"Pretty gut wrenching"

I spoke yesterday with a friend of mine whose family owns one of the historic cabins up Lamoille Canyon, and who was allowed in to visit the burn site over the weekend.

In his words, "it looks like a different place up there.  Pretty gut wrenching."

And that, folks, would be the understatement of the century.

Thankfully, only one of the historic cabins burned, but several of the other cabins lost sheds and other outbuildings.  And, based on the photo he sent me and on the aerial footage I've seen, there was a tremendous amount of tree loss through that part of the canyon and on down.  The leafy, shady canopy that made those cabins such a wonderful, private getaway is largely gone.

As always, there are silver linings to most catastrophes, and there are here, too.  As an enthusiastic backcountry skier, I'm happy that access to several lower-canyon runs just got a lot easier.  And, in a good snow year, they likely got a lot longer, too.  There is an historic trail in the burn area, the Talbot-Lamoille Trail, that has been extremely difficult to find in recent years.  With the brush removed by fire the tread should be a lot more apparent - this could be a great opportunity to locate and re-establish that old trail.

I'd trade that silver lining for my canyon back to where it was a week and a half ago any day, and twice on Sundays.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As of yesterday, the fire was 90% contained, with a perimeter expected to be completed by October 10th.  Total burn area 9,196 acres.  There are still 60 people working the fire - two hand crews and one aircraft, commanded by an Elko County local, Matt Petersen.  There is snow on the peaks now, we've had a couple of heavy rains, and the concern now is what the oncoming winter weather will do to the burn, and how the conditions are hampering efforts to effect repairs up there.

Where was all this rain two weeks ago?

I'm heading to a meeting tonight of the Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group to discuss canyon restoration and potential volunteer opportunities.  I'll let you know what I find.