On the morning of August 6, 2024, I was camping and riding my mountain bike near Mt. Adams in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. When I awoke, the sky was orange and the smell of smoke was in the air. This means only one thing; fire.
Within minutes, the orange morning sky had turned to thick smoke.
Thick ash started raining down. This meant the fire was really close and I needed to get out of here ASAP. I reported the fire on the SAR repeater with my ham radio and started loading up.
I was loading up as quickly as I could. I didn't know where the fire was. It was obviously nearby, I could be in the middle of it. Sometimes with wildfire, minutes can mean the difference between life and death. As I got ready to leave, this helpful message came over the phone.
Ash was raining down as I headed out of the mountains. After about a half mile or so, I knew the fire was behind me, so I felt better about things.
At the bottom of the mountain, I stopped and had a look. The fire had definitely just started, and fairly close to where I was camping.
On my way out of the mountain town of Trout Lake, I stopped for one last photo. It's amazing how fast these fires grow, especially at the end of a dry summer. Looking like a big fire, emergency vehicles were already streaming by on the way to the fire, heading up the road I just came down.
I called my friend Gail and she took a photo with her iPhone from nearly fifty miles away.
Started by lightning, the Williams Mine Fire torched nearly 12,000 acres of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and burned until November.
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