Saturday Slight

 

Look one way and you'll see numerous clouds or plumes of smoke in the distance, rising or hanging above mountain ridges.  

Look the other direction to see greenery, healthy stands of trees and an array of colors from plants with leaves in various stages of life.

There's definitely a contrast. 

With luck and the hard work of fire suppressors, this welcome contrast will remain.

After standing in our driveway for a few minutes, observing various pockets smoke rising from the Trestle Creek Complex of fires yesterday afternoon, we decided to go that direction via the Rapid Lightning Creek, hoping for a closer view.

Our trip took us up the Flume Creek Road, down the Trapper Creek Road and eventually to the Bodenstein area just before the closed gate where Rapid Lightning Creek Road eventually goes through a beautiful aspen grove. 

The first two legs of our trip offered no views of the fires, but a walk up a trail, deep with dust, through a clear cut just before the locked gate provided us the perfect view from afar. 

We could make out the Lunch Peak Lookout to the east as well as getting a good view of the various eruptions of smoke which stretch out over a significant distance along the west side of Trestle Creek drainage.  

As we stood in the clear cut,  vertical plumes had transformed into low-lying ribbons of smoke, stretching and hovering along the ridges.  Bill said this scenario is caused by blowing wind. 

This morning's view over that way suggests that some of those smoky areas may have grown.  Always a bit hard to tell, but would not be surprising considering yesterday's winds. 

More info. about the fire complex in today's Daily Bee story below. 

https://bonnercountydailybee.com/news/2021/aug/07/crews-work-open-roads-fight-fires/

 Our afternoon trip turned out to be a bit eye-opening for me.  I was amazed at how many residences have been established over the years up the Flume Creek Road. 

Bill says I've been on the road before but never as far up as we drove yesterday. 

In perspective, the fires are still quite some distance from this area, and the concerns right now involve homes in Trestle Creek. 

Let's hope the promised rain comes tonight and that it provides enough moisture to slow the continued movement of these fires.  

 

On another subject, our Border Collie Liam will always cry, bark or whimper at certain times whenever he goes on drives with us. 

We still haven't figured out what causes his noisy anxiety, except that it usually occurs when the vehicle slows down or when we're driving over narrow roads. 

Otherwise, he, like Foster, really enjoys going with us, especially when he gets to get out and accompany us on hikes.  

Nice to see this beautiful  pair in what looks like a fairly lush setting along the Flume Creek Road. 

Scenes where we drove yesterday look like early fall, evidence of just how dry it's been in the mountains can be seen by these shriveled-up wild raspberries.

Not a great year for berry pickers in general.