Bobcat Fire in West Fork

Post by **HikeUp** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:58 pm

dima wrote: ↑
walker wrote: ↑Another chasm of doom view from Mt. Harvard and Mt. Wilson right now - looks like the next few hours will be decisive for the observatory
I've been staring at it. Do we know how close it actually is?

Less than a mile if not a lot less, from my estimate.

Post by **dima** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:58 pm

Oh, crap. Is the observatory on fire?

Post by **dima** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:00 pm

This is bad...

Post by **HikeUp** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:21 pm

I noticed a lot of (what I'll assume is firefighter) traffic on the roads up there so I think they will be making a valliant effort. God speed.

davidwiese · Post by **davidwiese** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:23 pm

It's not on fire yet. Those orange blobs on the road are people/vehicles thankfully.

davidwiese · Post by **davidwiese** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:25 pm

Looks like it is creeping up the ridge to Harvard now

davidwiese · Post by **davidwiese** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:33 pm

View from Harvard cam looking ESE

Ze Hiker · Post by **Ze Hiker** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:45 pm

This sucks

Post by **HikeUp** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:05 pm

Ze Hiker wrote: ↑This sucks

Hey Ze. Well said.

Post by **dima** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:09 pm

davidwiese wrote: ↑It's not on fire yet. Those orange blobs on the road are people/vehicles thankfully.

I just looked at the photos again. Click on the second one to get the full size. That looks a whole lot like fire. Maybe a little flare-up or something. Haven't see any like it for a little bit. Hopefully they'll take care of it

davidwiese · Post by **davidwiese** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:24 pm

Maybe the worst is past?

patrick · Post by **patrick** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:56 pm

Sean wrote: ↑
patrick wrote: ↑For those of you who were around for the Station Fire, how long were things closed after that? ... were you able to hike into any burned areas the following year?
Some front range areas opened in 2011. The rest was closed until May 2014, so about five years. It took even longer to reopen certain trails that hadn't been restored yet.

Check out the Station Fire Thread.

Yeah, I've actually been going back and reading through it, although I can't read it too fast, it's kind of sad. I know lots of things (e.g. west half of the Gabrieleno) didn't officially open until pretty recently, but it seemed like that was more due to time rebuilding the trails. Chantry is such a popular area—I haven't been around here since anything that heavily-trafficked burned. Nice to hear everyone's insights.

Hoping for the best. Flames are visible in 3 of the 4 Mt Wilson cams. No aircraft in the area atm.

Post by **Sean** » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:04 pm

Ze Hiker wrote: ↑This sucks

Hi Ze. Yeah, doesn't look good.

The Harvard cam is smoked in now. Still a clear view from Wilson south cam though.

Lukens is zoomed in on the area for when the fire hits the peaks.

Girl Hiker · Post by **Girl Hiker** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:05 am

Fire above Monrovia this evening.

Post by **Sean** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:36 am

dima wrote: ↑That looks a whole lot like fire. Maybe a little flare-up or something. Haven't see any like it for a little bit. Hopefully they'll take care of it

They are strategically firing around the summit roads. Hopefully it'll be enough to save Harvard and Wilson.

Ze Hiker · Post by **Ze Hiker** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 5:37 am

Caltopo makes it look like fire got to the Manzanita Bench and Mt Yale. Other branch is reaching near hwy2 and Upper Big Tujunga.

Post by **Sean** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 7:57 am

The Monrovia FB page has the Zoom briefing from yesterday. It's also on the FS YouTube channel:

Not much to report, except that the plan is to contain the fire at Harvard and Wilson. The roads and firebreaks in the area help them keep the fire from spreading west along the front canyons. They hope to stop it at previous Station Fire lines which they have been reinforcing.

As far as the cabins in BSAC, they haven't been able to send people into that area due to fire activity. So they don't know the status of the structures.

davidwiese · Post by **davidwiese** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 9:49 am

Live cams from Wilson suggest they managed to keep it away!

ReFreshing · Post by **ReFreshing** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:25 am

Sean wrote: ↑The Monrovia FB page has the Zoom briefing from yesterday. Not much to report, except that the plan is to contain the fire at Harvard and Wilson. The roads and firebreaks in the area help them keep the fire from spreading west along the front canyons. They hope to stop it at previous Station Fire lines which they have been reinforcing.

As far as the cabins in BSAC, they haven't been able to send people into that area due to fire activity. So they don't know the status of the structures.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the cabins are burned, including Sturtevant.... I hope I'm wrong but things don't look good. I love stopping by Sturtevant Camp when i'm in the area.?

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:57 am

ReFreshing wrote: ↑
Sean wrote: ↑The Monrovia FB page has the Zoom briefing from yesterday. Not much to report, except that the plan is to contain the fire at Harvard and Wilson. The roads and firebreaks in the area help them keep the fire from spreading west along the front canyons. They hope to stop it at previous Station Fire lines which they have been reinforcing.

As far as the cabins in BSAC, they haven't been able to send people into that area due to fire activity. So they don't know the status of the structures.
I wouldn't be surprised if most of the cabins are burned, including Sturtevant.... I hope I'm wrong but things don't look good. I love stopping by Sturtevant Camp when i'm in the area.?

Things are 'evolving'...things like that arent on a map that some goon somewhere else is laughing at.
Its like the incident update when she said 'Santa Clarita' vs Santa Anita. I understand....people say Bobcat, and my response has been not consistent. Ive been thinking less and less about the creek fire or dolan fire and more and more about the word 'complex'. When it first popped up, the hint was given as govt acyonym SCU or LZU or something like that. Now you have to give a direction. Then do a tap dance and meditate.
The point being now our fires are being fought from some basement in Sacramento or wherever. Maybe Solis and Chu will appear as firefighters cause they cancelled Halloween...if you are one of 'lucky' ones.

patrick · Post by **patrick** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:30 pm

spot fire that crossed the 2, in cooper canyon (confirmed on angeles twitter acct as well):

a bunch of big (for socal, anyway) redwood trees in that area

Post by **HikeUp** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:45 pm

to quote/paraphrase Ze...this really sucks.

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 2:32 pm

Looks to be back at NE winds. They announced the spot fires past Hwy 2 at MtSally as well.
Also " 5 tankers are working the area west of Hwy 39 near Rincon Canyon." so who knows.

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:08 pm

ANF pic with no description other than mentioning Buckhorn and Sawpit....someone chime in if they know the location, but I think this is Kratka ridge from Hwy39

patrick · Post by **patrick** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:14 pm

AW~ wrote: ↑ANF pic with no description other than mentioning Buckhorn and Sawpit....someone chime in if they know the location, but I think this is Kratka ridge from Hwy39

I was just trying to figure that out... I think it's worse actually, since they mentioned that it's across hwy 2, I think that might be taken from this spot on the ACH https://www.google.com/maps/@34.3522158 ... 312!8i6656

if that's the case, it's crossed over the PCT, and that whole area up to Pleasant View Ridge is in some trouble. I'm not sure though, it's partly based on them saying it's crossed the 2, and where they could feasibly take a picture of what's on the caltopo fire map, which could be off

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:41 pm

Im like 100% sure its of Kratka from Hwy39 now that I looked at it from google. But it is not a fresh picture, but a 'yellow' one...might even be 2 days old.
Heres the location of the 'hill' at the canyon bottom of Bear Creek.
https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=34.3451 ... z=17&b=sat
On the picture notice on the right center ridge towards Eagles roost..
vs google maps on the bottom which is due north and a little bit west of the gps location.

patrick · Post by **patrick** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 4:03 pm

yeah, you're right... that actually makes a lot more sense too, that the photo is old, given the rest of the photos on their feed. was attached to a tweet describing a new spot fire across the 2, bit of a red herring

Post by **dima** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 9:59 pm

Caltopo is now saying pretty convincingly that buckhorn is/was burning. AND that another large front is headed towards Chilao from the South. Anybody want to guess where the North front will stop? There's no longer any obvious boundary, or human structures where the firefighters will make a stand. This sucks.

davidwiese · Post by **davidwiese** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 10:49 pm

Looks like both Twins have burned as well.

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:43 pm

Tough call on Buckhorn. I think the main one is the subject of wilderness,...and if an exemption is asked for and received to fight the fire in pleasant view ridge wilderness.
https://umontana.maps.arcgis.com/apps/w ... Wilderness
I dont recall any human footprints last time...so with only daytime water drops only, I say pretty bleak.

The bobcat part Idk. If it burns to Vetter you have 'lite' brush on the south side and you get quite a defensible space to stop any progress.

Overall I dont like it knowing the Santa Anas are coming...seems to be tick toc tick toc going now.