going up the beeline, if you can access facebook, just wild the fire
https://www.facebook.com/joseph.m.o...23/10217835357457355/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/joseph.m.o...23/10217835375257800/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/joseph.m.o...23/10217835379177898/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/joseph.m.o...23/10217835383578008/?type=3&theater

Translation into English?

if you can access the links on facebook, it's pictures of the fire on both sides of the highway from phoenix to payson, also known locally as the beeline highway. the video's of the area are really quite something to see. the whole highway was shut down.

Ron, my son is down there fighting the Bighorn fire just outside of Tuscon. Couldn't imagine 107 temps with a 50 lb. pack and gear on. Wild lands fire fighters are pretty tough.

winds as i understand it are causing multiple issues.
this is the season for the state to burn.
that area going up to payson is a favorite for offroaders, people were caught in there as i understand it from the fast moving fire.

Saw where there was an evacuation order for Punkin Center and Tonto Basin for the Bush fire.
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6773/

There is also the 24,000 acre Mangum fire on the North Kaibab, 12AW
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6748/

I called the Bighorn in at first light Saturday morning as I was on a roof. I'm sure it was already known but it was just a smoldering patch at that point.

Hope your son stays safe. Really appreciate those guys. Crazy to see what it's become. It's burning uphill towards Summerhaven. If it crowns up there it's gonna be bad. Insane the manpower I've seen on it...

God bless them.

Thanks for the the kind words guy's. My wife never should have watched Only the brave. She gets pretty nervous when he in on the bigger fires. His crew just got asked to stay an extra week. 12 to 14 hour days without any time off would be brutal in that heat.

i was sitting on my front porch in prescott, when that went down. the area is happened in was south of prescott little place called yarnell. i commented to some of the other porch sitters, maybe big issue as i had hunted that area multiple times. lots of very thick overgrown brush, high winds, knarly country. i had to walk out of that place one time over ten miles in the summer limited water, almost killed us. anyway it went down, and there is a memorial there now for where the bodies were found. multiple page reports on what happened, and blame shuffling. my own opinion is mgt screwups from a lay person's perspectives, should have gotten out. consequently, those killed who had signed agreements temp workers, no insurance, etc. had families etc. the lawsuite started, public sympathy, the city of prescott ended up agreeing to pay out a heck of a lot of money. I am not commenting if that was righteous or not. but in one case a woman as i understand it hit the lottery, was in divorce proceedings with the guy, still got the payout. Their marshalling yards were just down the street from my house. the memorial service they had people from all over the country there. the fourth of july parade which is traditional in prescott was a tearjerker, everyone crying at the entry to memorialize them. There is a "P" on the hill entering prescott, been there for years. Sincer that happened, every year there is a "19" placed up there to commemorate the dates. I can see it from my porch. There was a fire up there too that week, i was wondering if it was gonna roll into town.
It's like this bush fire, i have a number of friends living in the pumkin center area, probably already ou t.
people unfamilar with arizona don't know the ruggedness of that country and how you can get trapped pretty easy. no low risk job for sure.

I'm up here a Christopher creek, I need to be home in mesa tomorrow evening. If they don't open 87 it'll make a 90 minute drive into a 4 hour via Young or Showlow. Hearing 188 is closed through Tonto basin.

Kent

On the bright side, its burning out the COVID........................................

Damn hate to hear this. Hoping the firefighters stay safe!

Camp several years back with the Arizona and other campfire folks. Tonto basin. Not far from Punkin Center.

The Beeline Hwy is AZ state route 87 between Mea and Payson.

I spent some time in your state last spring coming down from Utah through the Kaibab, slowly making our way to Phoenix to fly home.

Gorgeous state...

Arent the fires a natural way to rejuvenate the fauna? I realize the obvious negatives towards the houses etc etc.... its not something we see back east so Im unsure, but did notice lots of areas on our tour that seemed recently burned, in fact I think from Flagstaff to Sedona on 89A was all charred up if I recall properly.

Hope everyone is safe.

Yep, fires suck.

My good bud, Daniel Laird died in a chopper crash in Texas........

Soooooo...... his kids
mom died 2 weeks ago. Ughhhh.
Thought I’d share that. Think about the young girl if you got a moment.

AZ and NM feature some interesting firescapes from year to year, and often annually. The very low deserts rarely burn very far due to sparsity of fuel, but the high deserts often go roaring fueled by dry grasses, mesquite, then manzanita and juniper. It becomes even more intense up higher with the mix of juniper, cedar and pinyon. Add those in the high elevation ponderosa/conifer forests in more steep terrain, when dry and with wind, and the fires become very intense and fast moving. Very difficult to control/extinguish - much appreciation to those who do that work.

Those guys define tough. Strong thoughts to you and your family.



mike r

Thank you Sir!

Mangum fire progression map for you Kaibab Hunters

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/map/6748/0/98078

Yeah, having lived through a very big AZ fire, I can tell you it may rejuvenate the fauna, and the flora, but the thing is the landscape is no longer "natural". Land use practices, encroachment of residences, and decades of fire suppression and lack of "thinning" had an absolutely horrible outcome in that fire, and that was 20 years ago.

I've seen, lived near, and lived in areas where there have been big fires since the 70's. I'm talking fires over 150K acres. And all the talk from the agencies (state and federal) , the biologists, the foresters, the academics, the "environmentalist groups" , and municipalities in high fire danger zones hasn't accomplished much. No one wants to pony up the bucks to address the issue, and they all seem to blame each other for the problem.

Saw the same thing regarding salmon issues in the PNW.

And you're right,one doesn't see these kind of fires back east very often. Not sure where you're at, but I lived near the Allegheny National Forest. About 500K acres. It's a big chunk of woods, and it would be hard to imagine 1/2 of that going up in flames in one event. Then again, that area rarely goes more than a couple of weeks without rain, unlike places out west that can go months without a drop.

One day, perhaps ,folks will actually stop fighting over it and address the issue. I have a sneaky suspicion I'll be long gone when that happens.

About 15miles to Atlantic east lol..

Jeez Sycamore,

I just zoomed out on that map, y'all have quite a few going already and it's just halfway thru June. I hope you folks get some good moisture from the monsoons and not just dry lightning and winds.

Not many "forest fires" in the ocean, eh?

I do wish I was only 15 miles from an ocean. I miss it.

Land management agencies , Forest Service and BLM, are the nations largest fire dept, due to the fact they do very little management. Log it, graze it or watch it burn.

Ash falling like light snow all the way up here... leaving in a bit for home, via the Young road, 70 miles of dirt and twists, saves me about 60 miles going through showlow.

Haven't been all the way through the Young rd in awhile, hunt the top 30 miles a lot.

Kent

Hope your trip on the dirt goes well.

Something I kick myself in the butt for is not having taken that trip you're on today........for fun of course.

At least you have the alternative of a shortcut.

Great chance Mt. Lemmon is burning. It's in the pines there....

#1 son and his hotshot crew just got sent to S Sw Colorado.

Think it is already his third fire in a still early season - looks like a busy summer.

they must be pounding it with air attack to keep it out of Summerhaven. when did the top burn last 2003?

Ash was falling and smoke for the last couple days at Christopher creek, took a quick shot of the smoke from the rim before I headed down the Young rd home... again a 90 minute drive turned into a 4 hour trip.



90 miles usually turned into 220 via Showlow or 160 via Young, Young road is mostly dirt and windy for 70+ miles... I decided Young rd... it"ll kick your ass but the views are spectacular. Traffic was light and I made good time, 30 minutes less than map quest estimate via Showlow... I hate the drive through Salt river canyon anyway. When you start down on the last stretch you are in pines then saguaros in about 10 miles, a true representation of the Arizona's riparian zones, it truly is an amazing state.






Here's the fire cresting Four peaks and Ord heading into the Tonto basin, the winds are terrible and I'm afraid this is going to jump the Tonto and head for the Greenbacks, you can see Roosevelt lake, live embers have to be carried 10 to 20 miles as it crests, couple years ago I was fishing San Carlos lake and live embers were landing on me from a fire 40 miles away.

Somewhere in there....

Its really bad. I don't understand how this fire has done what it has done. They protected the buffel grass saguaro flats at 2500' in the foothills, a backfire at that, but didn't help the NE side of the flank, with 20+ MPH winds from the SW. All air attack..fire fighters would die on foot. Just a really really bad deal.

Hope I'm wrong but I think Lemmon is burning to the ground....

Unit 23 likely gonna burn too Kent ehh?

Saving grace was eating at El Reys in Miami, the best mex food in the world... course wife wanted her takeout and was waiting when I got home.



Kent

PS - Ali has killed 3 cows in the past 6 years less than 1/2 mile off that Young road Kent, on the high elevation side...grin...

I agree....

That's the scuttlebutt from the firefighters on the ground, winds are terrible. I'm hoping the Tonto creek is wide enough to stop it but a buddy that has a property on the other side said 1 inch live embers are falling already as the fire crests the peaks, If any of those start it;s a F'ing mess.

Kent

Yeah - it's burning. Hope for an early storm on that area. If not 2-5 more weeks of fire....

Damn right it's a good area.

Kent

Greg, one of these days we need to get together on a hunt, hell I can be camp cook or whatnot just to hang out.

Kent

Gueros El Rey. Stop every time we drive through. Old Miami is a view into a previous world.

My grandparents were married there in 1924.

Kent

Richard the owner and his brother who owns Guayo's on the trail, are big time deer hunters and have taken some great muleys around that area.

Kent

Our AZ get-togethers are in the middle of my crazy busy season or I'd be there. Hell I'll be your cook. We will hook up....

Apply down south for coues...

I'll get you a buck picked out prior, but that might not be fun for you.. grin...

Ha, I used to hunt 35b all the time, all I hunted was coues for a lot of years... but have been waiting for a 3c tag and have 8 points so not quite guaranteed yet, hunted muleys for years then coues now one more muley.

I found a killer muley buck in 4b antelope hunting last year, probably bigger than anything in 3c, saw him 3 times and screwed up an archery opportunity one time. Not sure if he made it and almost applied but decided to put the wife in and if she draws we will see. There;s some killer coues bucks in 4b also up by Chevron.

Kent

I forgot to make this comment on our idiotic public works.

There's only one road into the valley open coming from the east side of the state, hwy 60, everyone has to drive around an extra hundred or more miles just to access it, what do they do. Restrict and block traffic on the most pinched two lane areas at Top of the World and Oak Flats... removing and installing new guard rails...

Come on you can reschedule that chit to allow traffic to pass freely, all other roads are closed for fire idiots.

Kent

Keep it safe bud.....

Just talked to some buddies, Bushnell is gone, Pine mountain gone, Edwards park gone, Boulder Mountain gone, Cyprus and Ord next. They are defensive at this point and allowing it to burn EVERYTHING on the East side of 87. It WILL reach Tonto basin- just a matter of where they want to make a stand. Fire was so hot it MELTED the guard rails on SR 87. I guy I know has been dozing fire breaks around Sunflower and rounding up cows. Saw all this first hand from his mule. If the fire gets to the north side of Ord I don't think they can stop it until the Verde river.

The big microwave tower on El Oso is burned already. The campsite where we have our winter shooting shindig is going to be the battleground to keep it out of the Greenbacks and Sierra Anchas.

Driving to layout a new house under the Superstitions I see a fire, looks to be around the First water area and towards Canyon lake. This is getting to be chit.

Kent

Not saying this is the case here, but I fully expect the commies to burn as much as possible this year.

Good friend in Payson was given the get ready to evacuate order. Another friend, a little lower than Payson, was evacuated. So sad, all this from a car fire that pulled off the road to get out of traffic!

Just read where they evacuated the communities on top of Mount Lemmon yesterday.

It's just ignorant people now but as you say, arsonists noticing the mayhem could start they're own incidents.

The Forests have banned fires since the Corona virus end of April, but there's been record campers, folks with time off and out of school, and the amount of people still building camp fires is crazy... kids wanting to party and bonfire, mex families that never hear of a law or think laws apply to them, and just dumbchit idiots.

I won't be surprised if they close the forests completely soon.

Kent

Came back to St George from Phoenix last Sunday. Heavy smoke from Page to the Paria River. Had to have the headlights on. This is the fire on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. They're trying to save Jacob Lake. We wanted to go on 89a through Lee's Ferry and Jacob Lake but they closed the road.

Bush fire just jumped 188 running full out, if it jumps the Tonto holy hell will break loose for central Az.

Kent

Kent, I suspect 23 will burn, Payson might get evacuated...

Lemmon is gonna all burn. It will burn Summerhaven tonight Lord help us....

I watched the fire from my truck bed through big eyes tonight 50 miles away. The wind may help, 30+ to blow it by a lot of the mountain.

We will know tomorrow....

last thing I saw was it was burning north, high on the mountain, they had started backburns to protect the observatory. might be headed to Oracle now.

4 hours ago flames were visible from webcams on cabins in Summerhaven ..

Looking north from my house i can see the Rincons. Smoke from the Bighorn fire is visible over the top of the Rincons.

https://www.windy.com/-Webcams/United-States/Arizona/Soldier-Camp/Radio-Ridge-North/webcams/1469446811?32.435,-110.789,14

krp,

thanks for the pics from the Youngs road. I vicariously got to see something I never managed to try while living in AZ.

I'll agree, going down into and back out of the Salt River canyon is scenic enough, just a real pain. Especially my first trip in a '54 Chevy with vacuum wipers during a monsoon storm.

Hope all of y'all's favorite hunting places don't burn. If they do, good browse in a few years depending on the severity of the fire.

Hang tough folks.

Ya I hunt all that are, last year it was the superstition wilderness that I hunt, I few years ago the mazatzals.

Worst thing is these fires hit when the does are dropping fawns, the wildlife toll is always high, grass can grow back, animals take longer.

Kent

Those boys at Yarnelll should have stayed up in the black...They were fine until they moved downhill in the green...Tough way to die but preventable.

Well there goes our winter get together spot, just above the T of Tonto Basin... camp Reno and Sunflower, it's jumped to Mt Ord, the red by itself.

Hasn't jumped the Tonto to the east, knock on wood.

Kent

Here is a pic of my son on the Bighorn fire down by Tuscon.

Fine young man.

Kent

Thats a bully photo! Bless him!!!!

Just got done texting him. They have been up on top of the mountain spike camped for the last 3 days and now all roads into his area are closed. Said if they have to evac. now it will be by chopper. [bleep]!

crittrgittr’s son:
There are LOTS of good young people out there.

Thanks gentlemen, he's on a hand line and been living off of mre's the last 4 day's. He is a Marine so I know he can handle it.

I think they have a lot of black on the north side of the mountain. is he with an IHC (hotshot crew)?
\
also on the Kaibab fire, lots more of the north of 12A burned.

didn't get into 12B as far as I can tell.

They hauling in their own water or getting it dropped? No water in that country this time of the year...

Bless him!!!

Fire did crazy stuff overnight. Spotted over 2 miles east and now the north side is on fire. Crazy spread out fire now....

Is the highway holding it Kent? Hard to tell...

So far, I've heard it jumped a couple places bit the Tonto is wider than the road, it's up by Jake's corner to 87 that could be problems in my opinion.

Kent

This

Looks like the old campsite burned up for sure. Well nature will do it’s thing.

What happened?

Looked like a good place to wake up keeping a rattler warm.

I haven't been in touch with him but I talked with one of the captains here in Utah and said that this thing won't be under control any time soon. I don't know how to post videos but he is right in the middle of this chit show.

Hell of a good website for Bighorn fire

https://nifc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=bd0617539e8e4d5998dfd2b49cfd27f8

takes a while to load

"to date no structures have burned although some may be inside the fire's perimeter"

Hoping your son and his crew suffer NO injuries in this crap.

congrats on having such a good kid.

Yep it burnt, it was a good place for us for a few years, too bad you and I didn't get to visit camp Reno like we wanted.

Anyway, the fire crews have done a tremendous job forcing this fire within the perimeter of hwy 87 and 188, backburning and no structures lost, some super tough country and bad weather conditions.

Kent

Kent,

I drove through that area a couple of times on 87, but I'm having a hard time picturing the habitat. Is it in the foothills oak woodlands or has it gotten to the pines yet. Or is in mixed stuff. Still below the rim as I recall.

V - I have not been monitoring the track and perimeter of that one (we have one of our own down this way) but the area East of 87 where we had the Campfire gatherings is in the Tonto Basin - near Roosevelt Lake - and it is high desert. Mostly brush, some Mesquite and Scrub Oak - maybe some Juniper. With winds, burns fast and hot.

thanks C's.

That's what I was thinking from my recollection.

Having lived and recreated in San Diego County, Show-Low/Pinetop, and now in sage/juniper habitat I know that type of land quite well.

Fire started in the desert just out of Mesa and ran over Four Peaks, so started at 1500 ft elev, climbed up over 7000 ft and back down to 2200 ft.

The update this morning is good news, fire is contained by 87 and 188 just hot spots, still some activity in the south by the Salt river lakes but sparse and running out of fuel fast. I think they've got it.

Kent

That's great news.

going to be a lot of cliff rose in the north part of 12A in a few years. Looks like they stopped it short of 12B.

set your Leupolds on 9 boys.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/seve...winds-force-thousands-to-evacuate/760845

Great news Kent....