Mountain Fire -- More Exact Burn Maps

[Hikin_Jim]

I was out on Monday hiking around. I could see that the actual burn area is far smaller than the official closure area. I'm wondering where the actual boundary of the burn is. I'm sure that the Forest Service has aerial photos.

I wonder if there are any photos posted to the web anywhere? With aerial photos, it should be reasonable to come up with a good overlay to a topo map showing where the damage really is. The Mountain Fire Closure is a lot bigger than the actual burn area.

Here's what I saw when I went through the Burn area (legally!) on May Valley Road on Monday, 16 Feb 2015.

It's fairly narrow on the western side of the burn area. Here, you can see the burn area on the far side of Johnson Meadow:


From the S Ridge Trail, you can see that the burn area widens a bit as it goes east:


A zoom in on the top of South(well) Peak looks like the north face and the summit area burned. Rumor has it that the east side of the Desert Divide between Red Tahquitz and Antsell Rock got the worst of it.


From Tahquitz Peak Lookout, South(well) and Antsell hardly look touched. The burn appears to be further south toward Apache and Spitler.


Apache looks like it got toasted. Pyramid, Pine, and Lion look OK from this angle. Presumably things further south like Ken Point and Butterfly Peak are OK too.


The burn area in the Garner Valley looks fairly confined.


From the S Ridge Trail just west of the PCT Junction, there's no sign of fire at all in the Tahquitz Creek Drainage.


HJ

[Hikin_Jim]

Well, not from aerial photos, but this map squares pretty well with what I could see from the S. Ridge Trail and Tahquitz Peak:


The widest extent was east of the Desert Divide.

HJ

[guest]

Thanks for all of this Jim, it makes it easier to remain aware of these areas when we're treading across the San Jacinto's.
Sure hope they make rapid progress on reopening some spots, Like Curumba, Willow Ck & Cedar Spgs.

ss

[Florian]

Hi Jim. I think maybe your last photo is a bit misleading. You can't see any fire evidence from where you took that photo but there was fire in Tahquitz Creek drainage. You can see from Wellman Divide and from the bit of the Caramba trail that is still open east of Saddle Junction and also from Tahquitz Peak fire lookout. I think you are aware of that but i just wanted to clarify that the fire did burn into Tahquitz Valley.

-Florian

[Hikin_Jim]

I didn't see any signs of a burn in the Tahquitz Creek drainage, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any. Particularly people who have been up along Hidden Lake Divide have posted photos of fire damage. The map I posted above clearly shows that the fire did penetrate into the Tahquitz Creek drainage, particularly to the east.

HJ

[Florian]

Good map and map animation here ..

http://www.pcta.org/2013/mountain-fire- ... pct-13236/

-Florian

[Hikin_Jim]

Excellent animation. I guess I can see why from where I was I couldn't see any burn evidence in the Tahquitz Valley area.

[recordalley]

FYI, just talked to the forest service in Idyllwild & closure won't be re-evaluated till next fall, so closure will be in effect throughout the summer.

[Hikin_Jim]

No surprise there. A lot of the stuff in Garner Valley is pretty much ready to be re-opened from what I could see. The trail from the Herkey Creek area that connects to May Valley Road. There's really no reason that should be closed while May Valley Road is open. There may be some burnt trees, but it's not so heavily forested in there that falling limbs from burnt out trees is going to be a significant hazard.

HJ

[K & W]

Sorry state of affairs anyway if public lands managers are concerning themselves with public safety from natural hazards (and user error for that matter) - it'll be all over then. I hope it opens sooner than later, but while it's closed I sure hope it is not closed as a matter of public safety.