Smoke & Fire

[Bonnie]

Hi Group,
Of all the obstacles I planned to overcome to finish the Tevis....I
never thought of smoke & fire!
I am booked to fly from the UAE July 8th to start my journey to
Northern California. Since I am quickly approaching the "point of no
return" I appreciate your up to date reports on the situation there.
All advice and opinions are also welcome! My fingers are crossed that
the race will go on..
Bonnie

[Kathy]

At this time, the WST is unaffected. The Westville fire is down in a
canyon on the north side of F'hill Rd and is slowly burning eastward.
The terrain is too steep and rugged for fire personnel to be in there
but planes are dumping retardant and there is a good containment (fire
line) at the top of the ridge. Today, there are no reports of
excessive smoke, but yesterday the air in the foothills was in the
"very unhealthy" zone. An interesting site to check smoke across the
US is: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/ click on "fire" then "hazard
mapping system" Yesterday's map showed twice as much smoke as today.
As long as we don't have a high pressure system sitting over us, the
smoke moves on. Today, there is a nice little breeze so the smoke
isn't settling in the foothills.

http://www.oes.ca.gov/WebPage/oeswebsite.nsf/InteractiveMap?readForm
Check out this map also.

Hope that helps.

Kathy

[Bob Sydnor]

Dear Bonnie: It is a reasonable choice to proceed forward and fly
here from UAE. In the next two weeks the fires should be well under
control. (as we all realize) the terrain in the middle of the Tevis
Cup is really severe and it is difficult for ground crews to fight a
fire in the steep canyons. I served for 3 years on a US Forest
Service Hot-Shot Crew, so I speak from experience. The worst fire in
California is currently at Big Sur, south of Monterey. On a
statewide basis, our fire crews have been spread thin in the past two
weeks, but have now made substantial progress. Fire crews will be
redirected as soon as possible to the remaining fires. Wishing you
all the best at Tevis, from Bob Sydnor

On Jul 3, 2:42�pm, Bonnie <bonnie_s...@yahoo.com> wrote:

[Bonnie]

Thanks Bob & Kathy for your smoke & fire updates. It helps alot to
recieve first hand information. My friend & I will be flying to Canada
July 8th
and will leave from there around July 12th to drive down to the race
site. It is a real
adventure for us as we have not seen the race site nor had the
opportunity
to ride in the mountains.

> > Bonnie- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[mor...@morganreed.net]

For those of you more familiar with the race, where would be a good place to
take my family to park and sit and spectate road-side? Is it Bath St in
Foresthill?
And about what time does a good portion of riders go thru so it might be
interesting for them? Front runners go thru at what, 4 PM ish?
The finish might be too late for them as we have a long drive back home.
My sister just had knee surgury, and cant walk far. But this will be
encouragement for her to go thru her physical therapy so she can start
riding with me again. My family has just begun to accept my mental illness
they call "horse crazy" (after almost 40 consistant yrs of it), so I am
hoping to give a good enough impression of our sport that someday they might
want to crew for me at Tevis .
I wish all of you good luck, healthy conditioning, and safe travels on your
Tevis Quest.
Morgan Reed

[Tx Trigger]

Bath road always has a nice area under the shade along the road that you can
park a lawn chair, not be in the way of the horses and riders, and sit and
watch them head in to the Foresthill vet check. It is also a huge pick me up
for riders to have spectators cheer them on, clap or just tell them they are
"Looking good". Another spot is out along the road IN Foresthill as they
had out of the vet check, through town. Shoot, I don't know what time those
front runners get to Foresthill. I'm one who arrives as the sun is setting
low..... <grin>

Jonni

[Kathy]

Go to the Tevis main page, click on the "Historical" tab, then click
on "detailed ride results" and you can see when riders got to each vet
check (:>)

Kathy