well off the beathen path

2021 Monument Fire Panther Fire Trinity County, California 223,124 Acres burned 52 structures destroyed Lightning strike fire that lasted 3 months, until full containment  Communities & Towns near this wildfire: Big Bar, CA Big Flat Burnt Ranch, CA Cedar Flat Coffee Creek Del Loma Hawkins Bar Hayfork, CA Helena, CA Hyampom, CA Junction City, CA Trinity Center, CA Trinity Pines Trinity Village Willow Creek, CA Highway 299 West Shasta Trinity National Forest Trinity Alps Wilderness New River Trinity River Bell Creek Bear Creek Bidden Creek Big Bar Creek Buckhorn Creek Canadian Creek Cedar Flat Creek Conner Creek Don Juan Creek Donaldson Creek Dutch Creek Dyer Creek Eagle Creek Farmer Ridge French Creek Hayfork Creek Hayshed Creek Italian Creek Jud Creek Love Letter Springs Maple Creek Mill Creek Miller Creek Miners Creek Packers Creek Panther Creek Price Creek Rowdy Bar Creek Rusch Creek Sailor Bar Creek Sandy Bar Creek Smoky Camp Creek Stetson Creek Swede Creek Tu...

California National Forests, State Parks, Campgrounds, Trails What is Closed off this Summer?   Last year it was multiple disasters on top of a pandemic. News about lightning caused wildfires was almost unbearable for me to watch. I knew the areas, the very best camp sites and the dirt roads.    I studied the headlines daily, scoured maps, each new area, every forests, every acre of grove in flames. The Santa Cruz redwoods burning. The helicopter rescue at the lake campground.   My head was reeling with the destruction, the toxic smoke, when it hit home - hard! We were evacuated and on the run from flames. #BearFire   Now that all smoke has cleared and I am living in the aftermath of the 6th largest fire in state history, I am trying to make a tally of what is burnt. What campgrounds and dirt roads are open, what forests were affected by wildfire and what is actually closed.    California Forests: CLOSED 2021       2021 expect tighter ca...

Our government has a way with acronyms, and broken URLs. .gov broken links It always amazes me that the most link repairs I tackle on Total Escape is predominantly for the dot gov web links. USFS has a fondness for the PDF pages w/ Alerts & Notices being almost cryptic. Outdated, old search features rarely produce what you are really looking for. Instead you get some long document from a meeting a decade ago. The US Forest Service has changed their URL structure at least half a dozen times since they came online, back in 2000. No need for redirects, or better forethought, old broken links are found all the time within the government managed web. wildfire info Incident Web Incident Information System INCIweb for short You would think that something as serious as wildfire information and maps would be a high priority, but the web site responsible for tracking individual fires - could not decide on a stable web address. The URL has changed a few times over the past decade; it was a .o...

California Wildfires & Fire Information Extreme drought conditions means super high wildfire dangers for all of California. As of August 1st, nearly 60% of the golden state is under EXCEPTIONAL drought, one level up from the 'extreme' classification. We are more than one years worth of water overdue. Wildfires in California are quiet common and occur annually in the later part of the year (summer - autumn)  when the natural vegetation, brush and forests are the driest. Drought.gov will show just how bad the drought conditions are currently in the Western U.S. drought.gov Southern California as well as Northern California experience wildland fires, and since Central California is backed by the Sierra Nevadas, you should expect forest fires at high elevations and lower river canyons too. California is currently experiencing extreme fire dangers, so many parks and forest areas have higher than normal restrictions. The new normal is becoming extreme, as you can im...