A Moment of Silence please

[Skybarney]

 :'(
I would like to bow my head and have a moment of passing.  One of my favorite riding areas just burned to the ground.  The King Fire east of Sacramento is tearing through some of my favorite riding territory and I am sad.  Rode through there just a day before it got closed.  Damn pretty country, such a sad thing.

Luckily this fire has not taken out anyone home yet as it seems content to double in size every day and seems to be staying to the least populated areas of the western slope.  One can only hope that it holds.  At 5% containment and 111+ square miles it does not look good for anyone downwind.

Crossing my fingers this ends without a tremendous loss of property of homes.  BTW I found this neat resource for checking out a fire zone  http://www.geomac.gov/viewer/viewer.shtml

[Jaman]

some much needed rain s/b there by now!

[SpikeC]

 There is a great riding area in eastern Oregon that burned some years ago. Now the remains of the trees are just black poles, but the road s are still there, and the area has a weird spooky beauty to it now............

[Skybarney]

As much as I do not like it nature is going to love it.  Bark beetles had killed and were going to kill a lot of trees that burned anyway.  Nature doing her thing but what a shame on a purely selfish level.

Rain;  Is that when water falls out of the sky?  Been so long I forgot what it is like.....

[bdub]

won't  the wildflowers and small brush grow up? That's what usually
happens in the east.
I went hiking through a burn area in Montana once. Several years after the burn, admittedly, but there was an eerie
beauty to the burned area

[Skybarney]

The area should be awash in green come spring time.  That is of course only if some of that weird stuff (I used to remember it's name) falls out of the sky between now and then.

[Curmudgeon]

The area should be awash in green come spring time.  That is of course only if some of that weird stuff (I used to remember it's name) falls out of the sky between now and then.

Sure..., and then it'll all be washed away.  Still beats me why anyone LIKES living in semi-desert which shakes, burns, and slides with regularity. Santa Barbara and Monterey are fine for a fews weeks..., but the rest?! Acquired taste, I guess... 

[Bill in OKC]

I used to live in Reno and knew that area well.  It is like a kick in the stomach to hear that it has burned.  So I read they have a guy that started it on purpose...

[Skybarney]

Yup they already caught the guy.  A true rarity in fire investigations to have it go so quickly.  Looking at the guys record it seems he already had several felony convictions for typical tweaker crap.  I could swear I have seen that loser wandering around Placerville at an unusually high rate of speed......

Asshole.  How anyone that lives up here can burn it down is beyond me.  Reports are officially in that the entire area around Stumpy Meadows has burned.  Wonder how they are holding up at Uncle Tom's Cabin......  No word yet but so far no structures reported lost, amazing really given the size of the fire.

[Blackout]

This makes me sad. I lived in Sacto for 10 years and love those foothills.

[Skybarney]

It is hard to sit back and watch.  The fire just jumped highway 50 south just above Pollack Pines.  With the winds supposed to turn north this evening things are about to get real scary for some folks. 

Very sad. I hope everyone stays safe.

[HotIce]

Yup they already caught the guy.  A true rarity in fire investigations to have it go so quickly.  Looking at the guys record it seems he already had several felony convictions for typical tweaker crap.  I could swear I have seen that loser wandering around Placerville at an unusually high rate of speed......

Asshole.  How anyone that lives up here can burn it down is beyond me.  Reports are officially in that the entire area around Stumpy Meadows has burned.  Wonder how they are holding up at Uncle Tom's Cabin......  No word yet but so far no structures reported lost, amazing really given the size of the fire.

I'd go Law Abiding Citizen style on him 

[MadDuck]

This makes me sad. I lived in Sacto for 10 years and love those foothills.

Me too. Went to high school there.

[SDRider]

Sure..., and then it'll all be washed away.  Still beats me why anyone LIKES living in semi-desert which shakes, burns, and slides with regularity. Santa Barbara and Monterey are fine for a fews weeks..., but the rest?! Acquired taste, I guess... 

I love San Diego.  You can go to the beach anytime of the year and if you want snow you can drive an hour to the local mountains.  Some of the best riding in the country in the local mountains and canyons too.

No place I'd rather live quite frankly.

[Curmudgeon]

No place I'd rather live quite frankly.

As I said above, "acquired taste" and whatever floats your boat. 

Prefer the trade-off for 50 - 75 fewer riding days, 1/2 your cost of living, 1/6 your taxes with better services, no excuses, lush and green most of the year without irrigation, everybody speaks some variant of English and I don't need a Star Trek translator to communicate. Twisties right out the front door, Blue Ridge Parkway one hour away on nice roads, beach is two hours and it's the Gulf Stream, NOT the Humbolt Current..., BRRR..., not that I much care. Not a beach person and definitely NOT a fan of La-La-Land...

BTW, no Nanny State here until you get to the DC suburbs. All my magazines are 15 - 18 rounds.  Plenty of water in the river just down the road too.  http://goo.gl/maps/1GGTv

We can agree on bikes though.