Indian Gulch Fire, Night 3

Well, on the one hand, (luckily for me) the 39 degree temperature and 40+ mph gusts down here in town kept me from hiking to the top of any mountains tonight. On the other hand, the 40+ mph gusts that were supposed to quit 30 minutes ago haven't yet let up. At all. I drove up Lookout to see if there were any visible hotspots (nothing significant), and the east flank of Galbraith (where all the smoke is coming from) is fairly dark from this angle. I moved to Pine Ridge Rd. (on the north side) and found a couple of hotspots, the lower of which is what the helicopter was apparently working on earlier in the day. The distressing part is that it is only 1/3 mile from the end of Mesa View Way, but it is currently confined to the west side of the ridge and doesn't appear to be moving too fast. Although it was fortunately a slow day for pictures, if you want to see the entire set, check out the Indian Gulch Wildfire Day 3 slideshow on the main website.

The SuperHuey was back for Day 3, and they also had an A-Star AS350-B3 (my baby!) and two SEAT aircraft.

Checking RH (relative humidity) at the top of Mesa View Way.

Despite the choking acrid smoke, the kids still wanted to shoot hoops. It smells around here!

Looking south from Pine Ridge Rd., the left hotspot is about 1/3 mile from the top of Mesa View Way in Mountain Ridge.

I know it's hard to see, but at center left in the sky is a meteorite. Luckily I saw it occur, otherwise I probably never would have noticed looking at the file. Click on the image for an 800-pixel file, it might be easier to see.

Ample traffic continues on Lookout Mtn. Road, in the background.

One of the bigger flareups I saw tonight; this active zone is in a dense spot of trees below a ridgeline I flew over many times en route to saying 'hi' to the neighborhood.