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Basin Creek Fire

1K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  kuna 
#1 ·
FYI,

http://www.mtexpress.com/vu_breaking_story.php?bid=3940

Fire is now 100% contained and ended up burning 200 acres according to NIFC. I saw smoke from the fire Tuesday night while camping at Stanley lake. We were going to ride Little Casino on Wednesday, but all the smoke cancelled our plans. Fortunately, it sounds like the damage was limited to the last mile of road before hitting Hwy 75. Dodged a bullet there!
 
#3 ·
I keep telling you. It's all going to burn. It's all dead or dying trees up there and all it takes is one careless bonehead move by someone trying to roast marshmallows or burn trash or maybe they had a few too many bong hits and WHOOSH up in smoke. They ought to just burn it anyway. Just set off a bunch of fireworks or have a big old bar-b-que and toast it. That's make some carbon footprint doncha think? But no. Not going to happen. Not as long as this country keeps heading towards being a fascist theocracy.
 
#4 ·
The campground area was very nice with great views and cooling breezes. Yeah, they have done a lot of piece meal logging up there, but I would classify it mainly as thinning to reduce the threat of fires. I wouldn't call it a distraction.
 
#5 ·
I keep telling you. It's all going to burn.
Yup, your right-on there, at least if history is any measure of what the future holds in store for the Stanley Basin.

Back in the early eighties (before the age of mountain biking) I worked on a timber sale in the Kelly creek/Joe's Gulch area. It was a "select cut" timber sale and we harvested quite a few big, gnarly old Douglas fir that were pretty far along in their second century of splendor and magnificance.

However, in their two hundred years of looking out over the discovery and gradual habitation of the Sawtooths and Salmon river valley, life had more than once been in the hands of the fire gods for them and many more of their liking that never made it through those ancient holocausts.

Buried deep within the cores of many of these giants were the scars of historical wildfire that had burned through the country side, both before and after the coming of settlers and adventurers (read: early pre-mountain bikers.) Most had two major events recorded in their growth rings: one sometime early last century and an earlier one sometime in the early/mid eighteen hundreds.

The fact that some of these trees were miles apart leaves one having to assume that the fire was widespread and may have consumed the whole valley, as the history books validate for the more recent of the two events.

So I strongly suggest taking along a fire extinguisher for the next ride you all do in the area. And maybe a fire shelter: they're proven to save lives. And after that relaxing puff on whatever you smoke to calm the pre-ride anxiety brought on by long hours away from your bicycle, by all means, snuff your butts out, cold. And don't forget the H2O: at least five gallons per rider. And then a shovel.....

It's all dead or dying trees up there
The usfs has a paint crew out there every day searching out those dead and dieing red trees, spraying them green as fast as they die. They are doing a pretty good job since most of the forest still looks green and healthy. Got to keep the tourists happy and the $$$ coming in.

Bottom line: Stanley Basin, get up there while you can. It may not be there tomorrow.
 
#6 ·
TwistedCrank said:
. Just set off a bunch of fireworks or have a big old bar-b-que and toast it. That's make some carbon footprint doncha think?.
That's what is going on already; was up at Burgdorf on Saturday night just watching the sky as the stars come out and about 1/4 mile away people were launching bottlerockets. Guess they felt that the four other fires nearby needed some help. By the way, rode 20 mile trail on sunday, it's been cleared - of all the fallen logs that continue to come down every winter - you know the ones that were burned from a previous forest fire.:rolleyes:
 
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