Life After The Burn!!

[HARDCORE]

You may recall that, back in October last, the fires of Hell were visited upon the San Diego County backcountry. In these fires, some 800,000 acres were burned up, a community or two was obliterated, about 20 people expired, and even the wildlife of the region was decimated!

Since the blaze, I have traveled several times to town (west of us some 40 or so miles), mostly down Interstate 8 (Freeway). The firestorm (Cedars Fire) itself, stayed mostly to the north of the freeway, although at times it did leap to the south side, chewing up homes and property as well!

?Yesterday, I got right in the middle of the scene of carnage, and believe me, it resembled a combat zone that had been totally burned out by napalm!?

On this trip, we took two back roads (Highway 80 and Vejas Grade Road), and in the process, traversed a dirt road (Vejas Grade) for about 20 miles that looked like it had been the object of intensive firebombing. ?These flames of Hell respected, nor spared, anything in nature?s realm!?

Countless mile after mile of decimated countryside (in all directions), where manzanita, oaks and dense scrub brush & sage one stood!! No longer blended with hues of green, red and tan, the charred and blackened countryside will indeed, even with the help of man, take decades to fully recover!

?I have been told many times to ?Go To Hell (I hope not)? - well after this junket, I felt, at least for a while, that maybe I had arrived for a brief visit!!?

VERITAS