• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

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    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

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Stony (Stonyford) is burning...But Rehab Is Right Around The Corner!

It's bad enough that the OHV fund got raided and federal and local OHV in the state appear to be losing about half of what the state OHV grants formerly provided. Clear Creek is STILL closed. And now Stonyford is on fire. Talk about getting kicked when you're down...
 
I want to archive this in case it disappears off the web... July 7th is a Saturday when this was released. In an earlier report they said the fire started at midnight Saturday, so this clarifies that it was late Friday evening (as opposed to late Saturday). It also clarifies that it was started quite close to Mill Valley campground.


Mill Fire Burning in Mendocino National Forest

Release Date: Jul 7, 2012
Contact(s): Tamara Schmidt

WILLOWS, Calif. – The Mendocino National Forest is currently engaged in initial attack on the Mill Fire, which was spotted around 3 p.m. today.
The fire is located near the Mill Valley Campground in Colusa County and is approximately 150 acres. A Type 3 Incident Team is currently working on the fire with resources coming in tonight and tomorrow. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation. Forest officials are not currently aware of any injuries associated with this fire.
Mill Valley, Mill Creek and Letts Lake Campgrounds have been evacuated, as well as the Board Camp summer home tract. Approximately 25 structures are threatened, including the campgrounds.
The road between Letts Lake and Fouts Springs, leading to Stonyford, is currently inaccessible. Visitors evacuating from the Letts Lake area on the west side of the fire are advised to take the Miner Ridge Road to Road M5 near Cedar Camp and follow M5 or County Road 42 out.
Visitors are being asked to avoid the Fouts Springs and Davis Flat area due to increased fire traffic.
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Along similar lines the Oregon/Nevada/Idaho border area has been on fire for several days. Largest fire in Oregon in many years. I know WC loves that part of the country, and its home to me. It does get to you down deep when places you know and love go up in flames.
 
Here is a what you guys have in store for you that ride in the burned areas. We had 4 guys and two chainsaws running for 7 1/2 hours yesterday to clear 2 miles of trail that hadn't been cleared in two years. Total out and back time was 9 1/2 hours. We were able to complete clearing of the loop because the other 3 spent 12 hours total time clearing the other 4 miles of the linking trail on Saturday. You almost have to ride with a saw simply because any half assed wind blows down another 10 trees. I was beyond whipped and I didn't help on Saturday. I know the treat for me was clearing 3 good sized stream crossings that each had about 6 or 7 downed trees in and across the stream all over 12" in diameter. Wading around in your boots up to your knees in cool quickly flowing water for a half hour on all 3 crossings.:D
 
Been riding Stoney for 28 years, even moved closer so my drive was closer. Super sad time for all d36 and nor cal riders.
 
Could not stand it any longer so I took a drive yesterday...

There seemed to be a few areas like this, long before Stony, miles apart - from the "Sites" fire, which started before Stony.

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mnb said:
probably closed for the next 2-3 years I'd guess based what's happened elsewhere in the past.
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Well that's cali for you. Up here they just turn you loose and tell you to maintain it or lose it. Erosion is going to be an issue for you initially and if you have to wait for the state to handle that issue then I guess 2-3 years is going to be in the ballpark. This burn is definitely a catastrophe for this area. I was certainly looking forward to coming back there and doing some more exploring.
 
The burn is 100% contained now. Just shy of 30,000 acres were burned.

The closure isn't just an erosion issue. Tree fall is a serious concern. Depending on how the fire burned, trees can fall over in a light breeze... on you. Not just across the trail.

I know some places have closed for 2-3 years, but that's no guarantee Stonyford will. But I'd be prepared for that to happen. Fingers crossed, it won't, though.

There are riding areas in Stonyford that did not burn, though. And nearby areas like MiddleCreek/UpperLake on the west side of lower Mendocino Forest that are unscathed.
 
mnb said:
The burn is 100% contained now. Just shy of 30,000 acres were burned.

The closure isn't just an erosion issue. Tree fall is a serious concern. Depending on how the fire burned, trees can fall over in a light breeze... on you. Not just across the trail.

I know some places have closed for 2-3 years, but that's no guarantee Stonyford will. But I'd be prepared for that to happen. Fingers crossed, it won't, though.

There are riding areas in Stonyford that did not burn, though. And nearby areas like MiddleCreek/UpperLake on the west side of lower Mendocino Forest that are unscathed.
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See that is the government trying to protect you from yourself. Everytime the wind blows hundreds of trees blow down in our burns. Deal with it. We always ride with some way to cut a tree. I don't care how the tree burned it is coming down at some point in the next 10-15 Years. Many sooner. If we had a local government telling us we couldn't ride because of possible tree fall then we would not ride at all. That is why I was stating earlier that I hope that your FS lets the area be logged while the trees have value(first 6 months or so after burning). Otherwise you will be fighting down falling burned trees for 15 years. I believe cali won't let you clear your own trail without signing away your first born. I can say that we don't ride when the wind is blowing 40+ mph because it would be a death wish. Once again that is common sense and no ammount of regulation can replace it.

In the immediate 30 miles as a crow flies from my house I believe over 100,000 acres have burned in the last dozen years. It is a nightmare and more is going to burn in the near future with all the beetle killed pines and spruce. The key to all this is harvesting quickly and re-planting. Otherwise in cali you won't be riding for years because a tree might fall on you.
 
Daniel508s said:
How will this effect the up coming riding season at Stonyford? With the fire, will trails be closed?
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There is a notice on their site which states that it will be closed until next July - obviously it could be much longer than that...
I cannot tell from the notice what exactly is closed. At some point I would like to drive on M5 & M10 and take some pictures, at least from the road.

In addition - Cow mountain is burning. What I do not know is if the riding area is affected or not... there is a video in this link that shows that fire, the last half of the video seems more interesting to me.
http://wildfiretoday.com/2012/09/10/excellent-video-of-air-tankers-on-scotts-fire/

From my location I can see fires some distance away...
 
Here are a couple of pictures. The first one is the 'Sixteen Complex' fire west of Dunnigan on Highway 16, which is now 100% contained. The second picture shows the fire near Cow mountain on the left, and the Sixteen complex fire on the right..

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