Autumn Arrives - September Ends - Part One

The days have been mostly pretty regular, with house and yard work, trips to the mail, hikes and runs, and a Netflix night or game of cribbage to end the days.  But in there, too, have been "amusements" offered to keep us enlivened.  Here's a few.

Boater ready for the extra water release weekend

Having fun on the water

Poised at the rim

Kayakers ready for their ride on the Lobin Run, which is from Rock Crest down to the Cresta Reservoir at Rock Creek

A group runs the stretch below the bridge to Rock Crest

Autumn floribunda on a hike up Caribou Road with Brenda

This was my view as I returned from my Brenda hike.  I was a couple miles from home

Coming round the curve just east of the Tobin Twin Bridges

Heading up my driveway, this is what I see over on the Tobin Ridge

 But, let me go back for a moment to what Jeffery saw when he first heard of the wildfire across the canyon from Tobin Resort.

This perspective of the Tobin Ridge and the fire will become familiar.  This, apparently, was around 10 a.m.

Tiny helicopter with yellow bucket to the right of the smoke

A jet plane drops fire-retardant (I'm told "borate" is no longer used)

The plane exits as the retardant curtain drops.

This red helicopter worked hard all day; it was only one of a variety of a dozen aircraft that bombarded the fire for the rest of the day.  Hot-shot teams and other ground crews would be sent in, too.

Okay, back to real time chronological order.

noon view from beside Uncle G's.

water drop flight

view from my deck

4 p.m. fire growth.  We felt that the crews were keeping it mostly under control, despite some spread.

Looks pretty bad, but the aircraft are still filling the air with the noise of their activity

flames can be seen but are hard to photograph, due to distance

Jeffery went down-river about 1/2 mile to film the helicopters picking up water from the river.

I'm so impressed by the pilots of all the aircraft.  This guy is dipping his bucket in using a really short line.

There he goes with his load.

This helicopter was up-river about 1/2 mile dipping with his long line.

close up of the smoke.  see the weird question mark?

The sun heads towards the Ridge while the water drops continue to dampen the fire.

They brought in a big helicopter for the late afternoon to evening runs.  We could tell it was him before we saw him, due to the noise this helicopter makes.

View from my deck as dusk falls.

Still working

The white lights at the bottom of the photo are the crew trucks heading up or down the road as they keep an eye on the fire. The road goes up in switchbacks and climbs over the Tobin Ridge to access other back-country roads.

another shot of our heroes.

View from my deck as dark falls

Zoom up of view from my deck

The view from beside Uncle G's at night.

I think this is the same tree I've been watching all day as it stayed safe from fire.  Will check on it tomorrow.

Trees ablaze

Even at night, the little trucks guard us from the spread of fire.  After having had that hill burn twice before, we thought we'd not see fire up there again, but there it is.  Thank you firefighters.  We see you out there!  We wish you the best.

This is only Sept. 26th, so I'll have more to show of the end of the month in the next post.