orange county foothills fire
 

ugh. fire broke out along the santiago canyon rd corridor and is south of it for the most part-so far. most of the nearby potential fuel
is on the north side of scr. arguably, the most scenic roads in orange county are silverado canyon rd, modjeska canyon rd and live oak canyon rd.
hoping the powers that be and the fates conspire to spare those areas and a quick containment to the area that is currently burning.

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappvi...705fcce7c3312f

if you've ridden these, then you know. if you haven't, hopefully you'll get a chance to do so. i wouldn't wait to ride them because if they get significantly
hit by fire, they won't be the same in your lifetime...even if you're < 25 years old.

I've been watching this unfold. My house was spared a couple of months ago, but my whole riding areas was incinerated.

cf: https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...n-burnout.html

Unfortunately, it doesn't look good if the winds keep up. I also heard that this might have been ignited by electrical equipment.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54694971

yes, we at bf were happy your house was spared. as you pointed out, so many around you not as fortunate. really tragic.
santa cruz mountains so gorgeous and so unique. i fear it's is now socal's turn as we have only had a handful of major fires since june
but we are in the heart of the real fire season now. and we've been underepresenting the western region as a whole. yikes.

for the environment, the good thing is that the rainfall totals in the santa cruz mtns area are prodigious compared to the paucity of
moisture we get down here. things grow quicker up there. sure, fallen redwoods won't be as tall any time soon but at least the renewal process
on the stuff most people see as valuable (big trees) is fast-tracked compared to socal...

nearly any long boonies ride i do in socal is backed with appreciation for the surrounding sights and flora because, all too often, the area gets
torched beyond a two decade repair. memories. hit it while you can because while it may be there tomorrow, it may not be the same on your next visit.

I just read two firefighters were seriously burned.

I hate this.

So it sounds like the Silverado Fire actually spread away from Silverado Cyn (town)? If so, that was a blessing. One road in and one road out unless evacuation would make use of Maple Springs Rd? Two of my favorite places (Hwy 39/SR2 and SCR) to ride have been hard hit by wildfires. At least GMR/GRR/Baldy has not suffered a similar fate.

Yes very sad. I rode Portola up from Jamboree until it ends at the toll road just this past Friday. On Sunday wife & I rode in that area as well it was cool & misty and many of the roads were wet from overnight drizzle. Hopefully that hindered some of the spread.
Nature replentishes itself eventually but unfortunately that takes awhile.
West

I had scheduled a tentative ride this morning with a friend. Yesterday was certainly out of the question. We're going to wait until 8am to see what the air quality looks like and if the winds subside. I haven't been out yet to smell the air this morning, but it doesn't look good. I'm right on the Los Angeles/Orange County line and there were ashes on all the cars yesterday.

Helicopter streaming feed by the local news helicopters

AQI has been very bad (rated 'very unhealthful') you can check current readings at www.aqmd.gov

drove through the 5/405 corridor twice yday and the smoke fallout extended between long beach to laguna niguel/mission viejo and to the coast.

Compared to yesterday today's air feels about 50% better, but still not worth exerting myself on my bike.. Unless we get some strong onshore winds I think I'll be hunkering down for a while.