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Tag Archives: wildfire

Summer 2021

Now that it is almost officially fall, it looks like fire season might be over in our little corner of the world. We hope.

I did not do much photography this summer. Most days were filled with smoke and it was often unbearably hot. Much of the public land was closed and our main access to the North Cascades, Highway 20, was closed.

Here are a few images of the summer. Most from home. But some from Pearrygin Lake, before they closed it to the public. We got to see LOTS of firefighting aircraft. Our friend from Montana even got to visit the valley to drop water from a big bucket attached to a huge helicopter. We were able to visit him at the airport one day when he wasn’t flying. The little fire boss planes are pretty amazing the way they fly in formation, scooping water and then dumping it on the fire and the giant retardant jets are a sight to see when they fly low over the fire spilling their contents to halt the spread of flames.

No houses were lost and no one died in our fires. We are grateful for firefighters, on the ground and in the air.

Wildfire Sunset

Two fires are burning in our watershed right now, both out of control. The Cub Creek 2 fire is burning to the north and generally away from people and homes. Hopefully everyone was evacuated from the wilderness backcountry. The Cedar Creek fire is advancing at a steady pace towards many homes. It has crept down the mountains towards highway 20 in the upper valley where it is meeting up with bulldozer lines put in to stop it. Hopefully those lines held overnight. And it has crossed Lucky Jim Bluff and now Virginia Ridge and is bearing down on neighborhoods just outside of Winthrop. Many people were put on level 3 evacuation notices overnight. Hazardous smoke fills the valley and I cannot see across to the other side.

We have not received an evacuation notice. I imagine we will be doing more firewise stuff around our house today and packing in case we decide to leave. The fire is less than ten miles from here and covering more ground everyday.

Last night there was a brief reprieve from the smoke and I saw the northern horizon for the first time in a couple of days. The fire to the right is Cub Creek and to the left is Cedar Creek. You can read about these fires on Inciweb.

Don’t Breathe the Air

Our valley has been inundated with wildfire smoke off and on for over forty days. This week is particularly bad with an inversion trapping all of the smoke and holding it down throughout the day and night with no relief. A person, or a dog I suppose, should be wearing a mask whenever she ventures out in it. Otherwise, she ought to just stay inside and be grateful for air conditioning and a tightly built house.

Dogs don’t understand this and they want/need a walk each day. Here are a few images from this morning’s walk.

New yarrow flower
Most yarrow is dry and crispy yellow
Snowberry

Choking on Smoke

Wildfires in British Columbia and a 10,000 acre fire in the Pasayten Wilderness have left much of Washington blanketed in a thick layer of smoke. Air quality in Twisp and Winthrop was the worst in the nation in recent days. People are warned to stay inside with windows and doors closed and not everyone has air conditioning. Temperatures have been in the high 90’s. It is strongly suggested that a person should wear a mask when outside and strenuous activity is being discouraged. Needless to say in our area with a strong emphasis on outdoor recreation, this is a great hardship. I ventured out with the dogs for a couple of hours yesterday and it was painful. ‘They’ say a weather system should be here in a few days, perhaps with wind and rain but most likely with lightning too, and that some of this smoke may be dispersed. It’s hard to hope for lightning but I do want a break from this thick air pollution.

The sun
Not such a bad day with maybe three miles visibility
Patterson Lake. Less than a mile visibility.
Smoky moon

One Amazing Tree

This ponderosa pine tree was severely burned in the Carlton Complex wildfire in 2014 and it is still alive and even vigorous. It has the remains of a metal notice indicating that it was an official bearing tree, marking an old survey line. I wonder if anyone even uses these bearing trees anymore since many people have some form of a GPS in their pockets?

Trees are amazing.

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