Dry Lake Hills is torching
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great pics....thx for the info.
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close, i was camped about a .5 miles up the road on the left before the turnoff.
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Hurts
Dang, this hurts to see and to think of everyone and everything the fire affects....
John
Dang, this hurts to see and to think of everyone and everything the fire affects....
John
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Was this caused by an outside visitors camp fire? It's hard not to dislike our urban weekend visitors from the south when they come up and then leave us with this. I would never have a camp fire with conditions like this.
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I could see this from the Pemberton trail by Fountain Hills today. I was out there from Noon to 2pm and watched it grow and grow. It looked like Mt. Humphreys blew up or something.
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as a flag resident i have to say that is a pretty lame comment... could have been anyone. no need to jump to conclusions. plenty of dumb people live in flagstaff, too.raisingarizona said:
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A little lame yes but there were so many out of town people on Shultz this weekend it's not hard to jump to conclusions. Often busy weekends leave piles of trash in the high country and now our forest is burning down. Sorry.
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yeah, man. I *KNEW* it was going to torch this weekend. hotshot sensibilities still run in me. I haven't started a campfire since i quit fighting fires 20yrs ago unless it was quite literally freezing out, and then i'm freakin' jumpy about it. SOOO.....the way i see it, ultimately there are three things here. 1st: the local ranger districts should have closed the forest to fires long ago. I'd like to see fires banned EVERY year on a set date. June 1st, for example. forest wide. If you are cold, put on some clothes, go to bed, or drink more. Hell, I'd like to see a permanent ban on fires in a 20mi. radius of Flag year 'round. we have to live here. If we lived in Kansas & people could start tornados everyone would want a tornado starting ban around their house, no? 2nd: what F*****G dumbass had a fire going when it was 70+*F with 50mph winds???? if anyone has info on people camping in the area on those days, please drop the dime and call the Peaks Ranger district with info. I want to see someone accountable for such a dumbass move to show that there are penalties to well, being a dumbass. Jeezus Krist, it boggles my mind. 3rd: most of yesterday's clusterfawk was moving horses from houses where nobody lives {2nd homes}. WTF? have a plan for this kind of thing, folks, and just a plan in general. Well there you go. We all loose on this one, but the important thing is: Will we learn? - Steve Garro, Coconino Cycles.rockman said:
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Good point......never thought of it that way.coconinocycles said:
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I was driving in from Colorado Springs yesterday and could see this column of smoke from 50 miles east of Holbrook, I thought it was the fire outside of Williams, this thing was blowing up, column was white capping (developing its own clouds at the top). I fought fire for the Forest Circus and BLM for 5 summers while in nursing school, this is the kind of fire that will only be stopped by mother nature, humans can only try to direct the flames away from civilization, pinch the head off, and hope for winds to die down or change directions. This fire had the look of some of the biggest fires I had been on in the western U.S. Unfortunately some good trails may look different next time you head out to them. Good luck to the firefighters and hope all are safe.
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I was up there Saturday afternoon and I drove by several people gathered around campfires at 5 PM. It couldn't have been cooler than 72 degrees or so. One of them was burning at least 6' high or so, another was incredibly smoky. I'm still amazed they had fire threat listed as "Moderate" on the road's signage.coconinocycles said:
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I agree, camp fires unfortunately need to be illegal, humans can't be counted on to be responsible any more. They come here to get away for a weekend with no real respect or understanding of the world around them and then leave us with this. I'm just disgusted right now with our species, so sad. Sorry Pheonix folks but now you might understand why there are bitter feelings thrown your way sometimes. Come on up the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend and see the trash piles all along 89 from Sedona to Flag, it's gross. One day after a busy weekend I stopped by the spring near Pine Flats in Oak Creek Canyon to fill my bottle and right on top of the stone structure there was a pile of dirty toilet paper above the spring water! I wouldn't think that people on this forum would behave this way but then I wonder when I see trash all over the 420 lot after a weekend from shuttlers. Thats the local name of the pick up spot for shuttle runs on Elden, trash all over. Sorry if my attitude seems bad but I'm finding it hard not to feel this way.coconinocycles said:
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I'd be pissed off if 'visitors' trashed the trails each holiday weekend, don't apologize for anything. And I think the Forest Service should be completely restrictive on camping/campfires moving forward.. unfortunately the world is full of people who are either too lazy or too stupid to follow common sense instructions on campfires.raisingarizona said:
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I feel your pain but the more than 4 million people in Phoenix and outlying areas (most of them taxpayers and US citizens) are going to recreate in the National Forest 2 hours away on a weekend. There's nothing Flagstaff locals can do about it. The best bet is if gas goes to $5/gal. Or perhaps you could move to Salmon, ID if you really want to get away from the big cities. And there's plenty of bad camping locals in Flag as well. The Freidlein Fire (I can't remember the exact name) that ran up gully #3 and Fremont was started by an abandoned campfire left by three locals.raisingarizona said:
Weekend before last I went to recreate in the Cibola National Forest in NM and ride some of the great trails in the Zuni Mtns. Some locals showed up at the campground with a pickup truck full of wood, stayed up all night partying before puking and passing out at 6am, all the while with a raging campfire. They packed up and left about 9am fire still burning and the campsite littered with trash, bloody bandages, and beer cans. There are good stewards of the forest and bad, regardless of how far they travel to get to the woods.
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dont get me wrong... its terribly frustrating. i worked on the coc for 9 years and saw first hand the trash after holiday weekends and the results of idiots not putting out campfires. having worked on and off at snowbowl and the forest service since 96 i understand completely the attitude you are describing... i get a big dose of it when i come up on groups of 10-20 people riding down schultz or other trails together or the group of AT LEAST 20 knuckleheads on horses coming up little bear last fall and again this summer. as i was sitting at the overlook on little bear i listened to them coming up and several horses slid off the damn trail and down the slope a ways... totally trashing and shitting all over the trail. trust me when i say i understand your anger.raisingarizona said:
but to be fair... it was just as likely someone from flagstaff (unfortunately... see the radio ,leroux and other fires for examples) as it was someone from the valley... or some euro tourists... who knows.
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