"The fire area is, from the little I have seen from the road and from what I have been told, incredible. Other-worldly was one description. The area is still officially closed and off-limits (even to Philmont professionals and staff) until the Forest Service allows people back in. Doug said that when it was burning the whole horizon glowed red and explosions would shoot fireballs into view over the ridges (he said it looked like old films of London being bombed in WWII). Some areas burned so hot that there are no "skeleton trees" standing, other areas (canyon bottoms, some slopes) were missed entirely (to those who know these things, could the fire have created enough heat to suck air out of the lower canyons and such?). Dick said re-seeding had started (8,000+ acres) by air with native grasses to help combat soil erosion, but he said they have not had time to start with a long-range recovery plan that we might be able to help with via the PSA. There are a lot of things in the works and I know many of us are. "
 

I was able to make two trips into the fire area. I was very happy to see that a lot of the things I heard about camps were not true. The heroic efforts of the Philmont staff, the fire crews (and the dry, barren meadows) saved (so far) every cabin I was able to visit. In some cases it got very close to cabins though. The challenge is that it is still very dry - drier than I have ever seen New Mexico and Colorado - and even though they are now getting some rain the unburned areas are still in danger.

There are a couple of program challenges I observed. A lot of area between camps was burned and would be difficult/unsafe/unhealthy to hike through to get to camps that are otherwise intact. And as I said, some of the camps are okay, but the campsites are burned.

Here is what I saw:

On Saturday (615)

All along the roads from the Chase Ranch on we could see hot spots and flare ups all around. There was a big flare up around Old Camp after we had passed by. Small fires were moving up the hills around Cook Canyon.

IW was fine. Even the latrines were okay. The fire had been on almost every ridge around the camp and had gone down into the meadow in places. (Some of the canyons around the camp have burned pretty completely and this could reveal some new petroglyphs and archeological sites.)

Many of the hills around Old Camp had burned, but the fire stopped in the meadow.

Dan Beard was the worst I saw. The cabins are fine, but all the latrines are gone. The fire came very close to the cabin, but the dirt field that used to be a meadow stopped the fire. Thank God for metal roofs.

Ponil is fine. There are places where the fire came down to the meadow, but the crews fought it and every building is in good shape.

Monday (617)

Other than plumes popping up over ridges, and lots of vehicle tracks, there is little evidence of the fire on the drive towards Baldy until you get to the Baldy Skyline. Once you get up to the ridge it is really evident though.

Head of Dean is fine. I saw no damage to anything but campsites. This was a staging area and a helo landing site so it was very active. The fire came close, but the stopped it and it looked like they had started some back burns on the road between HOD and Santa Claus.

Santa Claus is fine too. The fire came very close, but you could tell that this was a place where there had been some very active firefighting.

They made a cat line from near HOD to the Baldy timberline between Baldy and French. If they had not gotten it contained, they were going to start a back burn along this line to keep the fire away from BAldy, Ute Park, and Eagle Nest. So far they have not had to do this.

There are places all over North Country that are untouched, some that are burned just a little, and some that are ash and black sticks. A couple of cavalcade corrals have burned because the dead grass inside the fence was not eaten by animals so it was taller and sparks that blew inside the fence.

Even though it is contained, it is an active fire inside the containment area and fire resistant clothing is required to enter. Pray for continued rain!

Evening showers on Thursday and Friday helped to slow the fires a bit, bringing with them that glorious, never-to-be-forgotten-smell of New Mexico rain.

There was a change in wind this afternoon. It is now blowing out of the north/north west. The end result is the Moreno Valley has filled with smoke. My house is high on the west side of the valley just south of Eagle Nest and I can barely see the lake. (less than two miles)

We scatter today at 1pm. All is well and I am really happy to be getting out of base!