[Az-Geocaching] Latest Sedona Fire

Wed Jun 21 16:53:58 MST 2006

Amen to that!  I spent many hours in Sedona in my adolescent and young adult
years and it makes my heart hurt to see it in flames.  Our thoughts are with
you and the rest of your co-workers up there doing touring work. We all hope
for a fast end to this fire season!

Crystal
CraftyCrystal (formerly HinkleHouse)

-----Original Message-----
From: az-geocaching-bounces at listserv.azgeocaching.com
[mailto:az-geocaching-bounces at listserv.azgeocaching.com] On Behalf Of Roping
The Wind
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 2:34 PM
To: listserv at azgeocaching.com
Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] Latest Sedona Fire

>From: "Brian Casteel" <>

>
>Scott,
>
>How far are you from this one?  It doesn't look like Sedona is the 
>place to be this summer.

>
>Brian
>
>Team A.I.

Well, it is the place to be... just not right now! I was about 1.8 miles
from the fire and the house here is right on the edge of the forest
boundary. I am 3 houses down from the sugarloaf rock/trailhead. Had the fire
come this way, I would have been evacuated quickly. Fortunately, it went the
other way. The fire started on Brins Mesa... just north of Soldiers Pass. 
Some of you are probably familiar with the Soldiers Pass jeep trail. If you
follow that trail/hiking trail up to Soldiers Pass, head north and cross
over to the Brins Mesa Trail, you would be right in the area that the fire
started in. This cache is the closest cache to where the fire started: 
GCHBVG.

GCHBVG was a really fun cache. I hiked to it from the house one hot
afternoon last summer. It was like a 7 mile round trip hike. But a really
fun hike. The cache is on the edge of the cliff and I think it might have
survived the fire. I watched the fire from atop Sugarloaf Rock and I could
see the flames moving along the mesa and the rock ridge near the cache. But
it looks like it might have come within 300-500 feet of the cache and not
any closer.

Anyways, I got back up here to Sedona (after some business back in the
valley) on Sunday around noon and there was no fire. The company owner up
here called me (he owns this house I live in and lives in another house
about a mile away) and said to look out the window. I did and saw all the
smoke. It looked really close. Close enough that he asked if there were any
hoses around the house! I walked up the street and hiked up Sugarloaf to see
where it was and it was actually about 1.8 miles away. There is one
neighborhood in between mine and the fire (and lots and lots of thick
brush/manzanita). Fortunately, the fire continued to move north. It climbed
to the top of Wilson Mountain within a couple of hours. It was very fast
moving as the winds that day were blowing 25 mph or so with higher gusts.

It appears the fire was started by a campfire at a transient camp. 
Unbeleivable. There have been fire restrictions in place for the past couple
of months. So due to one persons carelessness (dare I say  stupidity)... 
1000's of acres of prime forest are destroyed, people evacuted from homes,
many people who might lose their homes and properties (in Oak Creek Canyon)
and many more people will be out of jobs and lost business revenue for the
next month or two or until we get rain (due to the forest closure). Hundreds
of hot shot crews are putting their own lives in serious risk working 16
hour shifts fighting this fire in very rugged terrain. I have never really
been up close with big forest fires before. But I am seeing all the action
around town. I have a tremendous amount of respect for those hot shot crews.

They are the toughest men and women around! They work 16 hour days (or more)
in hot daytime temperatures (in the 90's and even pushing 100 degrees around
here lately) and even hotter conditions near the fires. They are wearing
nomex fire suits that do not breath. They are lugging around lots of heavy
equiptment on their backs. They do this for extremely long periods of time. 
Those that work the night shifts will then get some much needed rest and
sleep.... in a tent during the hot afternoon on the football field of the
local high school. They have unbelievable strength and mental and physical
abilities. They did a report on them on the news and they showed a local
kindergarten class making cookies to give to the hot shot crews. I'm not
generally an emotional guy but that news report made me sad and brought a
tear or two.

Currently, the fire is moving down into Oak Creek Canyon. It has reached hwy
89A. They conducted backburns along Hwy 89A in the canyon and allowed those
fires to move up the hill to meet the main fire. This way, there is no fuel
to burn and they hope it will keep the fire from jumping across the hwy. If
it does, there are many homes and resorts on the east side of the canyon. 
There are also many home and resorts on the west side of the canyon as well.

It is burning just above the Dairy Queen resturuant. The smoke has been very
thick in Sedona during the morning hours. But generally very clear during
the afternoons. The house smells of smoke. Cant seem to get it out. I can
cleary see the fire from the backyard patio... although much farther away
than it was on Sunday , when it first started.

As for me, the near future is very much in question. We are done flying on
Friday morning and cannot operate again until the forest re-opens. All the
jeep tour companies, hummer tours, hot air balloon tours, etc are not able
to operate. It will not open up again until we can get enough rain to wet
the forest and also until weather conditions become more favorable (higher
humidities, cooler temperatures). So not sure if I will be hanging around
here in Sedona or not. We are hoping the monsoon rain season will make an
early arrival. We will likely not see adaquate rain until July 15th or so
(we hope!).

I cant even go hiking or geocaching, as the forest is 100 percent closed to
public access. Sedona will be a ghost town for the near future. As far as
Sedona goes otherwise, the town has not been touched by the fire and no
structures destroyed here. The red rocks of Sedona will remain as beautiful
as always. The pine forest in and around Sedona is still very green and
untouched (other than Brins Mesa). The effects of the fire will be clearly
visible after it is over in Oak Creek Canyon. Driving thru Oak Creek Canyon
is not going to be nearly as scenic as it once was and will take many years
to recover. I always enjoy the fall colors in the canyon during the early
Fall when taking our passengers back up to their resorts in the canyon.

As soon as the rains fall and the forest reopens... Sedona will again be a
great place to be! So pray for rain, rain and more rain!!!!!!

Scott
Team Ropingthewind

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