I forgot the good stuff - all the roads south, east and north of Bull of the Woods have been brushed out and properly graded. No more brush blocking the road or brutal washboards and potholes until more years of neglect pass.

There is money in the Forest Service budget for fighting fires but not for routine road maintenance. The prep for this fire was a good demonstration of how quickly that routine maintenance can be done. About two weeks or a little more for this area.

Basically on all the roads on the three sides were brushed down to a few inches for about forty feet on the side towards the fire, and enough to clear the road on the other side. This gave them what they considered a good start if a back burn was needed. Its now past the period of rapid fire spread so no back burns are going to happen this year.

Most of the wilderness did not burn, and they could certainly open the trails to Bull of the Woods and Pansy Basin and the Twin Lakes area, none of which saw fire. It will be interesting to watch the recovery, with the fire spread over more than a 3000 ft. elevation spread.

Thanks so much for the additional info.  Do you know which roads these were?  I know 6370 and 4696? were/are closed for this kind of work.  That is good news that they did some road maintenance....It is so nice when you see a road that gets some maintenance, either grading (for a gravel road), or brushing (any road).  They are so much easier to drive.

As far as the fires, I'm glad they let them burn, but I'm always sad to see what were once beautiful places turned to charcoal.  I know it is part of the natural cycle, but it doesn't make it any easier to look at.  Hopefully it isn't quite as bad as it sounds and the area will rebound in a few years.

FYI, this was posted to the USFS website today:

Following is part of the News Release for the Olallie Lake Scenic Area submitted 9/17/10:

The closure order for the Olallie Lake Scenic Area will be
rescinded effective 12:01 AM, Saturday, September 18th. All trails in
the Olallie Lake Scenic Area, except for Mon-Olallie Trail #732 and the
north side of the Monon Trail #729 will be open. The above named trails
remain closed due to the high hazard from burned snags.

The Olallie Lake Resort and developed campgrounds within the
Olallie Lake Scenic Area are closed for the season; however, dispersed
sites are open to the public; please pack out what you pack in.

All trails within the Bull of the Woods Wilderness are still closed due to fire and snag danger.

Do you know which roads these were?

I've never found an actual list but generally the first road nearest the Wilderness. On the east both 6370 and 6380 at least in parts were treated. Other roads which may have been treated include parts of 63, 6350 east from Collawash Mountain, 4696, 4697, 6340, 6341. I don't have more precise info and some roads within this perimeter may or may not have been treated. If they contributed to creating a defensible position in the face of fire then they were, if not, then nothing was done.The West side of the Wilderness was not treated at all.

Its good that the Olallie Highlands is being opened - this area was mostly untouched and some great fall hiking is still ahead. One may suspect that they are keeping people out of Bull of the Woods because if, say, someone hiked to the Lookout they could see some of the burned area and many if not most would be tempted to go have a look - into potentially dangerous burn areas. Policing a closure at Bull of the Woods and several other places is not going to happen, so they just close everything to be safe.

Recovery should be fairly quick especially at the lower elevations. The fire pioneer plants are back the first and especially the second spring. The trees of course take much longer but small new sprouts should be obvious by the second year. If lodgepole pine was in the burn area these should sprout heavily the first spring. We will get to see if fire really does encourage huckleberries.

A good indication of how this area might recover is taking a look at the Thunder Mountain burn, which is a couple of years old now. I hiked that trail right after the burn and it was pretty wiped out.  I haven't been back since, but it would be interesting to see how the area has recovered thus far.  Sounds like a good item to put on my to-do list.

I just hope they can get the area opened back up before the snow hits.....