After the Fires

They say the worst is over.... at least for us, here. There's still evacuation orders in effect, but all in East County now. The prevailing breezes have returned to their normal, from off the ocean, bringing us cool, moist air. There were actually a few raindrops a short while ago! However, the weatherman says we're going to be getting another high-pressure event, off the Great Basin, starting tomorrow. But they're promising no hurricane-force winds with this one, it's supposed to be a mild event. Unfortunately, it may result in the smoke from the fires still lingering in the East County to drift over us.... AGAIN. Wonderful. I tried to hike the mountain yesterday, got halfway up the grade, realized I could only see about 2 miles because of the poor air quality, and knew I wasn't doing my lungs any favors being out in that air. So, I went 1/2 way up the mountain, and turned around. Today is about as good as it's been since the fires started 6 days ago (geez, was it ONLY 6 days ago??), but, as I said, tomorrow may be worse.

One picture's worth a thousand words....

San Diego Wildfires

Wow.... this is a scary time here in San Diego right now; eerily reminiscent of 2003. At our house, we're actually faring a bit better than last time, the air quality hasn't been as bad, thanks in part to the fact that we're between the two enormous fires raging in San Diego County. The fire that's closest to us, the Harris Fire, put on quite a show for Jacqueline this morning, before sunrise, before she left for work. Yes, even though officials are recommending that people stay home, and stay off the freeways, some of us still have to go to work. I requested the day off, otherwise I'd probably be out there too. But, last night, Jacqueline and I packed up "the important things" into her car and my truck, just in case we had to evacuate. The weather was supposed to start reverting to the normal airflow, off the ocean, and here at our house (about 5 miles from the coast), it is indeed starting to change. But apparently, that's not the case further inland. Also, as the breeze starts up from the west, we're going to get all that smoke we've managed to avoid so far. Anyhow, as I said, Jacqueline had quite a visual experience this morning at 0430. Mt. San Miguel, a large mountain just southeast of San Diego, near Spring Valley, was fully engulfed. I found some pictures taken by another blogger, link here, that accurately depict what was happening about that time. Dante's Inferno would be an appropriate description. The viewing angle is a bit different from our house, but not much. And the view from our house is unobstructed, because we live on a high point. I'll include the photos here:

Can you understand now why we're a bit nervous?? This mountain is approximately 5 miles from us, as the crow flies. San Diego is experiencing a major disaster right now, I personally know a couple who *may* have lost their home (they don't know yet whether it survived). Here's a map showing the relative proximity of our house to the Harris Fire:

Ready to Roll

Wow, two blog postings in two days, that must be a new record *grin*. Jacque and I are done packing, all ready to head out tomorrow morning for Utah. First "road trip" for the new truck, my 2007 Toyota Tacoma. We're headed for Moab, as a staging ground, so we can go hike Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. I'm excited, we'll be leaving immediately after tomorrow's morning commute, heading for Richfield, UT. Go to bed there, finish the last 160 or so miles the next morning, hike Canyonlands on Wednesday, check into the motel later that day, hike Arches on Thursday, and leave Friday morning. Probably return via Capitol Reef and Bryce National Parks on Friday, go to bed somewhere along the way, maybe St. George or Mesquite.