Fire Season Stuff

I don’t know if it was mentioned here but Mt High turned on their snowmaking system. Getting some credit for doing some good.
A news report earlier tonight was showing an area near the bottom of Blue Ridge trail and the old ranger station building. The report was mentioning that the fire scotch hopped around and left areas unburned. They showed an area that was burning but it was just the small stuff at ground level and the big trees were ok. Let’s hope there is a lot of that.
 
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Airport fire destroys cabins in historic Holy Jim Canyon​

The remains of a cabin in Holy Jim Canyon after the Airport fire destroyed it. (Photo provided to SCNG)

The remains of a cabin in Holy Jim Canyon after the Airport fire destroyed it. (Photo provided to SCNG)
Sydney Barragan

By Sydney Barragan | sbarragan@scng.com
UPDATED: September 11, 2024 at 7:56 p.m.

On Monday morning, Holy Jim Canyon was home to 34 cabins.

Tuesday afternoon, only seven were still standing, surrounded by charred remains of homes that may never be rebuilt.

Holy Jim Canyon is tucked away in the Cleveland National Forest, about three miles along a dirt road from Trabuco Creek Road. The cabin settlement is less than two miles from the remote-control airfield where the Airport fire broke out on Monday afternoon, Sept. 9.

    • The remains of a cabin in Holy Jim Canyon after...

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The remains of a cabin in Holy Jim Canyon after the Airport fire destroyed it. (Photo provided to SCNG)

Holly Permeh lost her cabin in the fire and went out to see the damage for herself on Wednesday morning, Sept. 11. Fire officials haven’t said how many cabins were lost. But an employee of the U.S. Forest Service told her 27 of the cabins were destroyed, Permeh said.

“I didn’t believe it until I saw it,” Permeh said. “I made peace with it, in a way. What else can you do?”

Permeh purchased the cabin five years ago during a season of personal struggles, and spent time and money transforming it into a cozy retreat in the wilderness away from her primary residence.









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“It brought me back to a simpler way of life,” Permeh said, who also has a home in Laguna Hills. “You feel like you’re far, far away, but I’m not really that far from home.”

Another owner, who wished to remain anonymous, ventured into the area on Monday night. He relayed what he found to other owners, including Katie Saalfeld.


“He texted me about 3 o’clock in the morning and said, ‘I’m sorry. It’s gone,’” Saalfeld said.

Holy Jim Canyon Fire Chief Mike Milligan surveys the dry creek bed from the deck outside of his cabin in Holy Jim Canyon in 2014. (Photo by CHRISTINE COTTER, Orange County Register/SCNG)Holy Jim Canyon Fire Chief Mike Milligan surveys the dry creek bed from the deck outside of his cabin in Holy Jim Canyon in 2014. (Photo by CHRISTINE COTTER, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Saalfeld inherited her cabin from her father Mike Milligan, a Vietnam veteran, famed Holy Jim volunteer fire chief and long-time champion for the community who died in his cabin in 2022. Milligan built that cabin by hand in 1980, without the aid of any power tools. He built Permeh’s cabin, too, and was heralded as a savior during previous fires, especially during the Holy fire in 2018.

“This would never have happened if your father had been here,” Permeh told Saalfeld.

Saalfeld said her father would work alongside authorities, instructing them on where to drop fire retardant and where to send support.

Previously​

“They would listen to him because he knew what he was talking about,” Saalfeld said. “He was so well-versed and educated on the canyon. He knew it better than anyone else.”

Leslee Riddell and her husband Ray purchased their cabin, next to Milligan’s, in 2012 after falling in love with Holy Jim.

“It’s just a completely different world,” Riddell said. “You go right into nature and it’s so serene and quiet. You can hear the peepers and the water when it’s flowing.”

Their cabin was one of the seven that survived.

Even those financially able to rebuild their homes may not be able to due to government land-use rules.

In 2014, Riddell became president of the Trabuco and Holy Jim Cabin Owners Improvement Association.

That same year, a federal floodplain map in 2014 declared that every cabin in Holy Jim is in a flood zone. Federal-land use rules apparently prohibit construction in flood zones, which means that any cabins lost, whether to fire, flood or landslide, will not be rebuilt.

Locals have protested that assessment, saying it is flawed.

After the Holy fire, residents fought to rebuild the 13 cabins destroyed in the blaze. Leslee Riddell said the owners continued contesting the finding, going as far as to hire their own hydrologist and having engineers and surveyors examine the area. They were close to finishing their study, Riddell said, and then this fire, the Airport fire, started. The residents had wanted to again argue their case.

On Wednesday, Cleveland National Forest officials did not return phone calls.

Holy Jim area gets virtually no cellphone reception, electricity is rare and running water in the cabins is non-existent.

More than the loss of cabins, it’s the loss of community — the owners are grieving.

They hiked together, had wood-splitting parties in the winter.

Riddell isn’t sure what the battle against the federal rules will look like after this most-recent blaze.

She doesn’t believe the $30 annual fee charged by the association could afford a long, drawn-out legal battle.

“It’s probably too expensive, too rich for our blood,” Riddell said. “We’re a humble association.”
 
*Sigh* so sad. Well at least I have my memories, and a bunch of photos! I've lost count of the number of times I've ridden Holy Jim. In salute, a few pics when I rode the trail with my dogs. First pic is Rocket, who died a couple of years ago. Second pic is of Dash - and she's still with us, living life swimming in lakes in NC! I always had Dash wear a backpack because she scared a couple of people who thought she might be a coyote! :)

rocket6.jpg


dash3.jpg
 
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Pretty quiet this end of the airport fire today, a couple of drops from the jets earlier and now just a couple of choppers working the other side of STT from Cadillac. Watching the Chinook fill up from Oso Lake is pretty impressive!
Looks like they are just waiting for the fire to burn into the containment lines now. Although in saying that it did cross the lines they laid down on Tuesday evening coming down from Modjeska. I think thats why it made it over to Harding.
They seem to be holding it on Harding but it does appear to have crossed it at the saddle below Modjeska where Kamikaze comes out (about the 7 mile mark)

The evacuation at Robinson Ranch has been lifted however its residents access only with road closures still in place.

As the smoke clears the extent of the destruction is becoming more evident. Its going to take awhile to recover from this one I think unfortunately:unsure:
 
I know it's petty in the scheme of things, but I'm really hoping that Exploration Trail made it. Looking at Cal Fire's map, it looks like maybe only the top parking area got hit, but that's all:

1726204354746.png


Same to be said about the Post Office Loop of the SART. I'm sure it will be closed off, but looks like it hasn't been hit. Thomas Hunting Grounds and lower portions are gone though.

1726204487413.png
 
Not petty at all.

I've spent a bunch of time this and last year scouting trails that burned. The good news is quote often the entire area hasn't burned badly especially if it is near the containment lines or near roads, since those can be better defended and they often backfire from roads to reduce fuel loads in advance of the fire.

Up near Kernville trails like Freeman, Camp Nelson and Tobias all burned in 2020 and 2021. A lot of the big Sequoias survived including the ride thru tree on Nelson. Some parts got torched and other parts just burned the fuel on the ground.
 
Cyclotourist said:
I know it's petty in the scheme of things, but I'm really hoping that Exploration Trail made it. Looking at Cal Fire's map, it looks like maybe only the top parking area got hit, but that's all:

View attachment 94854

Same to be said about the Post Office Loop of the SART. I'm sure it will be closed off, but looks like it hasn't been hit. Thomas Hunting Grounds and lower portions are gone though.

View attachment 94855
Click to expand...
axxording to the perimeter map it definitely crossed the lower end of Explo, But Evdog is right quite possible just burned a little ground cover. When they actually reopen the trail-who knows. but at least the whole thing didnt get torched.Hoping for soon i love that trail and i regret not hiotting it this summer. I was nervous about Bluff Lake-wife and I's favorite spot to go hike or just chill in the forest by a lake, often part of a hike of the nearby section of Skyline or Siberia Creek., Looks like its safe, hope they dont simply close that whole area for years,, seems unlikely

wonder what a sh!tshow Aliso will be this weekend with the SA's and San Berdoos closed
 
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