Fire in Mountain Center darkens Palm Springs ...

[HH8]

Picture of the smoke plume from my house

the fire is very sad, but in your photostream I stumbled across this


Barrel cactus, cristata mutation by °Florian, on Flickr


Does cris know his tata looks like that?
I found cristae is folds in mitochondria.

[HH8]

That could get ugly.

Anybody heard from halhiker?

[Florian]

Anybody heard from halhiker?

I think Hal is fine. He made some facebook posts today.

-Florian

[Stellar Jay]

Good luck to all of you out there. I just got done biting my nails off with the Chariot Fire we had here in the mountains of San Diego, taking out a lot of what was left after the 2003 and 2007 fires. Chariot was 6 miles from my house... enough to pack bags, just in case. I don't wish that kind of helpless feeling on anyone.

Here's a good map that shows perimeters and activity. It updates sporadically, several hours apart.

Twitter also has its uses. You get a lot of repetitive info, but you also get updates fast because organizations like InciWeb and Cal Fire post updates to it. (You don't need a Twitter account to view.)

[HH8]

Very cool Google Earth file to track fire:

BEST MAPS

[halhiker]

From what I can see, it's past Spitler Peak and burning on Palm View and heading down the West Fork of Palm Canyon and maybe Murray Canyon. I'm going to PS tonight to see if I can see the flames and see exactly its location.

It's a good thing for Jim that he hiked that this year because the landscape will definitely have changed. The only positive is that most of the vegetation will come back quickly. After the Pinyon Fire, the trail to Cedar Springs looked like a moonscape but it grew back so strong over the last 20 years you'd never know there was a fire there.

Still haven't figured out the picture thing but put some on Facebook.

[cynthia23]

OMG, I went down to South Palm Canyon again (at 8pm) and the smoke was so thick and dense I started to get dizzy and ill. I couldn't stay more than a few minutes. Even though their houses aren't likely to burn, I can't imagine that anyone will be able to spend the night in South Palm Canyon--it's unendurable.

As far as the fire itself, the smoke is now so thick that it was difficult to see well, but I could see flames in what I think was Murray Canyon.

Really hairy situation. The wind is supposed to change direction tomorrow and start blowing east. That will be bad because it might head back toward Idyllwild.

[halhiker]

OMG, I went down to South Palm Canyon again (at 8pm) and the smoke was so thick and dense I started to get dizzy and ill. I couldn't stay more than a few minutes. Even though their houses aren't likely to burn, I can't imagine that anyone will be able to spend the night in South Palm Canyon--it's unendurable.

As far as the fire itself, the smoke is now so thick that it was difficult to see well, but I could see flames in what I think was Murray Canyon.

Really hairy situation. The wind is supposed to change direction tomorrow and start blowing east. That will be bad because it might head back toward Idyllwild.

Actually, east is toward Palm Canyon, unless you meant FROM the East.

Was also down South Palm Canyon and it was awful. Could see flames in the distance and what could have been the West Fork and a glow that was closer that could have been Murray Canyon. With all the smoke is was impossible to make out anything higher on the mountain.

[rcwife]

Good evening. I'm new to this board, but as a lover of mountains and of hiking, I love the photos that are posted on this site. I help administer a fb page called Brush Fire Partyline / Riverside and San Bernardino Countys as well as one for San Diego East County.
With the current fire that is going on in Mountain Center, I was wondering if I could have anyone's permission to share their photos on our fb page, giving proper credit to you. Would anyone be willing to grant me that permission? Thank you Sharmin

[Hikin_Jim]

It's a good thing for Jim that he hiked that this year because the landscape will definitely have changed.

Yeah, I guess, but I'd rather not see it burn. I guess I'd better hurry up and do my TR from that trip. Now I really regret not doing Palm View and Cone.

HJ