Oops.

Well, after all the drama of the wildfires, life in San Diego is mostly back to normal. It's taken weeks, but the fires are now all contained and most of them are completely out. We've had some rain (this past weekend) and some more Santa Anas (this week), but it seems that the greatest fire danger has passed. Just like people on the Gulf Coast breathe a tenative sigh of relief after hurricane season ends, so does Southern California as we approach the end of November and thus the end of "fire season."

The biggest lesson learned this time around seems to be that we need to solve the CalFire-military integration issue. During both the 2003 Cedar fire and this year's firestorm, military firefighting helicopters were left sitting on runways, rotors spinning, just waiting ... and two days later, the final okay was given for them to fly. So much happened during those two days ... and even though the smoke and high winds would have prevented many flights they would have been able to make, tell that to someone who lost their home in those two days. In a nutshell, here's the reason: an old state law on the books says that any military aircraft assisting in firefighting operations must have a CalFire air escort. See where this is going? If CalFire had sufficient air assets to be able to escort outside aircraft, they probably wouldn't so desperately need those same outside craft. In an emergency, they can override the law, but that takes time and paperwork ... hence the two days.

A week after the fires started, Nick and I headed up to LA to visit with our friend Lynn and Nick's best man Jeff, who was in Southern California for the month on military business. Driving up past Camp Pendleton, there were several miles where both sides of I-5 were burned right up to the road ... it's crazy to think that the fire jumped 10 lanes plus the divider and the shoulders. The burn area went right up to the CHP station at the immigration checkpoint - a few bushes right next to the building were green, but everything on the hillsides behind it were scorched. Phone and electric poles were blackened. We quickly turned the air in the car to "recirculate" because the air quality out there was still so bad. Nick snapped some pictures - I'll see if they turned out and post some if they did.

Up in LA, we had a great time with Lynn and Jeff. We went to a huge Oktoberfest celebration in Torrance and had plenty of "wurst" and beer. There was a fantastic oompah band (from Germany!) and the emcees were funny older gentlemen who possessed the ability to chug a mug of beer in seconds. We did the chicken dance 3 times (who knew that was a German thing?) and nearly lost our voices from screaming over the crowd and the band. Sunday, I had the wonderful idea of heading up into the Angeles Crest forest area, an amazingly gorgeous mountainous region between Glendale and Palmdale. The idea was to take in some nature and do a little hiking. Nick's college roommate Matt even drove down from Santa Clarita to join us for the day. After driving on the twisting mountain highway for 45 minutes, it dawned on us that all the signs saying "Forest Closed" and "Red Flag Fire Warning: No Hiking" actually meant US ... and that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to tempt fate and disobey the warnings. So we stopped, stretched our legs, and headed back to Glendale. Now THAT'S what I call hiking the LA way. heh heh
I know I got a couple good shots on the drive up and back, so when I finally download them, I will post a couple here.

It hasn't really hit me how much of San Diego's beautiful hiking trails and wilderness areas have been affected or completely ruined by the wildfires. Nick and I haven't been out hiking since the fires happened, and it will be a sad process to try and figure out what areas are hikable and what's been destroyed. But in the next few years, maybe some of those areas will serve as interesting lessons in fire ecology and the ability for nature to slowly come back - and maybe there will be some interesting burned-out tree trunks to photograph!