Wonderful family visit from Charleston and Seattle

 

I know I recently did a post (on the wildfire) but I'm back with another post about our fabulous family visit with Tiffany, Chris, and the girls, and my sister Anne in from Seattle. We all had a great time in spite of the wildfire nearby.

Patio for s'more's of course. And the added fun of the bug zappers. Jules had a mission to get those bugs.

A trek into Crested Butte with  a trip over Ohio Pass yielded a bear sighting. Jules was the one who spotted it - her first bear. Breakfast at Paradise Cafe and the super fun CB farmer's market rounded out the morning.

A little jeeping up red mt road. We dead ended into our new neighbors gate - the Carmelite Monks. A monastery will be built up here in the next couple years. 

We went for a sketching and painting outing near Gothic. Lots of fun until Jules had enough of the bugs and itchy plants on her legs. I don't think camping is in the Walker family future for awhile.

We made it up Silver Queen chairlift this year. Lots of fun and what spectacular scenery. It's high up there:11,875ft. We were riding both up and down. Lots of people hike down or take their mountain bikes up and have a screaming ride down. We were a more sedate bunch.

Patio/s'mores night number two. Chillier, as you can see, and Anne had made it in to join the party.

So great to have Anne here. She was solo this year (missed you Jean!) and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, especially the multi trips to CB. Lunch at Soupcon (new offering this summer) and a stupendous dinner at Elk Prime.

Gunnison Wildfire

 

We've been experiencing a hopefully once in a lifetime event in our area. A lightening induced wildfire started 4 miles away from our house on July 26. There hadn't been a substantial wildfire in the Gunnison area since the late 1880's. We've had company too during all this commotion. Tiffany, Chris, and the girls, and my sister Anne all got to see the fire crews in action.

The fire went from 20 acres to the current 1,871 in a short amount of days. The immediate area was evacuated but we at Star Mt. were lucky and our community spared. The command for the fire went from local to federal and over 500 firefighters were shipped into the area.

A fire camp was set up just outside our community property line. An organized military-like operation. Impressive.

What an education I've had: containment does not mean the percentage of fire out, it means the percentage of the perimeter that is controlled. We are currently at 55%

Another revelation: the goal is not to put the fire out, it is to control the direction, and slowly move it away from any structures. The fire is in mostly National Forest area, with steep inaccessible terrain and a massive amount of dead downed and standing trees. The intent is to move the fire direction back deep into the National Forest where there are no structures and monitor as it burns itself out. That will take weeks we've been told.

Another revelation: Fires are good for a forest. The fire brings renewal with regenerative growth in plants and trees. There's a lot of burned area behind the lingering smoke in this photo. Hopefully we will see this regrowth in action next year.

Star Mt. back gate entrance

Heroic fire crews in every direction from five different states the last two weeks.  Star Mt. has a perfect overlook of the whole fire area so we've had daily visits from many as they assess. Hazy smoky air comes and goes and we'll just have to remain patient. We are grateful to the fire crews for all their hard work. Happily no structures have been damaged except an uninhabited cabin.