[Az-Geocaching] Latest Sedona Fire

[Roping The Wind]

>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