a good bit this AM, schweet! mike

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  5. hmmmm... brings to mind another prarie fire back in 1981 or so, started by some young idiots with fireworks and sling-shots... not that the Royal Wulff would know ANYTHING about that. ;D

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  6. haw haw. With age, comes wisdom. And Judgement.

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