Saturday, April 23, 2011

Madrone Trail Fire

Went to the Madrone trail yesterday to get a little ride on. I contemplated trying to ride my bike from the house up river road and hitting the trail for an all day outing, but ended up being lazy and driving. I also went back and forth trying to decide on hydro pack or just 24oz. bottle... ended up going with the bottle since I drove and figured it would be plenty.... little did I know that after a very short 1 mile a hiker would ask me for help with a wild fire. The fire started small, but quickly got out of hand with high gusting wind and very dry conditions. I spent roughly an hour on the phone with 911 while stomping the fire by foot and with green juniper branches. Eventually we got the 80 yard by 20 yard fire under control, nothing for the fire department to do but douse the area with water and cultivate the earth to eliminate the possibility of re-kindling an ember... I was exhausted and have a whole new appreciation for what fire fighters go through!





6 comments:

e. said...

wow! it's every little boys' dream come true!

fatbob29r said...

:( You lock me out, no note, no mail. Hope everything is ok. How are you? How are the girls?

Sine Botchen said...

Where along the trail was the fire? Natural disasters aside, I can say that is one of the things I like about mountain biking - you never know what kind of adventure it might turn out to be. Glad you stayed and helped!

fatbob29r said...

@ Sine... fire was only a few hundred yards from the parking lot. It's been really dry here and it was super windy that day. One careless cigarette butt and the whole place could have been ablaze. The FD did a bang up job, I have huge respect for those folks

Sine Botchen said...

http://twitpic.com/4pw1yx

Yep.. I know the feeling. Our hotel parking lot was full of "military style" hummers and tanker trucks. The Texas Forest Service (and U.S. Forest Service) are/is some serious mofo's. Our tax dollars at work.. !Muy impressive!

Sine Botchen said...

http://twitpic.com/4pw1yx -- added hyperlink to pic, btw.