I signed up for the American Heroes Run to be held on September 11 to commemorate those who died during 9/11, and to honor those living today to keep us safe. Little did I know how close this would come to my life.
But first, the run. It was a nine hour and eleven minute event held in Rogers Grove Park in Longmont on a 1 mile loop around Fairground Lake. I was surprised when I got an e-mail the day before from Mike Melton Timing explaining to all of us how the chip timing was to work. This wasn't the same Mike Melton from Florida I knew from earlier runs (Javelina, Across the Years, Motherroad) was it? Turned out it was. When I turned up Saturday morning to check in with the RD David Clark, there was Mike (aka as Dr. Seymour Bush, Gen Patten, the Red Dress Lady, etc.). Also saw some old friends (Alene Nitzky, Tom Hamilton) and made some new ones David Clark, Jeff O’Reilly, etc.).
My goal was to try for 40+ miles but I was in no hurry and would just use this as an opportunity for a long, supported run for my upcoming 100 milers in a few months. My last long run was pacing at Leadville (28 miles) so this was going to be slow and steady.
After listening to the Star Spangled Banner on sax, we were off like a flock of geese around the lake, which started at 8:46 AM to commemorate the time the first tower was hit in NY. I ran with Jeff on the first loop, which we did in 9:25 or so. This was too fast so I decided to back off and do my 8 minute run/2 minute walk regimen for awhile. This was giving me 11-12 minute miles per loop. I was able to keep this up for a few hours, and soon got into a "walk the inclines and run the flats and downs" routine. Being how my car was right off of the course near the timing chute, I made use of my little aid station to change clothes and change bottles as needed. Before I knew it, it was lunchtime. I sat for about 30 minutes eating my sandwich and talking with Alene, watching the other runners go by.
Soon it was time for me to get back up and continue on. It was getting hot, and the cloudless sky was starting to wear on me a bit. I got into a routine where each section of a loop would be a walk or run. The last few hours was mostly a walk, along with Jeff and we made for interesting conversation. As time for the race was drawing near we were wondering if we could get in one final lap. It was taking us 15 minutes and change to do a loop, and we got in at 8:55. Jeff decided to go on, while I had enough thinking I wouldn't have time for another. My feet were killing me at this point so I had no more motivation to go on. I ended up doing 37.15 miles in 8 hours and 55 minutes. I was very happy with my distance.
David Clark put on an excellent event, and it was cool to see his son & father out there participating, and the rest of his family helping out.
I finally got home around 7 PM, tired and dirty. Took a shower and vegged out.
Then came Sunday.......
View of the fire from the evacuation point.
I was feeling sore and tired. I was hobbling around doing stuff around the house (laundry, cleaning up and unpacking my stuff from the previous days' run). I was outside hanging up laundry when Lorraine came out in a hurry: "We just got a reverse 911 call about a fire in the area and evacuation is advised!" I decided to drive down the hill to see how bad it was since I didn't see any smoke or smell any. When I drove down I saw what looked like a plume, but it was hard to make out above the ridgeline to the east and north. I finally got to the overlook and saw a huge plume of smoke just east and north. This was about 5 miles east of us. I drove back home and told Lorraine we needed to get the sheep back in the barn from the pasture turnout in prep to load them out for an evacuation. I did stop at our neighbors Al and Sandy's house down the road, as they have no phone and told them about the reverse 911 call. Lorraine came by as well to warn them too. They have 3 horses, and would trailer out two and Sandy would ride out the 3rd one. At the time the fire wasn't huge but things could change (and did). Lorraine had already gathered up three of the cats and they were in their cat kennels, howling when I got back up to the house. The sheep, goats and Llama were already turned in and haltered, ready to go.
After getting home, I raced inside to get some suitcases for clothes, toiletries, etc.. Lorraine grabbed our photo albums, I grabbed our important documents, and started working on deciding what to bring and what to leave. What a hard situation this was. How does one decide what to take along in limited space and time? I was thinking of little stuff, but didn’t think too much at the time (although it hit me later) about all the furniture my dad had made, which was passed down to us when he and mom died a few years ago. I’m sure Lorraine was thinking of some stuff she has had since she was a child. Man, this is tough! Lorraine got the dogs collared and gathered their leashes. I was grabbing stuff and hauling them out to the SUV, leaving room for the cats. Lorraine had her truck and was getting it ready to load sheep. I was upstairs when the dogs started barking wildly. I went downstairs and saw the ranger's truck outside. He suggested we leave now. I asked if we had time to load our sheep, about 30 minutes. He said he couldn't force us to leave, but we needed to leave NOW. We said okay. He took note of what vehicles were going to be left behind (both of our Audi's). Lorraine and I talked about what to do with the sheep, and we decided they would be okay for the time being, considering the urgency of us getting out at all. This was a tough decision for Lorraine. She has ten years invested in the breeding and so forth of her flock, guiding them towards certain traits for the breed (Jacobs) and the fleece characteristics. I figured they would be safer inside the barn than outside, due to smoke inhalation and all. I went in and got the last load. I checked the house and closed the remaining windows, and locked the doors. When I got to the car I realized I didn't have my keys, so I went back inside. I did another quick walkthrough. We had to leave one cat as she is hard to get a hold of, and thought she would be better off here than at Lorraine's parent’s house in Estes Park. We had an evacuation plan, but ended up missing items anyway.
Got my keys and headed out. Lorraine was already in the truck ready to head down our driveway. As we left we saw Al and Sandy loading up and getting ready to leave. After turning off our road onto the main road, the row of mailboxes belonging to all the residents on our road had yellow police tape across them. I guess this meant everyone has been contacted. The next sight I saw while leaving scared the crap out of me: as we turned onto the main road heading east, the ridge just to our north and east had tons of smoke billowing out along the ridgeline into the sky. It reminded me of the underwater views of the BP oil spill in the gulf a few months ago. In the span of 45 minutes, this thing had really blown up!
This is the Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter, which there were 4 operating to control the fire and protect structures. These monsters hold 2500 gallons, and it took about 20 seconds for the helicopter to fill up. These guys were constantly coming and going, filling from Flatiron Reservoir here. There were two more up at Pinewood.
We got down the hill, watching the flames and smoke billow up, and fire trucks, aircraft all over the place working it. We got to the rally point at the Bison Visitor Center near Flatiron Res. We were there about an hour, watching the helicopters, slurry planes attack the hillsides trying to save homes. Containment at this point was moot....the mission was to save homes. The hillside was completely covered in smoke and it was hard to see any houses on the hill, but they were trying their best to save what they could. Several times we saw the smoke change color from a dirty cream color to a dark black. Either a house was just consumed or more trees caught fire. The pilots were amazing in their precision, but at this time the fire was so fast and furious it was hard for them to keep up. Two houses, several outbuildings and an RV were lost during this time. When we realized we were not going to be able to go back up, we decided to head on up to Estes Park and get the animals settled in. It was hot and the loud noise of the helicopters dipping into Flatiron Reservoir was stressing them out. So time to go.
The fire had grown westward and you can see the new burning behind the original burn area.
We got up to Estes Park, got the cars out of the garage and let loose the cats. The dogs ended up staying on their deck during the day. I was watching the news coverage of the fire. The news helicopter was showing closeups of a house totally engulfed in flames, the Christiansons. Later on, they showed the efforts of trying to save a small A-Frame cabin, but eventually they lost the cabin as it was ablaze. What really hit me while watching all of this is when they showed a helicopter readying a drop of its load of water onto a hillside to extinguish the blaze below. I then realized this was the hillside on the west side of Pinewood Reservoir dam, just 1 mile east of our place!
Watching the news, showing places ablaze you drive by each and every day was sobering. Lorraine and I didn’t get much sleep that night. I ended up getting up around 1 AM and watching TV the rest of the night (Fox News, old Twilight Zone episodes). The next morning we ate breakfast and headed back down the hill to get any news and hope we could get back home. We spent the morning at the evacuation center (The Church at Loveland) and signed in with the Red Cross. We talked with the US Forest Service Information Officer to get any tidbits of info we could get. Lorraine was concerned about her sheep, goats and Llama. The issue now was getting them some food, as they cannot go long without food. We voiced our concerns with the CIO there, and she put us on a list for the Humane Society who were making plans to go up there to take care of left behind animals. Lorraine also found a neighbor whose husband decided to stay behind. She would contact him as well to look in an feed, water the sheep.
It was time for the 10 AM press briefing and it was on a big screen in the auditorium. We sat with other neighbors and watched the briefing. We ate some lunch and decided to head over to the Bison Center for the afternoon briefing to press and residents. Perhaps we would hear if we could at least go up to check on things. Alas, we weren’t allowed. We checked again with the Humane Society POC there and she said they had groups up there taking care of animals, and we were on the list. The smoke today wasn’t as bad as the previous’ day, but the Sikorsky Skycranes were working hard on dousing a lot of areas. It looked like a lot of the fire had moved further north and west, so it was hard to see anything from behind the front ridges. Lorraine’s friend from Fort Collins came down to help us either feed or bring down the animals. Instead, she was good company for Lorraine as they watched the helicopters through binoculars work the fire.
There was lots of this going on....waiting. Waiting to hear any news about going home or making a visit.
Once we knew for sure we were not going to be allowed up, we decided it was time to leave. We headed back up the canyon to Estes Park to take care of the cats and dogs. This time, I had no problem getting to sleep that night. Got up around 7 AM and watched for any additional news on TV. Nothing was mentioned of a briefing, so I assumed it would be held again at 10 AM. Lorraine decided to stay up in Estes, as waiting around in town was too stressful. Driving down the canyon was a nightmare: slow RVs, tourists, etc. made for an excruciating drive, in hopes of making it in time. I got to the Bison Center around 9:30, and the resident briefing was winding up. There was a chance we might get to go up later in the day, but we wouldn’t know until 11 AM. Someone mentioned a wind change, but no details. I then decided to call work and get some weather information. As there was no cell coverage here I would have to go into Loveland to make those calls. Unfortunately, no one was available to talk to (there was a campus wide briefing at the time). I ended up calling a co-worker who telecommutes to get some weather updates.
The lined up convoy of group 3 to make a 30 minute visit to homes beyond the burn area.
Headed back and was a bit late for the briefing, but found out we were going to be allowed back up later this afternoon around 3 PM. I then headed back into town to call Lorraine. She had already heard this on the news and was planning on coming down this afternoon. I then ate lunch, did some errands in town, and got back to the Bison Center around 2:00 PM. Lorraine was already there. We would have to check in and get a resident pass. Lorraine wanted to take her truck up there, leave it and swap it for her more economical Audi. I was going to take the Pathfinder up and load it up with stuff we forgot. At 3 PM we found out when we might be going. We were in group 3 initially. Then a neighbor said we were actually in group 2, which meant we would be going earlier. Then we later found out we were back in group 3. In hindsight, I really didn’t think they knew where our road (Lonewolf) was. Turned out we probably should have been in group 2 all along, as when it came to our turn (around 6:30) they wanted us meet up with the escort rangers at the base of Quillen Gulch, but that was 2 miles west of us. After we informed them of this issue, they changed the rally point to the base of Lonewolf Rd.
We were told they wanted us off the mountain by dark, but we all groaned at this as this would only give us about 20 minutes or so before heading down. Lorraine and I talked about it and she said we would leave when we were ready, and I wasn’t fair we got short on the time. The escort drive up the hill, with about 20 cars was surreal. Lots of firefighters staged along the road going up. When we got to the dam, I noticed a big elk buck running up the hillside. Then it hit us: the charred ground to our right was rightup against the road. The trees were charred and the grass was all black. This ended just 50 feet from the first house on the right. Man this was close!
We headed up Lonewolf and I pulled in and started through my list of items to do. First off, turn off the propane. As I grabbed stuff, loaded it in the car, Lorraine was in the barn tending to her animals. Turned out they had plenty of hay over the course of the last few days: ankle deep. They were in desperate need of water, and she filled up their buckets twice as they all fought for water. As we were off grid, we had power to turn on the lights. Looking over to the next ridge, it was total darkness as power was shut off. While other residents had to deal with spoiled food in their refrigerators, we didn’t have to worry about that. Lorraine lost her 4 pounds of homegrown green beans she just harvested and were soaking in the sink when we left. They were now rotten. We also had a pound of frozen ground beef thawing on the counter when we left. It was thawed, but had a big pool of congealed blood around it. I picked up the ground beef and cleaned up the counter. Lorraine put more food down for the cat, and water. We did a last minute check and it was time to go. As it was total darkness now, we could see the flashing lights of the sheriff’s vehicles at the bottom of Lonewolf. We checked out with them. We also checked out with other sheriff’s deputies near Flatiron. Time to head back up to Estes and unload and unwind. We got up there around 9 PM.
I got up the next morning, thinking I might go into work, depending on what was said in the morning briefing. Lorraine made plans to go to work as well. We went to the briefing and it was mentioned we might be able to go home later in the day. With that in mind, Lorraine wanted to go in to work. I decided to stay and not go in, as the next briefing was at 2 PM and the 2 hour roundtrip drive to Boulder wouldn’t allow much time to get anything done anyway. I did more errands, met Lorraine for lunch at the evacuation center. I hung around there for awhile and saw our neighbors Mike and Peggy Flood, so I chatted with them a bit. We all headed over to the Bison Center for hopefully good news.
The fire had reached the lip of our main road, just beyond the dam of Pinewood Reservoir. This area is a mile east of our house.
An old fire road used by the firefighters to access the west edge fo the fire, up along the ridgeline to the north. Before this was an overgrown road barely discernable from the road.
A view just west of the old fire road showing how charred the landscape is.
Red vegetation indicative of a slurry drop in this area. This was on the lip of the other side of the main road, which is evident from the next picture....
The fire had just made it across the road. They got to this just in time as this could have surely gotten out of control real fast, and put more homes (and ours) in jeopardy.
I never knew there was a Tuffshed up on the ridge, but you can really see it now.
We were told that the fire was 100% mitigated against structure damage, and that “The hotshots have strangled the fire such that it is now gasping for air”. We were going to be able to go home starting at 3 PM. As I was getting into my car a reporter wanted to know if I had a few minutes for him. I said sure. After the interview, I headed out, but noticed that a line of cars was already forming back to the parking lot. It was 2:30 PM. Rather than wait to make a right turn I went left up the hill towards Carter Lake to make a call to Lorraine. Called her, and she said she was going to get off work at 3:30. I told her I would meet her up in Estes.
Got the car packed, the cats crated and the dogs leashed. After eating a nice meal with the in-laws, we headed down the canyon one last time to head home.
Man, what a sweet feeling to be home again. Never again will we take things for granted living up in the wonderful foothills of Colorado.
This was our first full blown evacuation, but probably won’t be out last. Hopefully not for a long time.
