The top of Brown Mtn. is burned clean of live vegetation
I went on a mountain bike ride on my ‘regular’ route this morning. I haven’t been on my mountain bike much lately and this was the first time I have been on it since the Station Fire. I guess technically I wasn’t supposed to be up there, but there weren’t any gates and I had no intention of leaving the fire road/trail so I went on up.
The first mile or so was just as I remembered. No real signs of fire, but as I turned the corner after the corner where the El Prieto Trailhead dumps out, it seemed as if I had moved through some kind of portal onto another world. No seriously, it was otherworldly.
The first thing I noticed was how close the road was from corner to corner. I could see so much of the trail/road. Before there was enough brush to make the road feel isolated, you couldn’t see far and you really didn’t notice the road wrapping around itself. Not today. Everything felt compressed. I could see forever.
The second thing I noticed was the monochrome color. Not that monochrome is unusual for this ride, but it’s usually muted greens and browns. Today it was gray to black. No green. No brown. Just shades of gray.
Then there was the smell. Not overpowering, but omnipresent. The smell of burned vegetation.
Sign and Trailhead on Brown Mtn.
When I got to the top of Brown Mountain I was just astounded at how burned out it looked, in every direction. The other odd thing was the occasional area that was spared. It looked so out of place.
Another was the damage to the road from the all the heavy equipment the forest service had up there to fight the fire. Nothing serious, but it made some areas very sandy. Overall it was a fun and interesting and I look forward to future rides watching the forest come back. Hopefully the rain we are expecting net week won’t be too heavy. Otherwise this area is going to be a real, muddy mess and lots and lots of landslides.
Here’s hoping for several days of a nice steady, light rain. We would all appreciate it.
Redish scarring on brush next to the trail/fire road
-bikeguy
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