The people that have been kind enough to open their doors up to us left last night to go camping for the weekend. Just a little bit ago, we decided to let the dogs out in the backyard and throw the ball a bit. Heather took over the throwing duties because I decided to shave my legs to pass the time. Recently I started using an electric shaver because I find razors to be frightening. It doesn't get as close owned but that's fine. I'm actually about done with the whole shaving thing in general. To be honest, the biggest motivator for me to do it all anymore is that after a 12 hour day on singletrack, it's just easier to clean up and on the odd chance that I do crash and get a decent cut, it does make the fist aid in a remote area easier.
Anyways...I'm out there getting after it when all of a sudden I hear a small voice across the yard. I look up and there's a little girl in the neighbors yard. She was probably 5 and she was grilling us. Who were we, why were we here, did we know the people that owned the house and their little girls, did we wanna see her favorite rocks? Finally...she says, "What are you doing?" I say..."Nothing." Who wants to try to explain to a 5 year old why they're shaving their legs? "That thing that's in your hands...what are you doing to your legs?" Heather is laughing at this point and mumbling that I should explain that I am shaving my legs. Finally, I say, "Have you ever heard of stranger danger?" She says, "No." I say, "Well I have and I don't know you so I'm taking my razor and going inside." Heather was laughing too hard to get up out of the chair. I was really hoping she wouldn't have a drop of her soda go down the wrong pipe.
Kids.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Frustrating
The Waldo Canyon fire is now 30% contained which is pretty good in my opinion. If you imagine a fire with a 100 mile perimeter then this would equate to 30 miles of that perimeter being contained. Doesn't seem like much but you also have to take into accound the type of rugged terrain that we are talking about in this example. There are many places where they simply cannot get boots on the ground and are relying on aerial drops to cool things off.
With that said, there is still a line due south of Woodland that T's into highway 24 that crews are still concerned about. It has held for about the last 2 days but the weather expected for today is not as favorable as it has been. Today they expect less cloud cover (which will heat things up) and they also expect more wind. The big nknown for us is always the direction that the wind will come from. Typically, it blows up the ridge that runs along the highway but if it swings and comes from the SE, it could very easily jump the line they dug and backburned from and start working it's way towards Woodland one ridge at a time which is precisely what it did the first several days. So...as of this mornings press conference, the mandatory evacuation is still in effect.
WARNING: this is now going to take a slight political swing.
At the end of every press conference they always turn it into a question/answer session for the citizens in attendance. Today one guy got up and was concerned about the impact that this fire was going to have on our city long term (we've essentially lost this seasons tourist revenue, businesses are hurting and most have shut down, etc.). So the Mayor and his left hand man (can't recall his exact title) were encouraging everyone to support the local businesses. Now I wasn't in attendance as we stream the conference every morning but my frustration with this is that twice now in the 7 years I have been teaching in Woodland Park, the citizens (and business owners in particular) have not supported a Mill Levy which would provide more money for our school district. This is MY business. We wouldn't be cutting programming every year, class sizes would not be in the 30's, people like me who have a Masters degree and 11 years experience might actually be able to make $40,000 a year, we might be able to un-freeze the pay scale and folks could get their steps for the first time in 6 years!! When the educators talk to business owners about the importance of a Mill Levy, things always become heated. Woodland Park has made it very clear how they feel about the importance of education. It will be very difficult for me to go back into town and go to dinner or purchase things from stores in town as opposed to waiting until we run errands down in the Springs to do that, or to hire someone in town to repair my deck instead of having someone come up the mountain to do it, etc. I started to make a comment addressing this via facebook but then realized that my name would be known and that's not good for my livelihood. It's unfortunate because it's a valid point to make and at a time when those that are steadfastly on the other side of the fence might actually be able to see it.
With that said, there is still a line due south of Woodland that T's into highway 24 that crews are still concerned about. It has held for about the last 2 days but the weather expected for today is not as favorable as it has been. Today they expect less cloud cover (which will heat things up) and they also expect more wind. The big nknown for us is always the direction that the wind will come from. Typically, it blows up the ridge that runs along the highway but if it swings and comes from the SE, it could very easily jump the line they dug and backburned from and start working it's way towards Woodland one ridge at a time which is precisely what it did the first several days. So...as of this mornings press conference, the mandatory evacuation is still in effect.
WARNING: this is now going to take a slight political swing.
At the end of every press conference they always turn it into a question/answer session for the citizens in attendance. Today one guy got up and was concerned about the impact that this fire was going to have on our city long term (we've essentially lost this seasons tourist revenue, businesses are hurting and most have shut down, etc.). So the Mayor and his left hand man (can't recall his exact title) were encouraging everyone to support the local businesses. Now I wasn't in attendance as we stream the conference every morning but my frustration with this is that twice now in the 7 years I have been teaching in Woodland Park, the citizens (and business owners in particular) have not supported a Mill Levy which would provide more money for our school district. This is MY business. We wouldn't be cutting programming every year, class sizes would not be in the 30's, people like me who have a Masters degree and 11 years experience might actually be able to make $40,000 a year, we might be able to un-freeze the pay scale and folks could get their steps for the first time in 6 years!! When the educators talk to business owners about the importance of a Mill Levy, things always become heated. Woodland Park has made it very clear how they feel about the importance of education. It will be very difficult for me to go back into town and go to dinner or purchase things from stores in town as opposed to waiting until we run errands down in the Springs to do that, or to hire someone in town to repair my deck instead of having someone come up the mountain to do it, etc. I started to make a comment addressing this via facebook but then realized that my name would be known and that's not good for my livelihood. It's unfortunate because it's a valid point to make and at a time when those that are steadfastly on the other side of the fence might actually be able to see it.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Waldo Canyon latest
It's been a real emotional last few days. I haven't seen my wife in 2 days now so that has not helped me from being kind of a crank. I have both pups with me and I think they're stressed out and I hate to see that. Yesterday we pretty much just laid in bed and streamed news online all day. If we are all in bed they seem to relax more and just fall asleep. If I move to the kitchen then they get ramped up.
I just got done watchng this mornings press conference and there was a sense of optimism from everyone involved. That NW corner of the springs that got devastated so much is still a huge concern and most of the divisions are down there trying to keep it fom making a run up the front range where there really aren't that many natural fire breaks. The encouraging news is that the line along highway 24 (this is the artery that leads to Woodland Park from Colorado Springs) is holding. There have been times when embers have jumped the highway and spotted up but they have all been put out. From what I understand, crews were stationed about every 50 yards to watch for spots and then radio for assistance to get them extinguished as soon as they jumped over. So the highway seems to be working as a solid fire line. I think there is still a really big area of concern right by Cave of the Winds (from the pics shown on the news, this area is probably a quarter to half a mile off the highway but in an area where they can't get crews to because of the terrain so they have been doing lots of drops to try to cool it off).
The fire has not advanced up by Rampart Reservoir (on our side at least) so it looks like the work they have done up there is paying off. The fire line runs from the base of the ridge at the highway all the way to to the top by Rampart Range Road and forms a T with the highway. A bit further up towards Woodland, crews are working to build a fire line (essentially a big trench) from 24 all the way up to Rampart Range Road. They have also widened Rampart Range Road quite a bit to increase that break line. As a fail safe, they have also gone back much closer to Woodland and are working to establish more of the trenches up the ridge to Rampart Range Road just in case the previous lines failed to hold. It will be interesting to see these in person as they sound pretty stout. The winds continue to prevail in a NW direction which is good for us and our home. Containment is holding at about 15% and I don't know for sure (but I would guess) that total acrage is still about 19,000. As of the 11:30 press conference, we are still not permitted to re-enter our home just yet.
That's all the news I have for now.
I just got done watchng this mornings press conference and there was a sense of optimism from everyone involved. That NW corner of the springs that got devastated so much is still a huge concern and most of the divisions are down there trying to keep it fom making a run up the front range where there really aren't that many natural fire breaks. The encouraging news is that the line along highway 24 (this is the artery that leads to Woodland Park from Colorado Springs) is holding. There have been times when embers have jumped the highway and spotted up but they have all been put out. From what I understand, crews were stationed about every 50 yards to watch for spots and then radio for assistance to get them extinguished as soon as they jumped over. So the highway seems to be working as a solid fire line. I think there is still a really big area of concern right by Cave of the Winds (from the pics shown on the news, this area is probably a quarter to half a mile off the highway but in an area where they can't get crews to because of the terrain so they have been doing lots of drops to try to cool it off).
The fire has not advanced up by Rampart Reservoir (on our side at least) so it looks like the work they have done up there is paying off. The fire line runs from the base of the ridge at the highway all the way to to the top by Rampart Range Road and forms a T with the highway. A bit further up towards Woodland, crews are working to build a fire line (essentially a big trench) from 24 all the way up to Rampart Range Road. They have also widened Rampart Range Road quite a bit to increase that break line. As a fail safe, they have also gone back much closer to Woodland and are working to establish more of the trenches up the ridge to Rampart Range Road just in case the previous lines failed to hold. It will be interesting to see these in person as they sound pretty stout. The winds continue to prevail in a NW direction which is good for us and our home. Containment is holding at about 15% and I don't know for sure (but I would guess) that total acrage is still about 19,000. As of the 11:30 press conference, we are still not permitted to re-enter our home just yet.
That's all the news I have for now.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
More Waldo Canyon
Yesterday at about noon we were officially evacuated from our home as the fire crept closer to the ridge line above us. I think that with the unpredictable afternoon wind that the storms might bring, officials wanted to be safe and just get that whole side of town out quickly. I keep hearing officials who have battled fires all over our nation say that they have seen this fire do things that no other fire has done (jump multiple ridges at a time, burn and advance faster going down a mountain than when going up, etc.). In a press conference this morning, I heard one fire fighter say that in 20 some odd years of fighting widfires, he saw something last night that he had never seen a fire do. It's weird to me. I just think of fire burning things up but it's much more technical than that. It's intriguing.
Anyways...after being told to leave, we ended up going to the Red Cross shelter up in Divide but they were already full and it was gridlock leaving town. We sat in the parking lot of a bar that we sometimes eat at but I couldn't see as much as I wanted to. I convinced Heather to head back into town so we could watch the ridge above our house more closely. We ended up sitting in the City Market parking lot watching the C-130's hammer the ridge. It was the first time that we were able to see flames right in town. Heather and I joked that we were now pretty damn close to being white trash. There we sat with as much of our personal belongings crammed into the car as possible, with 2 pit bulls, and eating store bought fried chicken out of a box (hey...we were hungry). I told Heather we should take of our shoes and asked if she'd lose the bra but she kept it on. We hung out there for a few hours and began to lose hope that they would allow us back into our humble home that evening and decided to start the long, back roads drive towards the Denver area where we would stay with our friends Scott and Kim. Bodhi showed his appreciation by promptly leaving a shit on the carpet while Dharma opted for a pee.
As of this morning, the fire is now 18,500 acres but the really alarming statistic involves the number of homes lost (approximately 300). This morning I was able to see some aerial pictures of the NW area of Colorado Springs and it is nauseating. One thing is for damn sure...when you are told to grab what is truly important in your life and get out...you quickly realize how many extraneous things you have. I foresee some changes after all of this is done and the word "simplify" comes to mind.
Not sure what else to say at this point.
I hope you are all well.
Anyways...after being told to leave, we ended up going to the Red Cross shelter up in Divide but they were already full and it was gridlock leaving town. We sat in the parking lot of a bar that we sometimes eat at but I couldn't see as much as I wanted to. I convinced Heather to head back into town so we could watch the ridge above our house more closely. We ended up sitting in the City Market parking lot watching the C-130's hammer the ridge. It was the first time that we were able to see flames right in town. Heather and I joked that we were now pretty damn close to being white trash. There we sat with as much of our personal belongings crammed into the car as possible, with 2 pit bulls, and eating store bought fried chicken out of a box (hey...we were hungry). I told Heather we should take of our shoes and asked if she'd lose the bra but she kept it on. We hung out there for a few hours and began to lose hope that they would allow us back into our humble home that evening and decided to start the long, back roads drive towards the Denver area where we would stay with our friends Scott and Kim. Bodhi showed his appreciation by promptly leaving a shit on the carpet while Dharma opted for a pee.
As of this morning, the fire is now 18,500 acres but the really alarming statistic involves the number of homes lost (approximately 300). This morning I was able to see some aerial pictures of the NW area of Colorado Springs and it is nauseating. One thing is for damn sure...when you are told to grab what is truly important in your life and get out...you quickly realize how many extraneous things you have. I foresee some changes after all of this is done and the word "simplify" comes to mind.
Not sure what else to say at this point.
I hope you are all well.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Waldo update
As was expected, this morning's press conference for the Waldo Canyon Fire update was hard to hear. I know there are many friends/family that are concerned about Heather and me as well as the dogs and even our home. Please understand that this is a very complicated fire. Many of the images that you are probably seeing in your local news are taken from the highly populated areas down the mountain in Colorado Springs. We are in an unusual situation way up here. We live at just under 9,000' but we are surrounded by peaks and ridges so our view is relatively limited. We cannot see any of the smoke or carnage that is happening down the pass or on the NW side of Colorado Springs where the fire exploded late yesterday. This morning I am having coffee and looking out the windows to a cloudless sky. As I look to the east and, specifically, at the top of the ridge I can see some smoke already. This is how things have been since Saturday. The fire seems to take a bit to wake up and get hungry.
The latest numbers are right at 15,500 total acres burned (24 square miles), 5% containment, and 32,000 people evacuated. 26,000 of those people were evacuated from the NW corner of Springs late yesterday. The image below (although horribly graphic) is from that corner of Springs. That fire came up to the top of a ridge and then ran down it in a time of 30 minutes. Seasoned professionals were seen with their jaws wide open as they watched this happen. I heard one person describe it as looking like lava.
The fire did advance much closer to us last night but it is still just up on the ridge and we cannot see flames (I did check very early this morning as I slept listening to the scanner). The fire has now wrapped about halfway around Rampart Reservoir (which is our local reservoir that is located on top of that ridge above me) and devastated that half which truly saddens me as it will never look the same to me again. The bears, mountain lions, deer, and the Rampart Elk herd were likely harmed but if they were able to get out safely, we won't see them up there again. There was a report that last night at one point an ember was able to jump over the reservoir and develop into a spot fire on the other side but crews were able to get that spot under control and extinguished. This is amazing to me. I ride from the house up to the reservoir multiple times each week. It takes me 45 minutes to hit the trail from the front door so that gives you an idea how close it is but it's probably 750' higher in altitude than our house. The trail around the reservoir is 13 miles total and it's gotta be .5 to 1 mile across that reservoir. The updraft created from the fire is incredibly strong.
The issue for us is the afternoon storms that we tend to see here in the mountains. In a normal year, these storms can produce a lot of precipitation but we have been in a drought for the last two years so about all they are producing is lightning and huge wind gusts. That's when the damage is really happening. These wind gusts can easily be 40mph out of the west and then shift to 70 mph out of the east. We loaded up more belongings last night and we receive texts for evacuation updates. All we can do is wait. I have gotten multiple messages via email, text, facebook, etc., from people asking why we are still here. We do not have a deathwish and we are not trying to go down with the ship. If we get bumped to voluntary evacuation we will likely leave our home. During an emotional talk with my dear wife last night, I think we both realized that trying to look in each room of our home and determine what's irreplacable and what's not is precisely what we just did last summer at her parents (and for all intents and purposes) my parents as well. We simply don't want to do it. That is probably the best explanation I can give as to whay we are still here. Some will get it. Others won't. Nobody truly needs to. We appreciate everyone's concerns as well as the well wishes and offers and will continue to try to keep the updates coming either here or on facebook or both.
Be safe.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Absence
My lack of activity here does not mean that things have been boring. My training for this years Colorado Trail Race continues to go well. I have still been a bit skeptical in my own ability as to whether or not I can tackle that beast on a singlespeed bike but I become more confident every ride and I begin to enjoy riding with only one gear each ride as well. Just recently I did install a suspension fork on the Salsa as I have been doing some very technical sections of the CT the last few weeks and my neck has been hurting quite a bit.
On Saturday I was supposed to leave for a 3 day trip to test out some things and get an idea of how things are progressing. I wasn't planning on leaving until early evening so I was napping the morning away. At about noon, I woke up and came down the stairs to see a huge plume of smoke over the hills just south of town. We have been having a lot of issues with fires this summer and in particular this past week in my town. Authorities suspect that we have a serial arsonist at work up here and he, she or they have started about 20 fires in the same fashion just last week. Fortunately, people were able to get to them pretty quickly and get them put out (sometimes just home owners equipped with shovels). I think we all feared it was only a matter of time before one of them had more time to grow. I actually drove down the mountain to get a closer look at knew this one had had enough time to breathe and it would be big.
I called my wife and expressed some concerns about leaving for my trip but she said I should go (which I did not expect to hear). I felt really anxious in the early afternoon while gathering gear. Reluctantly, I started pedaling towards Denver at abouy 5 and 4 hours later I was setting up my bivy and making some dinner. I slept horribly that night because I had made some pretty drastic last minute changes to my sleeping system to satisfy my curiosities. They were satisfied at 2 in the morning.
I had a delicious breakfast consisting of a cherry fruit pie smothered in coffee grounds and hit the road. I saw two huge bull snakes in section 2 of the CT (seen more big Bulls this summer than in the last 5). The first was a 5 footer and was probably the meanest damn snake I'd seen in years. I didn't even pick it up. It was pissed off and put on quite a show. The second one was much more docile and I did pick that one up and check it out for a bit before moving it off the trail. I was making killer time for me and riding an ideal pace. At the end of section 3 is about a 10 mile fire road to Bailey and a climb that I have never ridden. I cleaned it easily. It's not a hard climb so I can't say why it always gives me fits but I know it's likely just because I'm in pretty good enduro shape right now. I made it into Bailey and stopped at the first bar because I had to have a salad. Within seconds of turning my phone on I had several text messages about the fire and our safety and a voicemail from Heather. I called her and she wanted me to start heading home because we had been placed on Precautionary Evacuation.
I wolfed down my salad, had 5 Cokes and a pitcher of water and then grabbed the grilled chicken sandwich and took off and started pedaling. About 2 hours later and now only 25 miles from home I hit my Help button on my SPOT so Heather could come and get me. I made it into Deckers and stopped. I drank the best damn 24 ounce Tecate in the world, grabbed a Coke and hit the road after talking briefly about how spandex just makes me feel so damned sexy to a toothless guy in an old Ford pickup. I made it almost out of the canyon when I finally saw Heather come around a corner. Her car was already loaded with important papers, pics, and PC's.
About 3 miles further down the road, we saw 2 planes and a chopper and tons of people pulled over checking out a fire just about a quarter mile off the road. It eventually torched 20 acres before they got it under control. As we got closer to town we could hardly see much at all. Since then, crews continue to fight the blaze and it continues to creep towards us. As of this morning it was 5.5 miles down the mountain.
Today alone there were 4 additional fires nearby but they were all put out. The main fire is now called the Waldo Canyon fire. It has now burned about 4500 acres and is 5% contained. We have ust been sitting in the house watching news. We can't go anywhere really. The highway leading to Colorado Springs is shut down because a portion of the fire is very close to jumping the highway. We also need to stay close to home in case we do get evacuated. I have discovered that it is incredibly hard to look at things throughout my home and determine what gets to come with me if I'm told I need to be out in 30 minutes. Most things have some sort of sentimental value.
This is the fire creeping closer and closer to Garden of the Gods.
This is highway 24 at the bottom of the pass that leads up to my town on Saturday.
Things are pretty crazy right now. Colorado has wildfires in Fort Collins, Leadville, Durango, Colorado Springs, and many other places as well. Smoke is everywhere and new fires are popping up every few hours. None of the CT is actually on fire right now but it will certainly be interesting to see if that changes and how the CTR is impacted in the next month. I know several people that have already dropped their name from the start list due to issues with smoke at the least.
Hope you're all fine and safe. Thanks for looking.
Monday, June 18, 2012
10 Mile Range
Today I was supposed to do a longer ride with a lot of climbing and some hiking and pushing. I headed over to Breckenridge and the plan was to start at the Gold Hill Trailhead for the Colorado Trail and head up and over 10 Mile and then drop down into Copper Mountain and see what kind of time I was running. I swear in the 2009 CTR when I last rode this stretch of trail it took me 4 hours to make it over. Sometimes I am not great with numbers but I was riding with a guy named Rob from North Carolina who had come out early for the race that year and he pre-road that section and he was the guy that said 4 hours and we were dead on with that time. This section is only 12 miles but it's a lot of vertical and the downhill into Copper is really rough right now but that might have been the rigid fork talking to me.
I think I'm in pretty good shape as I was down in Copper having delicious Combos, a Slim Jim and a Coke in 2.5 hours and I candy assed that downhill because I was getting beat up. I was not riding all that hard either and could have held a conversation on all but a few steep pitches.
After my snacky cakes, I jumped back on the CT and started to climb a bit up the next 12,000 foot pass that comes right away (Kokomo). I did not go all the way up because I would have had to just come right back down. I tooled around Copper Mountain for a bit and then jumped on the bike path that leads to Frisco and, eventually, back to Breck. At 5.5 hours I was feeling a bit of the climbing but wanted to go a bit more so I started up Boreas Pass. Again, I did not go that far up but I just wanted to get some more climbing in. I ended with about 6 hours of riding and right at 45 miles.
I continue to struggle with whether or not I should try and ride the singlespeed in this year's race. I do think I have to put a suspension fork on since I'm not a young buck anymore and my disc and arthritis issues tend to flare up a bit after the nastier stuff. I worry that going single will open the door for an issue but I really feel like that setup keeps me from being an idiot. I don't know why. In Salida's race it was so easy for me to spin and let the others go up the trail. CTR is totally different because we're talking days where racers can come back after rockin it on day one. It seems to be easier for me to ride my gig and that has been the issue every time I throw a leg over a bike because I'm too damned competitive. I could always hang tough for a 2 hour XC race but not for 500 miles.
Enjoy the pics. It was a gorgeous day although a bit hazy from all of the wildfires going on right now throughout the state. Thanks for checking in .
I think I'm in pretty good shape as I was down in Copper having delicious Combos, a Slim Jim and a Coke in 2.5 hours and I candy assed that downhill because I was getting beat up. I was not riding all that hard either and could have held a conversation on all but a few steep pitches.
After my snacky cakes, I jumped back on the CT and started to climb a bit up the next 12,000 foot pass that comes right away (Kokomo). I did not go all the way up because I would have had to just come right back down. I tooled around Copper Mountain for a bit and then jumped on the bike path that leads to Frisco and, eventually, back to Breck. At 5.5 hours I was feeling a bit of the climbing but wanted to go a bit more so I started up Boreas Pass. Again, I did not go that far up but I just wanted to get some more climbing in. I ended with about 6 hours of riding and right at 45 miles.
I continue to struggle with whether or not I should try and ride the singlespeed in this year's race. I do think I have to put a suspension fork on since I'm not a young buck anymore and my disc and arthritis issues tend to flare up a bit after the nastier stuff. I worry that going single will open the door for an issue but I really feel like that setup keeps me from being an idiot. I don't know why. In Salida's race it was so easy for me to spin and let the others go up the trail. CTR is totally different because we're talking days where racers can come back after rockin it on day one. It seems to be easier for me to ride my gig and that has been the issue every time I throw a leg over a bike because I'm too damned competitive. I could always hang tough for a 2 hour XC race but not for 500 miles.
Enjoy the pics. It was a gorgeous day although a bit hazy from all of the wildfires going on right now throughout the state. Thanks for checking in .
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