Driving back to Seattle after a weekend with friends in Twisp, our family today had an eyeful of the North Cascades National Park, seen from Washington State Route 20. Here's a shot I took this afternoon of Silver Star Mountain and Vasiliki Ridge. Verily, hit the road, Jack.
As good as it gets.
Of course right now depending on the wind direction that scenery can be seriously obscured; especially further on down the Methow from Silver Star:
As of last report a couple hours ago, the Tripod Complex fire between the Methow and Okanogan Valleys is now over 83,000 acres; and still only 25 percent contained even though they have nearly 2300 people fighting the fire. See:
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/341/
Those of us who own forest land in the Upper Methow are crossing our fingers; hoping that we don't get a strong, sustained wind before they get this monster under control. My guess is that at least parts of it may burn until it snows:
Between the trees killed by Spruce Budworm and the forest not having been properly thinned, there are large areas up there that are essentially a vertical firewood pile.
http://www.evergreenaviation.com/supertanker/index.html
Posted by: Sparkey on August 14, 2006 12:10 PMJust a note to Methow Ken:
Most forestry studies on thinning, even those from the forest-as-a-resource school, show that thinning doesn't work. I lost my home in a fire once and own property in the Sequim area myself that could conceivably be threatened one day., so don't want to come across as a "I hope your house burns" environmentalist. But at the same time I do suggest that you read some of the literature on thinning. This is one issue that is not simply a lib/con matter.
Posted by: Tim Pozzi on August 16, 2006 03:44 PM