{"id":7947,"date":"2024-09-10T12:03:28","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T20:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/watermanatwork.com\/blog\/?p=7947"},"modified":"2024-09-10T12:03:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T20:03:29","slug":"running-from-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watermanatwork.com\/blog\/running-from-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Running from Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
We’ve spent most of the month of August running from fire in the Pacific Northwest. The trails in the Cascade Mountains we’ve ridden for years are burned. We spent about a week following the outbreak of the Williams Mine fire camping by the Columbia River to see what would happen. The only thing that happened was more fire. At one point, there were fires burning in every direction, filling the Columbia River Gorge and surrounding areas with waves of fire smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n
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After a week of thick smoke and red, smoky sunrises, the winds shifted and the fire smoke started to thin out.<\/p>\n\n\n
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We searched for a place to go riding, but it seemed like the entire Northwest was on fire. To make matters worse, the fires left almost nowhere for summer vacationers to go. Between the government closing or restricting recreation areas and the local municipal government’s plans to extract money from everyone who stops in town, travelers are passing right on through or crowding in the remaining few areas still open and leaving the next day. It’s not worth a minimum, and I mean bare minimum, of $50\/night to sit in the RV and suck fire smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luckily for us, we know a place that’s not on fire. It has been pretty fortunate there have been no fires here for a while. That’s a good thing because this is very steep and difficult terrain with thick forests. It is also pretty remote with no cell phone service. With all the fires going on, not having cell service is not ideal. I have my ham radio that works fine, but the emergency alerts come quicker by phone. It’s the end of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n
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The forest is very dense here. With the summer days getting shorter very quickly, it takes some time for the rising sun to reach the height of the big trees.<\/p>\n\n\n
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The trails around this part of the mountain are really fun and quite scenic, but not all that long. The main trail goes to the top of the mountain, but it is a brutal five mile climb. We used to ride it when I was younger, but with plenty of stops and hike-a-bike. Now I just take the scenic route.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Every few rides the bike must be cleaned. No water, just a few brushes and rags so it takes a little while.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Of course, this is America, so even in the middle of nowhere, there is controversy. Because the climb up this mountain is so steep, most bike riders would have to walk most of the way up. It would take at least a couple hours. As more people found out about it, it became a popular destination with riders and bike shuttle companies from Portland. Traffic on narrow mountain roads were choked with dust from shuttle bus traffic. E bikes were becoming popular, now anybody could just motor to the top. Not a beginner downhill by any means, the average rider won’t let off the brakes the entire way. There were problems and a new sign appeared in the great outdoors.<\/p>\n\n\n
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To be sure an additional sign at the trailhead of the most popular section of trail.<\/p>\n\n\n
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These signs are completely ignored. 90% of the bikes I saw on this trail were E-bikes. I ran into a couple of the state guys who work here. They told me the state was not happy with E-bikers on the restricted trails. Increased traffic was destroying mountain roads. With fires everywhere, piles of brush and small trees left by bikers making illegal trails. Now that any trail ninja wannabe can motor up the mountain with a chain saw on an E-bike, there are illegal trails everywhere. What all this means, as has happened so many other places around here, is look forward to closures or restrictions(which they have already but don’t work).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the controversy out of the way, how about some excitement? One sunny afternoon, dark clouds suddenly came rolling in and it started to rain. Then it rained harder and thunder and lightning started. There were several lightning strikes very close. At this elevation, we were very close to the storm, you could feel the pressure wave from the extremely loud thunder. With fires everywhere, all the lightning strikes were not what we wanted to see. The thunderstorms passed, headed up the valley below towards Mt. Adams, but it rained on and off all night. There were still residual clouds in the area the next morning.<\/p>\n\n\n
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It’s been a long time since there’s been some rain so everything was really dusty. Along with all the fire smoke, not the green Pacific Northwest people come to see. The rain got rid of the dust and cleaned everything up.<\/p>\n\n\n
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The rain left the mountain trails in perfect condition. It was the middle of the week, there was nobody else here.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Something we haven’t seen for a while, a wet bicycle tire.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Great trails in mint condition. All you can do is ride.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Our burned out summer of mountain biking is coming to a rapid end and we will have a long winter to think about what has taken place. Until then, we will ride as much as possible. We’ve already seen several times how everything can change in an instant, we’re riding while we still can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Produced on 8-27-24, published today due no phone or internet access<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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