Just got back from Tahoe. Quite an interesting day.
About 1 PM we drove over Kingsbury Grade and parked in
Minden, at the bottom of the Carson Valley side of the pass.
We got on our bikes to ride to Markleeville for lunch. We ended
up stopping in Woodfords instead (not advised - while the
deli in Markleeville is excellent, the Woodfords deli sucks
rocks). The reason for the earlier stop was that our progress
was muted by headwinds averaging 15-20 MPH with much faster
gusts. I told Jill not to sweat the return as we would get a great
tailwind.Inside the Deli, they were chatting about a fire in Markleeville
the day before. Someone came in and said "Did you hear about the
fire at Meyer's Grade?" I had a momentary lapse trying to figure
out where Meyer's Grade was and finally figured out he was talking
about US-50 from the Lake to Echo Summit. I went out to tell Jill
our day had just gotten longer as we'd probably not be able to go
home via US-50.We headed back to our car in Minden. As we rounded the bend off
Emigrant trail and headed south, Jill spotted the ash cloud from the
fire. It was *huge*, moving fast, and growing. By the time we reached
Minden you could barely see across the Carson Valley towards Carson City/Reno.
I had planned on asking if I could ride up Kingsbury while Jill drove back
to start packing but decided we needed to get home and get things in order.
This was about 4 PM.The radio indicated that US-50 was still open. After we got home and I did
most of the packing/cleaning, I went to fiddle with the TV and got caught up
watching Braveheart. Jill came in from walking the dog and asked if there
was any news on the fire. How could I forget!? I changed the channel and what
I saw was not pretty. 50 homes burned to the ground in an area known as Angora
(I had never heard of this place but it's west of the Wye, near North Upper
Truckee Road, about 7 miles West of my house). US-50 was closed. I-80 was
also closed near Reno due to an unrelated fire. We quickly packed amid (warm) ashes
dropping into the driveway, and headed out to Carson Valley and over
Carson Pass. When we rejoined US-50 at Pollack Pines, the road was closed
Eastbound from PP to the Lake! This is a 40 mile or so road closure. I think
the closure was because they wanted the road wide open from Pollack Eastbound
(where the road is two lanes and twisty) so trucks could have good access. This
was "confirmed" when we saw a line of engines headed East as we drove through
Shingle Springs, another 20 miles West of Pollack Pines. I could see the smoke
plumes from 40 miles West as I looked back.The latest news is 165 homes burned, 2000 acres. The wind has died down and
the temperatures are lower, so firefighters are actively setting breaks. They
are hoping to be able to use the planes and helicopters tomorrow - they had
to stop using them today due to turbulence caused by the fire itself (on top
of the gusting winds). This was a report I heard from a US Forest Service official
on the radio on the way home. Jill saw on the Sacramento News (I dropped Jill off
in Sacto) that Montbleu Casino threw open their rooms for evacuees from the California side.
1000's had been evacuated before we left town, I heard a report that 90% of South
Lake Tahoe, California, had been evacuated.I'm calling the management company in the morning to offer my house if needed.