The fire continues to grow - currently a bit over 11,000 acres now - it seems like it has burned pretty much the entire area that burned in 2010 and 2011 as well as a lot of new area. It is getting pretty close to BOTW lookout, although I read they were going to do water drops, etc to protect the lookout if it got close (since they couldn't wrap it). It also appears to have burned the other side of Hawk Mtn now. I had kind of expected it to settle down a bit with the cooler weather we've been having but it just seems to keep creeping larger.
https://www.trailadvocate.org/MapViewer.html?b=2&ll=44.86357,-121.99734&o1=24&o2=26&z=13
Today's Facebook posting by the Mt. Hood NF says that the lookout tower on Bull of the Woods burned up yesterday.
Joe Keller said
Today's Facebook posting by the Mt. Hood NF says that the lookout tower on Bull of the Woods burned up yesterday.
That is so sad. I guess the only thing that makes it sting a little less is knowing that since it hadn't had ANY maintenance on it whatsoever it was probably going to fall down soon anyway. More history just fades away....
Yeah, I saw the recent maps and figured that it was sadly the case... Here's the info sheet
I was up around the Olallie lake area last week. Wednesday and Thursday nights just after sunset I went to where the powerlines cross Skyline and was able to see across the valley. On Wed I could see the smoke plumes rising and the glow of fires in the smoke across the ridge. Thursday night I was able to see active flames and had a feeling that they were now across Rho ridge. At times they were just small dots of orange, but at others they grew up into the sky as what I would guess were entire trees being engulfed.
The dots were spaced out horizontally and fairly evenly at equal altitude across the ridge, and I wondered if it was intentional. Apparently (by their reports) they had ignited the hillside above 6350 towards the ridge as a containment line.
As much as I don't like losing this part of the ridge, I do realize that this will reduce the chance that the fire could spread eastwards and down into the Cub Creek and Clackamas basin. It shows by the progression map that they lit the uphill side of the road from Fawn Meadow south to where the Lionshead fire got to on 6350 last year to gain an eastern perimeter edge. The corner where the new burn ends is where I saw the northmost signs of last year's fire on the road earlier this year. South past Hunter Creek is down to the 4671/6355 junction was burnt pretty well last year. Unlikely fire can spread across there...
On happier notes:
The (easy) trail to Russ Lake and the PCT north from there is in very fine shape. There is an active unmarked spring flowing quite well across the PCT above Olallie meadow, and I do like that fresh cold running water at 4500 ft+ altitude in late summer.
The Ponderosa trail going southwest from Olallie Meadows is closed at just past the powerlines.
I sent a very large trout back into Olallie Lake Thursday evening. Although the resort area is busy, the other end of the lake is super quiet...
We are fortunate for the 2-3 in. of rain that fell on this fire, as its reduced to slow creeping or smouldering stumps and logs, with no crown fires. However, according to the FS map below, it is as close as 700 ft. to Pansy Lake on the east side. Most of the trail to Bull of the Woods has burned.
What happens next is unknowable and depends on weather. We have had major fires that started in October in years without rainfall.