Mt Adams area fire

[Luv2Kayak]

E-mail from Darryl Lloyd today. ARRGGHHHHHHH!!!!! No Bird Creek Meadows hike for me this year?! NOOOOOOO!!!!! I was SO looking forward to getting back up there. One of my most favorite places. Sigh...

1) Here's the latest on certain Mt. Adams road closures:

-- The Yakama Nation Rd. 285 (to Bird Lake, Bird Creek Meadows and Bench Lake) will NOT reopen this year. Crews are clearing downed trees and snags. This info is straight from Gary at Yakama Nation Fire Management: (509) 865-6653.

-- FS Rd. 82 is closed at the GPNF boundary above Trout Lake.

-- The closed section of FS Rd. 23 -- between Rd. 90 and Council Lake Rd. 2334 (washout of Nov. '06) -- is scheduled for repair in October, at the earliest. (How sad it's not open this summer!)

-- FS Rd. 2329 between Divide Camp and Killen Creek trailheads is closed by a washout. For more info on GPNF road closures, go to:
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/cu ... oads.shtml

2) View an excellent set of 25 photos taken by Darlisa showing the burned forest along the Bird Creek Rd. (YN Rd. 285).
It doesn't look bad! Fairly low intensity burn in that area, with green patches in between dead trees. Bird Creek is still beautiful! Go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/starlisa/s ... 717658183/

3) This amazing photo was taken by Kathryn Rightor on July 13th, 2008. Her group was camped near the South Climb trail on Mt. Adams, several miles above the Cold Springs Fire on the day it exploded. A FS wilderness ranger named Mo assisted her party and other hikers to safely get out of the area.

[Luv2Kayak]

Here's a first-hand account from Jamie, posted here with permission:

The caption on the photo (that Daryl Lloyd sent) says "Objects in the background appear closer than they actually are". I think that we were several miles from the actual fire. Our camp was located at 7200' just east of the South Climb Trail and below the Crescent Glacier. As we were hiking up towards Lunch Counter on Sunday morning to get some good ol' July summer skiing in, we turned around occasionally for a view to the south. Each time we took a glance behind us we were shocked to see the incredible fire growth that was occuring in less than 2 hours. We had seen the smoke plume the night before as it rose right up in front of Mt Hood during sunset. We thought it was too big for a campfire, but still not too large. The fire grew on Sunday morning. Around 9/10 and it got into the forest canopy. Around 11am - the sky became filled with noise and sights of the various aircraft and to the south it was dark smoke, flames shooting out of the canopy, and a large thunderhead growing in immensity every minute. It felt in someway like being in a warzone - not that i've ever been in one - but there was so much aircraft. We weren't exactly sure where the fire was, but from our map and compass - it appeared right in line with Cold Springs trailhead. We became worried about our friend's vehicle at the Cold Springs Trailhead, and whether we should consider getting down and outta there or hang out safely in the high snow, possibly for a few days. Not seeing/hearing any "explosions" we figured that the parking lot was not on fire. As we met back up with our crew around noon(ish) we headed back down to pack up our camp and figure out what to do next. The fire looked quite scary down there and not anything that you would ever consider walking towards. It was still quite a ways from us but was growing incredibly fast. The wind was pushing it all east, and we were north, so we had little to worry about, unless there was to be a shift in the winds. We called folks on our cells and got wind reports, with no changes predicted -phew! Still not sure what to do as we were heading into our camp, we fortunately ran into Mo, the ranger and my friend, who let us know the fire location and evacuation procedure. We packed up and waited a little bit till we were signaled we could head down the trail with a larger group of hikers. By the way, the skiing was really fun from Lunch Counter down
~Jamie Sheahan