Lower North Fork Fire

 The Lower north fork fire is currently at 4500 acres, crazy stuff happening around here. Hotshot crew trucks from all over are buzzing all over the place (Smoky Bear hotshots, Juniper Valley hotshots - some teams from Utah and Arizona, you see a caravan of 3 or 4 of these specialty trucks at once). There are Jeffco Sheriffs trucks everywhere, roads blocked off. A Type 1 team is supposed to arrive on scene tonight (apparently the best of the best when it comes to fighting wild land fires). There have been tankers flying overhead, helicopters buzzing around. I just saw a heli landing site out in Conifer, multiple police cars with lights flashing way out in a field and several helicopters with rotors turning. There is an Incident Command post at the Elk Creek fire station, just a few minutes down the highway from us, that looks like ground zero - news trucks, sheriff trucks, satellite dishes cranked up to the sky, fire trucks and cars and other trucks all along the roads around the fire station.

 There is definitely a tense atmosphere in the air around here. We had lunch at a local restaurant today and the owners had been evacuated. Their house was just over the hill and they had no idea what had happened yet, if anything to their home. The local Staples shopping center has become the Large Animal evacuation center, so it is now loaded with big trailers and campers and there is a . Conifer High School is the evac center offering lunch and dinner to evacuees.

 We now have smoke hovering in our neighborhood and it smells like a balsam potpourri out there.

 Zero percent containment on the fire - doesn't sound like a good number! They are trying to save homes and structures as opposed to actively 'fighting' the fire. They say 3-4 more days - at least - to suppress this one.

FIRE MAP BELOW - We live in Pine Junction Area to the west of the fire
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=206832840823424122921.0004bc2d699364dec554f&msa=0&ll=39.497683,-105.224304&spn=0.166903,0.363579

Driest March in CO history...so far

If March ended today here in Colorado, it would go down as the warmest and driest March in Colorado history. Been absolutely beautiful...which means lots of bike riding. I've logged over 100 miles already this month on primarily singletrack here in our neighborhood and down at Buffalo Creek which is surprisingly clear of snow for this time of year. Nothing like the tortuous ride I did down there back in January (see Winter Training post) Here are some recent pics of our glorious weather trend...

Fully-loaded bike-packing kit test ride in the neighborhood...already thinking about the Colorado Trail Race

Pine Valley Open Space ranch ride. Wendy and the girls are down by the pond in the distance!

Good old Wisp Creek Trail network - super secret trails right out my front door!