Donnell Fire Damage in the Sierra

[Paul Wagner]

We’re just back from a short trip into Saddlebag Lake, and we’ll post a trip report on that soon.  But in the meantime, we drove back to our cabin via Sonora Pass and Highway 108.  It’s really sad.  They wouldn’t allow us to stop along the way to take photos, but the section of 108 by the Dardanelles resort is total gone.  The resort is gone, and the whole southern side of the highway up along Eagle Creek is a wall of blackened sticks.

Further down, the Clark Fork Canyon is a single chimney of charcoal.  This is home turf to us.  We took one of our first backpacking trips up Clark Fork, and have hiked every trail along this road, from the short hop over to Sword and Lost Lakes, Arnott Creek, Disaster Creek, Boulder Lake, and even up through Paradise Valley to the PCT and beyond.  All of that is burned to a crisp, and from the highway you can see the Iceberg of the Caron-Iceberg Wilderness through one long tunnel of blackened landscape.

It is very sad indeed, and it will take years and years to recover.

[Kenneth Keating]

The fires in California have really gotten so much worst the last few years.  My grandfather used to tell of his hiking and hunting days in the 1920’s  and 30’s where you could easily go cross country in the Sierra forests and see for 200 yards all around since underbrush was non-existent.  Unfortunately all the fire protection put an end to this and now we’re seeing the results.

 

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