A Wrenching Little Journey...

This morning we took a short trip – just a few miles from home, but into a completely different world: Deerhorn Valley and the Mother Grundy Truck Trail, both devastated by the fires of just three weeks ago. We knew from many conversations and the news reports that many homes were destroyed in those areas, so we knew what we were going to see. Knowing didn't make it any easier.

All of the photos in this post can be expanded by clicking on them.

Everywhere we went, we saw homemade signs thanking the firefighters, and others who helped. This one is made of red plastic cups wedged into chain link fence at Rancho Jamul, along 94; we give it top marks for cleverness. These signs are all messages from the hearts of people very grateful for the many homes saved – but we even saw them in front of several homes that were destroyed. Thanks for trying, they seem to say…

First we went east on 94, then northeast on Honey Springs Road. Along that uphill stretch we saw the home at right – saved, and very grateful. I did not take any photos of destroyed homes, as I have no wish to cause any more pain for those victims, and I can imagine that some would not appreciate such photos being taken or displayed.

The trip was through a variety of situations, from completely normal and unburned to vast swathes of devastation. There are places were all the homes were burned; others where all the homes were saved (despite devastation all around). In a few places we saw most homes saved, but one or two homes burned, right in the middle of otherwise intact communities. In some places the fire burned so hot and furious that only large branches and ashes remain. In other places only the grasses and leaves were burned, and all the trees and shrubs were intact. The fire was arbitrary and capricious. Just about the only pattern we could discern were the many places where the fire fighters held a line around someone's home. I try to imagine what such a battle must be like for the men and women on the fire line, but my imagination fails me…

I saw something on this trip that I do not recall ever seeing before, though perhaps I just missed it: many rocks had a pock-marked appearance. On close inspection, they had shards popped off of them, lying on the ground underneath them. These wounded rocks were very common, and generally of very similar appearance. Although there was some variation in the size and shape of these shards, generally they were 3 or 4 inches in diameter, roughly circular, and around a quarter inch thick in their center, tapering off to sharp edges. The only mechanism for this phenomenon that I can think of is the mechanical stress of hot rock on the outside layer expanding against the cold inner rock. There are several more photos of this phenomenon below.

At one point on Mother Grundy Road we found this normally beautiful vista of Deerhorn Valley. I made this panorama from four individual photos to show what it looks like today.

In Lord of the Rings, there is a horrible character named Smaug – a dragon that wreaks terrible damage on the surrounding country, which was named the Desolation of Smaug on maps. That name seems entirely appropriate for this vista. To help orient you, the center of the photo is roughly due north from where we stood. The near peak in the center is Elena Mountain; the rocky rounded peak on the left is Lyons Peak. Lawson Peak can be seen peaking above the horizon, the rocky peak just the left of Elena Mountain.

In the burned areas, signs of life were not to be found at all – with one glaring exception. I've noted before that yucca plants were remarkable fire survivors, and they showed off that skill again in this fire. I saw numerous yucca plants in my walkabouts; many of them were already sending up green shoots to take advantage of the sunlight. None of them appeared to be dead. I have read descriptions of their adaptations for fire resistance: these adaptations include fire-resistant bases of their leaf spikes, excellent insulating properties in the woven layer of these bases around the core, and water stored in the core, protected by that layer. The leaves all burn off, leaving only the pineapple-shaped core – and that core soon sprouts new leaves. The yuccas will be the first green gems in the moonscapes left behind by the fire…

Other plants that look like they are dead are not really as damaged as they appear. Today we saw only skeletons poking out of a mat of ashes. Many of these chaparral plants, well-adapted for fire, will soon send new shoots from their roots to the surface. We know from experience that the manzanitas, lemonade-berries, and many ceanothus will soon sprout – along with many other plants. Oak trees stripped of all their leaves and twigs by the fire will generate new branches and leaves from nodes that lie deep within their wood, protected from the fire by the thick insulation that wood provided. The seeds of many chaparral plants use fire to trigger their germination. So next spring – especially if we have good rains this winter – we will see the plant life start to rebound. But it's sure hard to imagine that right now…

The rest of the images pretty much speak for themselves…