So many things to get done and so little time to bring all the pieces together for another seasons end. Seeds and potato starts, more vines, and a hope for this last years plantings to survive through the winter. A new hoop house, and a larger cold frame await the plants which will be sprouting soon for the colder season. The bulbs are planted and the weather is switching from summer to fall from day to day. The house and the barn need the annual painting and oiling to preserve them through another swing around the seasons and there is upkeep and tidying out in the meadow, and the animal yard still needs to be done. The vehicles all need attention and there is always other handiwork which seems to pile up regardless the amount of attention payed to accomplishing it.
An old friend who visited recently commented on how he was amazed by what I have accomplished and how much he wished he could get more done. It felt good to have praise for the things that are done but what of those I have yet to do? The yet undone seems to become larger and the bits I am able to accomplish seem to shrink......
I have always kept in mind that in order to make any journey or accomplish anything I must keep focus, taking each bit in turn, and no matter what move forward as best I am able. The focus part has been the most difficult for my entire life. I am reminding myself constantly as my mind flashes between a myriad of projects to do, and partly done, to focus on the most attainable, to organize the resources for those which are partly accomplished and to plan for those which continually are presented by the wear and tear of life.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Reflection
It has been a long time since I have had the time to sit down and write - The children have all changed their positions in life and I have watched as another season has entered and exited.
I have recently returned from my almost annual pilgrimage to the wilderness for a respite and recovery from the maddening world we have created for ourselves. I have returned from my journey with a new perspective on my season and am beginning to understand that the most important gift I have to give is passing on as much of the skills and craft and lore that I have gathered over my life. Not that I won't continue to gather more, but passing on what I have learned to insure the knowledge and craft is not lost. Insuring that the skills and nuance of true craft are there to peak the interest and captivate the desire for learning and provide for the skills and understanding the future may need to remember. Just how to teach the skills and craft I have accumulated is going to be a challenge......Getting interest generated is difficult with all the distractions we have.
I was reflecting on great books and how they provided for getting along in our world, and provide a code which, if followed, provides a reasonable amount of sanity dealing with each other in our societies. There are other books and electronic resources which provide recipes for concocting all manner of things, or building any device or structure you may wish, but the true transfer of skill and craftsmanship seems no longer a necessity for making a livelihood. It is lost as a structured part of the educational process. Mastery is now a personal thing rather then a trade learned by apprenticeship. I do not mean to discount the trades and apprenticeships which still exist, there are still many but far fewer than were part of our societies even three generations ago. Some of the skills and craft I know of from my family's past are gone.....or at least they no longer require hand craftsmanship, machines have the replaced the skills and we no longer toil at those things.
But is that better? What have we lost? Have we traded away things of great value? What have we gained?
I have recently returned from my almost annual pilgrimage to the wilderness for a respite and recovery from the maddening world we have created for ourselves. I have returned from my journey with a new perspective on my season and am beginning to understand that the most important gift I have to give is passing on as much of the skills and craft and lore that I have gathered over my life. Not that I won't continue to gather more, but passing on what I have learned to insure the knowledge and craft is not lost. Insuring that the skills and nuance of true craft are there to peak the interest and captivate the desire for learning and provide for the skills and understanding the future may need to remember. Just how to teach the skills and craft I have accumulated is going to be a challenge......Getting interest generated is difficult with all the distractions we have.
I was reflecting on great books and how they provided for getting along in our world, and provide a code which, if followed, provides a reasonable amount of sanity dealing with each other in our societies. There are other books and electronic resources which provide recipes for concocting all manner of things, or building any device or structure you may wish, but the true transfer of skill and craftsmanship seems no longer a necessity for making a livelihood. It is lost as a structured part of the educational process. Mastery is now a personal thing rather then a trade learned by apprenticeship. I do not mean to discount the trades and apprenticeships which still exist, there are still many but far fewer than were part of our societies even three generations ago. Some of the skills and craft I know of from my family's past are gone.....or at least they no longer require hand craftsmanship, machines have the replaced the skills and we no longer toil at those things.
But is that better? What have we lost? Have we traded away things of great value? What have we gained?
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Wonder
Once upon a time there was a world where school kids practiced hiding from atomic bombs by ducking under school desks, where milk was delivered on the front doorstep in glass bottles that were returned and refilled, where there were suspicions and rumors of sneak attacks and global destruction. When the neighbors had bomb shelters in the back yard. When even the most learned said things like "I don't know the weapons with which we will fight world war 3, but world war 4 will be fought with sticks and stones."
I grew up in those times I remember Ike and the military industrial complex, and Khruschchev pounding his shoe, I remember sputnik, and the bay of pigs, the fear and the joy of youth and the wonder of an amazing future, JFK, John Glenn, LBJ, Birmingham on fire, MLK at the national mall, the Beatles and comic book super heroes. Where there was motivation and competition, where there was learning, discussion and dissent. Where there was a time of enlightenment and first discovery. I remember fear and awe at my personal discovery that we, mankind, could fly to the moon and back, and in the span it took for the trip, we could destroy the entirety of civilization.
The grand hypocrisy of it that is humanity - I had a naive hope that the world would awake one day and the contradictions and strife would lift. I dreamed that there would be a super hero, a Bodhisattva, a Saint, or even a benevolent arrival from space to unify the globe and bring on mundi pacem.... so I wait ... no folk tale finish, no novel awakening, yet!,
Just the progression of growing world commerce, Mc Donalds, Disney, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart, Dow Chemical, the information age, and a new awakening of national independence movements across the globe. Perhaps global financial interdependence, and instantaneous personal global communications are bringing about a new transformation of humanity. What will it look like when global corporations are the defacto ruling global force? When no one can hide from the scrutiny of automatic surveillance and consumer tracking and identity verification. Will the similarity and homogenization that global commerce are causing erase the differences and awaken a world consciousness or will the haves and have nots battle for the last scraps of this worlds resources, or could there be worse evil than the imaginings of George Orwell or HG Wells?
I wonder at what the next chapter of the book looks like and each day an new page is revealed!
I grew up in those times I remember Ike and the military industrial complex, and Khruschchev pounding his shoe, I remember sputnik, and the bay of pigs, the fear and the joy of youth and the wonder of an amazing future, JFK, John Glenn, LBJ, Birmingham on fire, MLK at the national mall, the Beatles and comic book super heroes. Where there was motivation and competition, where there was learning, discussion and dissent. Where there was a time of enlightenment and first discovery. I remember fear and awe at my personal discovery that we, mankind, could fly to the moon and back, and in the span it took for the trip, we could destroy the entirety of civilization.
The grand hypocrisy of it that is humanity - I had a naive hope that the world would awake one day and the contradictions and strife would lift. I dreamed that there would be a super hero, a Bodhisattva, a Saint, or even a benevolent arrival from space to unify the globe and bring on mundi pacem.... so I wait ... no folk tale finish, no novel awakening, yet!,
Just the progression of growing world commerce, Mc Donalds, Disney, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart, Dow Chemical, the information age, and a new awakening of national independence movements across the globe. Perhaps global financial interdependence, and instantaneous personal global communications are bringing about a new transformation of humanity. What will it look like when global corporations are the defacto ruling global force? When no one can hide from the scrutiny of automatic surveillance and consumer tracking and identity verification. Will the similarity and homogenization that global commerce are causing erase the differences and awaken a world consciousness or will the haves and have nots battle for the last scraps of this worlds resources, or could there be worse evil than the imaginings of George Orwell or HG Wells?
I wonder at what the next chapter of the book looks like and each day an new page is revealed!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Independence
Everyone knows what independence is or do we?
I have been thinking for a very long time about somehow creating a way to survive comfortably with out need of the grocery store or the gas station, a way to be more self reliant.
Somehow the initial investment is always beyond my means... I think I know why, subsidies!
I am now aware of why independence is so expensive. Not in terms of nations or communities but personal independence, or self sufficiency. Each of us subsidizes the continuation of our dependance.
It is easy to exploit others to get the raw materials and finished products in trade for those things others see from you that they hold as valuable. The inequality of the relationship builds dependance and promotes the continuance of the inequality. This unequal relationship works to greater advantage when starvation and squalor are the conditions experienced by the exploited. The exploited look to the privileged and see some glorious future promised by hard work but never achieve much more than subsistence. I see a deep moral problem with the idea that we want to "spend less to get more" from our fellows.......slavery is alive and well in the 21st century.
Are the international corporations the emperors of the new age?
What if having our basic needs for food, shelter, and medicine, were the minimum expected compensation for our labors, and some moderate level of comfort beyond that was all we were to expect from our contributions beyond our needs to our community? Would this stifle development or destroy our competitive nature? What if morally society frowned on extravagant excesses, mass greed, and misuse or abuse of resources?
What if to achieve that moderate level of comfort we were able to trade a share of our works in an open trading system where barter and worth were gauged by others needs not others greed? Is the American middle class the gauge for a moderate level of comfort on a global scale?
Would the idea of self reliance be more achievable, or a necessity? How about applying this concept to a community? Would a society based on an equitable negotiated trade model be possible after global capitalism, or are we really simply greedy and self serving by nature? Is our consumer society inevitably going to have greed, sloth, and deceit as the pinnacle of the capitalist ideal? Could there be a repeat of the dark ages where the global consumer economy we are dependent upon falters?
I was once told about societies that had a taboo against "gathering to ones self in excess", and others who gained status by the ability to give away more than others as a practice....
There has to be some method to balance needs, personal comfort, and social position.......
No one has found the ideological path to utopia as far as I can tell....but the questions are still intriguing.
How can society today, change behavior enough to achieve more local economic stability and independence?
We live on a big blue marble and as far as I can tell what we have here is all that there is unless we figure out how to travel the stars.. So how can we continue to grow - grow populations -grow economies - grow production, at some point we run out of planet! We run out of resources or we run out of room.....any way you look at it humanity has a limit on our growth either some time in our future or more quickly than any of us would imagine. Why do we ignore it?
For a shorter term, more attainable personal goal -
What little steps could I take to become more self reliant and less dependent.......?
A garden.
A horse,
A field of grass,
A hammer and a saw,
Knowledge of gardening, animal husbandry, construction techniques, logic, common sense, and an ability to learn and adapt.....
Is that enough? oh I forgot - a big bag of $100.00 bills!
But why are we not doing these things? What changed that we have run to the shelter of "modern living" inside the shell of society, technology, and metropolis? Most people today never learn to sew on a button how could they tailor a suit of clothes? Could you tan an animal hide, or build a barn, or train a horse, how about ride on one..... or find food plants or know medicinal plants? Have you ever gone out to hunt game animals....How about plucking a chicken? Or dressing a squirrel? There are a lot of modern hunters out there but do they prepare the kill or take it to the butcher shop? Most would do the latter I would bet.....
I find it sad that if the present delivery systems were to fail to deliver the goods to the supermarket that so many people would suffer and if the calamity lasted for too long that suffering would turn to things far worse.
Survival is a learned skill of necessity, Subsistence is a way to meet bare needs, Self sufficiency is a level beyond bare subsistence where comfort and some leisure are attainable by design, through knowledge and technique. Oh and of course hard work! As in Aesop's fable about the ant and the grasshopper, there is little time to waste and everyone must look to the future.
It would be a true community service to work to insure that we maintain a level of understanding in our community and our homes that would allow for self sufficiency. By setting up a series of programs, clinics, demonstrations and workshops to promote the knowledge and practice which will help support a home independence movement. By changing attitudes at home perhaps the ideal can grow to the community and then the idea of independence can grow into a re-invigoration of the meaning and importance of true Independence for the Nation!
It is easy to exploit others to get the raw materials and finished products in trade for those things others see from you that they hold as valuable. The inequality of the relationship builds dependance and promotes the continuance of the inequality. This unequal relationship works to greater advantage when starvation and squalor are the conditions experienced by the exploited. The exploited look to the privileged and see some glorious future promised by hard work but never achieve much more than subsistence. I see a deep moral problem with the idea that we want to "spend less to get more" from our fellows.......slavery is alive and well in the 21st century.
Are the international corporations the emperors of the new age?
What if having our basic needs for food, shelter, and medicine, were the minimum expected compensation for our labors, and some moderate level of comfort beyond that was all we were to expect from our contributions beyond our needs to our community? Would this stifle development or destroy our competitive nature? What if morally society frowned on extravagant excesses, mass greed, and misuse or abuse of resources?
What if to achieve that moderate level of comfort we were able to trade a share of our works in an open trading system where barter and worth were gauged by others needs not others greed? Is the American middle class the gauge for a moderate level of comfort on a global scale?
Would the idea of self reliance be more achievable, or a necessity? How about applying this concept to a community? Would a society based on an equitable negotiated trade model be possible after global capitalism, or are we really simply greedy and self serving by nature? Is our consumer society inevitably going to have greed, sloth, and deceit as the pinnacle of the capitalist ideal? Could there be a repeat of the dark ages where the global consumer economy we are dependent upon falters?
I was once told about societies that had a taboo against "gathering to ones self in excess", and others who gained status by the ability to give away more than others as a practice....
There has to be some method to balance needs, personal comfort, and social position.......
No one has found the ideological path to utopia as far as I can tell....but the questions are still intriguing.
How can society today, change behavior enough to achieve more local economic stability and independence?
We live on a big blue marble and as far as I can tell what we have here is all that there is unless we figure out how to travel the stars.. So how can we continue to grow - grow populations -grow economies - grow production, at some point we run out of planet! We run out of resources or we run out of room.....any way you look at it humanity has a limit on our growth either some time in our future or more quickly than any of us would imagine. Why do we ignore it?
For a shorter term, more attainable personal goal -
What little steps could I take to become more self reliant and less dependent.......?
A garden.
A horse,
A field of grass,
A hammer and a saw,
Knowledge of gardening, animal husbandry, construction techniques, logic, common sense, and an ability to learn and adapt.....
Is that enough? oh I forgot - a big bag of $100.00 bills!
But why are we not doing these things? What changed that we have run to the shelter of "modern living" inside the shell of society, technology, and metropolis? Most people today never learn to sew on a button how could they tailor a suit of clothes? Could you tan an animal hide, or build a barn, or train a horse, how about ride on one..... or find food plants or know medicinal plants? Have you ever gone out to hunt game animals....How about plucking a chicken? Or dressing a squirrel? There are a lot of modern hunters out there but do they prepare the kill or take it to the butcher shop? Most would do the latter I would bet.....
I find it sad that if the present delivery systems were to fail to deliver the goods to the supermarket that so many people would suffer and if the calamity lasted for too long that suffering would turn to things far worse.
Survival is a learned skill of necessity, Subsistence is a way to meet bare needs, Self sufficiency is a level beyond bare subsistence where comfort and some leisure are attainable by design, through knowledge and technique. Oh and of course hard work! As in Aesop's fable about the ant and the grasshopper, there is little time to waste and everyone must look to the future.
It would be a true community service to work to insure that we maintain a level of understanding in our community and our homes that would allow for self sufficiency. By setting up a series of programs, clinics, demonstrations and workshops to promote the knowledge and practice which will help support a home independence movement. By changing attitudes at home perhaps the ideal can grow to the community and then the idea of independence can grow into a re-invigoration of the meaning and importance of true Independence for the Nation!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Silly season again!
Well the earth has moved to a new position on its annual swing around the sun and it is again time in my neighborhood for the odd dance of politics and rhetoric that can be called "silly season".
Lucky I have the distraction of figuring out this years garden and all the other preparations for planting to keep me from being too silly with the rest of the crowd!
I do not know why some people think that they can fool every one else and get away with the deceit. If any attention was paid to the teachings of our ancestors, or practical experience, or common sense, there might be a realization for these people that devious plotting and fabrications are always found out. It seems that the way politics works though, is through the unearthing of deceit and accusations of impropriety. That politics is debated on personal attacks, and vilification through sound bites, not on a discussion of real hardcore issues and decisions is an unfortunate travesty. The lack of focus on resolving issues and the constant resurrection of divisive and inflammatory topics distracts us all and does nothing to address the realities of our present and continuing situation. But I guess avoiding answering honestly and perhaps delivering bad news makes you look better as a candidate? I'd rather discuss the reality of the situation and work toward solutions that are reasonable and achievable rather than create a sensation. By application of simple honesty and clear conscience silly season might be avoided all together.....
Ah but then there is always somebody who thinks they can game the system and get away with something devious......isn't there?!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Ok so Ive been busy and had an interesting chat with the great beyond...
After the adventure we had in late spring, I found myself moving through the challenges of getting young adults ready for another year of education and with that all the arrangements for University along with the indecision and tribulations that follow. Soon autumn was here and the kids were settled and I thought I could be again back at writing about how my experiment with feeding my family from the gardens and the plantings I had made and discussing the successes and failures....... Then things took a turn..... I nicked my chin while shaving. Not an uncommon thing no real trauma or trouble..... or so I thought!
I went to work and came home that evening all was well - a nice quiet evening I remember my nicked chin being itchy...... I woke Saturday morning with a small bump and though little of it until the evening when I looked in the mirror and discovered I was swollen - By next morning the lump had grown to nearly golf ball size - I made an appointment at the Doctors for Monday....
Well The Clinic took a look and said it was an abscess and that it had to be drained. They tried but no luck... They sent me home with a bottle of antibiotics and told me to come back in two days and they would try again to drain the lump. I could not get an appointment so I had to wait an extra day - by then the lump had again doubled and was now the size of a grapefruit.... The clinic could not get the thing to drain and again sent me away.... I called My RN-wife and went to see the Doc she works with, He took one look and had it drained and packed it ASAP..... for the next several days I took the antibiotics and visited the Doctor daily. On the third day I was told you are going to the ER NOW! I spent the next 4 days on IV antibiotics in an attempt to kill the antibiotic resistant infection I contracted..... they were about to cut into my neck because the infection was threatening my carotid artery when the abscess finally drained...whew! they finally sent me home to rest with a prescription for double the dose of antibiotics as before...... three days later I spiked a fever of 103 and was back in the ER again more IV antibiotics and more high dose antibiotics........ Thankfully I am now Okay, at least for the moment. I have been told that I could have a relapse at any time and that I need to be watchful for at least the next two years!....
I have a lot of questions about the grand experiment we have begun with antibiotics and the creation of bacteria that we cannot kill any more..... When will we begin to understand that simple physics principal of equal but opposite reactions? Feeding ourselves and our food animals antibiotics and attempting to control nature without attention to the consequences..... now we have bugs that eat flesh and cause infections that are nearly uncontrollable causing complications all over the place..... Modern science? or misuse? either way we now have to somehow fix the problem before it fixes us!!
I went to work and came home that evening all was well - a nice quiet evening I remember my nicked chin being itchy...... I woke Saturday morning with a small bump and though little of it until the evening when I looked in the mirror and discovered I was swollen - By next morning the lump had grown to nearly golf ball size - I made an appointment at the Doctors for Monday....
Well The Clinic took a look and said it was an abscess and that it had to be drained. They tried but no luck... They sent me home with a bottle of antibiotics and told me to come back in two days and they would try again to drain the lump. I could not get an appointment so I had to wait an extra day - by then the lump had again doubled and was now the size of a grapefruit.... The clinic could not get the thing to drain and again sent me away.... I called My RN-wife and went to see the Doc she works with, He took one look and had it drained and packed it ASAP..... for the next several days I took the antibiotics and visited the Doctor daily. On the third day I was told you are going to the ER NOW! I spent the next 4 days on IV antibiotics in an attempt to kill the antibiotic resistant infection I contracted..... they were about to cut into my neck because the infection was threatening my carotid artery when the abscess finally drained...whew! they finally sent me home to rest with a prescription for double the dose of antibiotics as before...... three days later I spiked a fever of 103 and was back in the ER again more IV antibiotics and more high dose antibiotics........ Thankfully I am now Okay, at least for the moment. I have been told that I could have a relapse at any time and that I need to be watchful for at least the next two years!....
I have a lot of questions about the grand experiment we have begun with antibiotics and the creation of bacteria that we cannot kill any more..... When will we begin to understand that simple physics principal of equal but opposite reactions? Feeding ourselves and our food animals antibiotics and attempting to control nature without attention to the consequences..... now we have bugs that eat flesh and cause infections that are nearly uncontrollable causing complications all over the place..... Modern science? or misuse? either way we now have to somehow fix the problem before it fixes us!!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
A few days in paradise -
It's been a long time since I have taken the time to write down my thoughts. I have had very bad luck with the local creatures. The drought has them very hungry and the squirrels and other small creatures dined heartily on my plantings wiping out even the oats! Only onion and garlic seem to not be on the menu.....
For the past 6 or 7 years we (the kids and I) have had an annual backpack trip into the wilderness. Almost every year we pack up and drive to the trail head and hike in to find snow or rain or other impediments to a otherwise beautiful experience. This year we waited until the snow season was over. With a dry forecast for what has been months we thought we would have a fantastic time. We set out on a 6 day trip. The first day was a hard hike to the top of Santa Fe Baldy, at 12,632 feet the views and the wildflowers were spectacular. We spent the night at the lake below the peak and set off the next day for another lake a little farther north where I know the fishing is good. We had almost reached the saddle along the ridge where we were to descend to the lake when my son turned to snap a photo and saw smoke rising in the distance. We knew it could be a bad sign. We made our way down to the lake and looking back in the direction of the smoke saw that the fire was growing. The smoke was however traveling far to the south of us and it did not seem to be growing too terribly fast. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening, fishing and lounging about our camp at the lake.
I rose early to great the sunrise and the skies were clear there was no plume of smoke in the direction of the fire from the day before and with the air traffic we had heard we thought the fire had been contained. We spent the day fishing and enjoying the beauty of the wilderness.
Everything changed at about 4:00 in the afternoon..... First the wind began to gather strength. Then I noticed the column of smoke rising high in the air. The wind shifted and the smoke began to filter over the ridge above the lake. In less then 20 minutes the sky was black and orange. We packed in great haste and hit the trail down the mountain in the opposite direction we had come, and away from the approaching fire. The forest was very silent, the smoke muting everything except for the far off sound almost like a jumbo jet at high altitude, but constant and not drifting off into the distance like the sound normally would......
We tied bandanas and t-shirts around our faces and hiked fast as the dark orange brown smoke engulfed the forest and blacked out the sun. Breathing was difficult and seeing the trail was difficult through the eye burning haze. We were hiking at almost a run with our full packs, heavy, not even halfway through our supplies. We managed to escape down to less smoke filled air as we descended rapidly toward the valley. Twelve miles down hill in 4 hours, we arrived at the trail head miles away from our truck, exhausted, with all and everyone safe. The other people we marched out with, who were camped in the area by the lake, were kind and gave us a ride out and back to civilization..........nearly 9 hours after the smoke loomed overhead and began to descend on us, we were home safe.
Thankfully, the ordeal is now another tale to tell to children and grand children. Another trial in the wilderness to add to the many, many others I and my backpacking companions have from a nearly lifetime of wilderness experiences.
It worries me if the number of people and groups of people who had signed the trail logs are all safe. I did contact the Forest Service and asked if everyone on the log was accounted for and was told yes..... I do not know how they could truly account for everyone but I certainly hope no one was caught in the smoke or fire.
The fire that still rages through the area where we were has for my lifetime and perhaps even my grand children's lifetime changed the beauty of the forest where I and my companions had so many adventures. It will be many years before the tall forest reclaims the areas charred by this fire, or the many other areas charred by fires that are raging throughout the west this season. I fear that the many fires and the kind of total forest devastation will continue. It need not be total devastation by the crown fires which kill all the trees and undergrowth and even become so hot they burn the soil. The forest management strategy needs to change. From the look of some areas of the forest we have attempted to suppress the forest fires too long. There are areas where there are more standing dead and dried out trees than live ones. Areas where the drought has weakened the trees and beetles have ravaged them. We have attempted to control so much when we perhaps truly need to step back and allow some of the violent change that moves the planet. We need to allow the natural cycles that help to create a healthy environment. We also need to protect our selves and try to protect our homes and families but the forest has been saved for too long. The fuel has been stacking up for a hundred years and it will go up in flames, flames which will become more and more difficult to restrain if the management practices we presently use in our wilderness areas are not modified.
For the past 6 or 7 years we (the kids and I) have had an annual backpack trip into the wilderness. Almost every year we pack up and drive to the trail head and hike in to find snow or rain or other impediments to a otherwise beautiful experience. This year we waited until the snow season was over. With a dry forecast for what has been months we thought we would have a fantastic time. We set out on a 6 day trip. The first day was a hard hike to the top of Santa Fe Baldy, at 12,632 feet the views and the wildflowers were spectacular. We spent the night at the lake below the peak and set off the next day for another lake a little farther north where I know the fishing is good. We had almost reached the saddle along the ridge where we were to descend to the lake when my son turned to snap a photo and saw smoke rising in the distance. We knew it could be a bad sign. We made our way down to the lake and looking back in the direction of the smoke saw that the fire was growing. The smoke was however traveling far to the south of us and it did not seem to be growing too terribly fast. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening, fishing and lounging about our camp at the lake.
I rose early to great the sunrise and the skies were clear there was no plume of smoke in the direction of the fire from the day before and with the air traffic we had heard we thought the fire had been contained. We spent the day fishing and enjoying the beauty of the wilderness.
Everything changed at about 4:00 in the afternoon..... First the wind began to gather strength. Then I noticed the column of smoke rising high in the air. The wind shifted and the smoke began to filter over the ridge above the lake. In less then 20 minutes the sky was black and orange. We packed in great haste and hit the trail down the mountain in the opposite direction we had come, and away from the approaching fire. The forest was very silent, the smoke muting everything except for the far off sound almost like a jumbo jet at high altitude, but constant and not drifting off into the distance like the sound normally would......
We tied bandanas and t-shirts around our faces and hiked fast as the dark orange brown smoke engulfed the forest and blacked out the sun. Breathing was difficult and seeing the trail was difficult through the eye burning haze. We were hiking at almost a run with our full packs, heavy, not even halfway through our supplies. We managed to escape down to less smoke filled air as we descended rapidly toward the valley. Twelve miles down hill in 4 hours, we arrived at the trail head miles away from our truck, exhausted, with all and everyone safe. The other people we marched out with, who were camped in the area by the lake, were kind and gave us a ride out and back to civilization..........nearly 9 hours after the smoke loomed overhead and began to descend on us, we were home safe.
Thankfully, the ordeal is now another tale to tell to children and grand children. Another trial in the wilderness to add to the many, many others I and my backpacking companions have from a nearly lifetime of wilderness experiences.
It worries me if the number of people and groups of people who had signed the trail logs are all safe. I did contact the Forest Service and asked if everyone on the log was accounted for and was told yes..... I do not know how they could truly account for everyone but I certainly hope no one was caught in the smoke or fire.
The fire that still rages through the area where we were has for my lifetime and perhaps even my grand children's lifetime changed the beauty of the forest where I and my companions had so many adventures. It will be many years before the tall forest reclaims the areas charred by this fire, or the many other areas charred by fires that are raging throughout the west this season. I fear that the many fires and the kind of total forest devastation will continue. It need not be total devastation by the crown fires which kill all the trees and undergrowth and even become so hot they burn the soil. The forest management strategy needs to change. From the look of some areas of the forest we have attempted to suppress the forest fires too long. There are areas where there are more standing dead and dried out trees than live ones. Areas where the drought has weakened the trees and beetles have ravaged them. We have attempted to control so much when we perhaps truly need to step back and allow some of the violent change that moves the planet. We need to allow the natural cycles that help to create a healthy environment. We also need to protect our selves and try to protect our homes and families but the forest has been saved for too long. The fuel has been stacking up for a hundred years and it will go up in flames, flames which will become more and more difficult to restrain if the management practices we presently use in our wilderness areas are not modified.
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