[pct-l] That pesky Blankenship fire...

[vanvelzer at charter.net]

Seems weird to me that this fire grew so slowly. Here in So. Ca. it
can grow that fast in just a few hours.Golly

	-----------------------------------------From: "Paint YW" 

To: 
Cc: 
Sent: Sat, 29 Aug 2015 22:15:44 -0500
Subject: [pct-l] That pesky Blankenship fire...

 The fire was reported/discovered on July 14. I walked SOBO past it on
July
 24. The trail closure went into effect July 25, and was posted at the
 Cloudy Pass TH/JNCT, which I encountered that Sat. morning as I
exited the
 closure area. (I spent the night up on Suiattle Pass in a meadow)
 The fire was smoldering and creeping down Blankenship mnt. as I hiked
by
 it, with no discernable flames present. The fire's footprint was
approx.
 1/4 to 1/2 mile in width. The smoke extended north and south for
approx. 1
 mile in each direction. It had not jumped Agnes Creek, nor the PCT.
 The inciweb website reported the fire's size at 70 acres when checked
on
 Aug. 1st.
 Earlier this week, the fire's size was reported to be 180 acres.
 Today, the fire is reported to be 212 acres.
 47 days have elapsed since the discovery of this fire.
 This piss ant of a fire has the trail held hostage.
 It could have been squelched long before the entire northern sector
of WA.
 caught fire, primarily due to lightning strikes, resulting in the
shifting
 of resources to areas of much higher priority.
 Normally, I would refrain from second guessing those in authority of
 subject matter I know little about, like fighting forest fires.
 That the trail remains open, even though the surrounding areas are
all but
 closed, indicates the powers that be understand the trail is of some
 significance.
 Additionally, that a top notch crew assessed the fire from the air,
in
 order to put it out, tells me that the trail's use is of some
significance.
 The Wolverine fire was a piss ant fire too. It's now approaching
65,000
 acres and 28% contained.
 All the angst, hyperventilating, and especially the defeatist
mentality
 that I've been reading here, drives me batty, and this modest rant is
my
 response.
 Don't quit.
 Don't go home.
 Your hike is not over.
 And especially know that hiking an open trail is not putting rescue
 worker's lives at risk (guilt trip-not!)
 Rescue workers serve voluntarily and willingly go into harm's way.
 Yes- the Blankenship fire is a piss ant fire... and yet could still
blow up
 into a monster conflagration.
 There was a time long long ago, and in a galaxy far far away, where
piss
 ant fires near things deemed significant were put out.
 At your controversial service-
 PaintYW
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