Fires to the east of me, fires to the west of me, fires to the north of me, fires to the south of me (many for the 2nd, or 3rd time this year)-and all sending nasty unhealthful smoke right here into my front yard! The fire to the SE just cut 395, so no more runs to Reno. So I ran away from all this last week-up to North Eagle Lake for several days of camping (planned to go to Nevada, but Red Flag weather there). Hot and windy with lot's of deer flies, but that's camping-fine. Only one other camper and some day boaters there , until, that is, the guy with the parrot arrived! Yep had a parrot on his shoulder as he drove into the CG; parked on a fire road lined with no-parking signs that marked the south cg boundary , below where I camped. When he started to set up camp, I yelled down to him "that I thought he could not camp there.", he yelled back "go tell it to his mother". I just walked back behind my camper and read for a while and when it got dark went inside. That night, he entertained us with this outside speakers with original and made up parrot and other animal sounds such as "ribbit, ribbit!!!
I left for Susanville in the morning and drove through one of the worst thunder and lightning storms that I ever drove through .Windy and rainy in Susanville, and still smoky! That night the storm started several new fires in the Diamond Mountain Range to the south of town. By the next day the fire had made a run down the slope and evacuations were soon underway south of town along Gold Run Way .and the smoke was thick both here and in Reno. Local fire resources, including a local timber company, put up fire breaks that held up the fire for a while and as happened last month, more fire crews pored into town--- and we got the next to last uncommitted Class 1 fire Mgt overhead team in the great state of California yesterday( things are getting interesting again). Time to head to the store to load up on supplies and beer.
We are not the only ones having problems, with all the surrounding counties having lot's of fires and with fire resources really pushed to their limits---and with above ave, temps in the 90's /100's and Red Flag weather warnings and high winds projected for the rest of this week, more fun days ahead.. Hey and this is only here in NE Calif/NW Nevada. When you throw in what's going on in the rest of Calif, and the rest of the west-not to mention Covid-19, yes, this has an interesting summer. so far. I can hardly wait for Fall to start
! PS: As I was finishing this up, my phone just rang-it was Sheriffs automated emergency service saying mandatory evacuation required for more of the Gold Run area-fire is still a few miles out from here, but one never knows-fire last month made it to the 5 mile mark before they got a line around it. Still plenty of time to watch the last episode of "Alone" tonight! Until next time!
Smoke
