"Here Comes Nevada..."

Amazing weekend, but that will be covered in a different post.

"Here Comes Nevada" is what Matt said when we got home from our hike to Angora Lake today. He was referring to the line of fire trucks, sirens blaring, traveling south on Hwy 50 directly behind our house. They were coming from Carson City and heading to where we just came from.

Tahoe Daily Tribune

The Tahoe Tribune will most likely be updated throughout the night. As of 9:11pm, the first is raging out of control, has destroyed 59 homes, and is threatening one of two high schools in the area. We left the trail head at about 2:30pm, apparently 20 minutes after the initial call to the fire department. We drove out along a ridge between Fallen Leaf Lake and literally a valley of fire.

*Update*
As of 10:18pm, 165 homes and structures have been destroyed. The worst fire in 50 years. And it has spread to 750 acres. Still Uncontrolled, and moving closer to South Lake Tahoe. Not Good. I hope the cold mountain night slows the fire down. The ridge we drove out on has been engulfed by the fire.
*End Update*

Easily the largest fire I've ever seen up close, it is now over 500 acres, mostly due to the bone-dry conditions and 35mph winds blowing it up hillsides. Hillsides like the one leading up to the ridge we were racing away on. Kristara drove, while Jen and I took turns snapping photos and videos, depending on which side of the car the fire was on:

(if you aren't a fan of foul language, turn the sound off for the first video)























Some of the images we either couldn't, or failed to capture on my camera. People racing up the trail to alert their loved ones, and the look on a few of the kids' faces, being forced to end their vacations early (this is the place with the week-long cabin rentals, booked a year in advance). We could see flames through the forest, but besides the one amazing video, all of the pictures we took just looked like blurry forest. We saw spotter planes flying overhead, and I thanked my stars we got out of there when we did, because with those 35mph winds, water or fire retardant could have easily been blown down onto us on the ridge.

The roads were orange in places. I might have captured this in one of the pictures above, the one with the white car turning. Ash was falling from the sky from the trail head all the way back to our house--25 miles. The ash was brittle to the touch, and would break apart just like I'd expect fireplace ash to, but the ash falling from the sky today was metallic. Each piece clinked down on the ground, and when I was walking back from taking a few pictures after arriving safely at home, hearing the ash fall to the ground reminded me of a wind chime. I still don't understand how the ash can clink to the ground, and roll around clinking in the wind, yet be brittle to the touch.

Here is the image comparison that gets me:

Last week:



Today: