Pine pollen season over

The ponderosa  pines release their pollen on the first hot spell of the summer. This started about 10 days ago and ended about 3 days ago, at the start of hail season.  What I mean is that it was sunny and hot for a week, without any precipitation. This allowed the pollen to coat everything with a yellowish coat of pollen dust.  Then, 3 days ago, it started hailing every afternoon. This quickly washed the pollen off of everything the hail hit.

Sometimes, a gust of wind will pick up all the pollen at once.  This gives a curious image where a yellowish green shadow of a tree will suddenly drift downwind from the tree that gave rise to it.

At times the pollen in the air will get so thick that you can see waves and waves of it drifting across the country side. Distant mountains will disappear behind clouds of yellow green pollen.

Look carefully at this video and see what I mean:

Hungry Bears Will Do Almost Anything

I recently found a 3 foot half rotten log all torn up right at my favorite hiking spot.

As best as I can figure, a bear tore it up while looking for insects.

The Spring Elk Herd is Frequenting My Yard

Yesterday a herd of about 24 elk came through my yard again. This is likely the same herd that came through on April 22, during a heavy snow.

That dripping sound in the video is caused by melting snow dripping from my roof.

And here is a video of a young one.

Speaking of snow, I've never had a winter/spring season like this one for snow.  There have been more x-c ski-able days this year then I've ever seen, and I've been up here since 1998.  The newspaper mentioned that this has been the snowiest April ever, but may is shaping up for a lot of snow and rain as well.

Elk and Coyotes

A few years ago, I witnessed what I thought was a real "National Geographic" moment when I saw a lone coyote approach a whole herd of elk on Stilson's Meadow. (mile 5 on Magnolia Rd)
I was just driving by, so I did not get to see how it all turned out.

This morning, I got to see what can happen. I saw a huge elk on hot pursuit of a lone coyote.  The coyote looked like he was running for his life. 

Victory For Local Environment

I personally attended and spoke at the meeting with the Boulder County Commissioners on Monday evening.  It was a loooong meeting, which I was not quite prepared to endure.  However, it was all worth it because the commissioners understood that expanding Gross Dam is a bad idea and that there is not nearly enough compensation for the hardship that local residence will endure.

http://www.tegcolorado.org/news/64-boulder-county-drains-moffat-project.html

Walk-By Trail Side Christmas Tree Triming

There is a fun little Christmas season tradition that happens every year around here.

One of the two routes I take to get from here to "the plains" is to go down coal creek canyon.  As you drive along, you'll see trees along the side of the road that have been decked out like christmas trees.

These are the so called "drive-by trimmings."

Well, this must have inspired somebody to give this same treatment to a local trail that runs along Winiger Ridge

The Elk Herd is In the Neighborhood

At dusk today, I saw a herd of about 60 elk going across the large meadow at about mile marker 10 on Magnolia.  I suspect the herd came down to this altitude from higher up because it looks like the nice fall weather is about to come to an end and it might snow at higher elevations.

Gross Reservoir Day

Gross Reservoir Day

This Sunday, September 9^th, Noon-4pm

Join your neighbors at the North Shore Picnic Area of Gross Reservoir (where Gross Dam Road meets Flagstaff Road) for an afternoon picnic and several guided walks.  The event, hosted by TEG – The Environmental Group – is intended to bring the communities surrounding Gross Reservoir together in appreciation of everything the reservoir has to offer: magnificent vistas, diverse wildlife, maintained picnic areas, non-motorized boating, and hikes of varying intensity. 

The event is completely free and open to the public.  Bring a picnic (and your boat, if you have one).

No glass bottles/containers, and pets must be leashed.

This is a Fine Example of What Joomla Can Do

I have relatives in Germany.  One of them has a nice looking site about jewelry rings.  You can see it at
http://www.ringekaufen.com/
Tip: Google Chrome will even translate it for you. The result is a bit rough, but you can usually figure out what is meant.

Background Info on Yesterdays Fire

I checked on the fire this morning.  There's no smoke to be seen.

Claire Farley  writes:

 

I happened to be on Winiger Ridge this morning, and I spotted a fire that there has been some conversation about. Here are the photos of what I saw from the cut out log seats at the top of Winiger Ridge after I called 911.

I don't know the current status of the fire but there was a big response. The fire was on the south side of the ridge and working its way uphill. My greatest fear was that it would go over the ridge into the densely forested north-facing slope. It appeared that a helicopter was working that edge of the fire to prevent that from happening.

Many thanks to all of our firefighters!

And my neighbor Clark adds:

Concerning the start of the fire:  I'm pretty sure we saw/heard the bolt 
that started the fire.  I was near a window on the north side of our 
house Monday afternoon, around 4:30 pm or 5 pm, when there was a 
brilliant flash in the direction of the window and an almost 
simultaneous enormous crash of thunder.  I didn't actually see the 
lightning bolt, but it seemed to be in the direction where the fire 
turned out to start.  We monitored the area for the next hour, looking 
for smoke.  (As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are aware of no 
lightning in the area since late Monday.) 

What is disturbing is that the fire could smolder for nearly two days 
before erupting into flame.  It should be a learning moment for all 
concerned.  Some residents may recall the controlled burn on Winiger 
Ridge about a dozen years ago.  A day or two after the burn, a neighbor 
(there was nobody officially monitoring the aftermath of the controlled 
burn) noticed smoke and reported it: the fire had flared up and escaped, 
burning an additional 7 acres (only a few hundred feet from today's 
fire).  A couple days after that, my wife and I stomped out flames from 
the edge of the controlled burn farther east that were dangerously close 
to the lodgepole forest north of the crest of the ridge. 

There have been many small fires in the neighborhood during the last 
weeks.  Today's event should teach us that the modest amount of rain 
we've had recently has not cured the overall dryness.  We should keep 
alert to smoke, especially where there have been small fires recently or 
well-located lightning strikes. 

Thanks to everyone for watching and reporting about these threats and to 
the firefighters who responded very rapidly this morning. 

Clark (& Y) Chapman 
Lazy Z Rd., Nederland

Cats and Dogs

It is now raining cats and dogs and there is a lot of lightning.  I'm sure the firefighters are waiting it out in the thick trees right now. However, the ran is doing a great job of putting out any remaining smolders.

Lighting Delay

The 26 remaining fire fighters paused work while there was lightning danger.  But as of 3:30, they are back on the job putting out every last ember.

The yellow dots above are the fire fighters. They also have a ATV (middle) that is running back and forth across my yard with supplies.

Fire out.

The helicopter just left.  I can see the firemen leaving too.

Thanks everyone for all this quick work. This one was a bit to close to home.

Out by 2 pm

There are about 40 firefighters working the fire.  It is 24% contained as of 15 minutes ago.  They expect to have it out by 2 pm today .

They've put the helicopter on standby because there are no more large burning areas.

Awesome!

Lots of resources

There are a lot of firemen working the fire now, and a bucket helicopter is dropping water on it every few minutes.  Gross res. is a convenient local source of water for the helicopter.

Picture of Balancing Beam Rock Fire

Turns out I go hiking up to the exact area of the fire almost every day. 

The location of the fire is at the center of this map"
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1987+Lazy+Z+Rd,+Nederland,+CO&hl=en&ll=39.953062,-105.416456&spn=0.002883,0.006968&sll=38.997934,-105.550567&sspn=5.983647,14.27124&oq=198&t=w&hnear=1987+Lazy+Z+Rd,+Nederland,+Colorado+80466&z=18

New Fire Near Here

I just talked to a fireman at the gate end of Lazy Z.  "There is a fire up on the hill, and I would get out of our way since there will be a bunch of fire trucks coming."

I turned around and almost ran into two fire trucks coming the towards me.

90% Containment

Yeah!  Enough said.

Day 5: Making Good Progress

I read at http://boulderoem.com/emergency-status
that there is going to be a lot of back burning to increase the strength of the fire line.  I assume that is what the smoke is all about.

Day 4: The Great Smokies

It is quite smokey today.   I doubt the smoke is from the flagstaff fire since there is a steady breaze from the west.

Still, it makes it hard to see anything at all up here at 8300 feet and 4 miles west of  the flagstaff fire.