In the Blasted Lands 2

Posted on November 4, 2007 in Photos Santiago Fire

It could take months to document the snowfields of ash, the reticulations on the trees, the twisted hardware. I went out for the second time this afternoon, skirting the edges of the Cleveland National Forest and Whiting Ranch Wilderness. There were the places unsinged like this grove of sycamores in the bottomland of Limestone Canyon:

Modjeska Canyon is largely untouched except for a handful of houses. You can’t really say “this block was gone” because there will be a single house torched surrounded by manors and cottages untouched in the thick of oaks and sycamores. The fire cleared out the brush, made it possible to see what was hidden, such as this rusted truck on the slopes of Flores Peak:

I’d been meaning to climb that summit. Perhaps now in the spring I will.

Yesterday, while I photographed the Dome House remains, another tourist told me that “when they catch the guy who started this they should release him. At Cook’s Corner. And make him run all the way to Irvine Lake. If he lives through that, he can go.” If forced, he would go through country that on the sides looks like this:

and this….

Miles of this horrid beauty, masked by the foilage of trees forced into false autumn colors:

Push through the veneer of surviving trees and strange sights await you:

The hawk screeches the only loneliness until you look at your feet and find things starting over again:

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UPDATE: Checked the OC Fire Authority web site several times today. Fire continues to be 90% contained until the secretary can have her coffee first thing Monday morning.