The Foothills and a Fire 01 Jul, 2008
Last week was another World Wide Panorama event, and since I was still moving in, I wasn’t sure I’d participate. Curious for ideas, one of my housemates named Paige helped out and showed me how to get to Old San Marcos Pass which is a real windy road that heads up into the hills. The modern San Marcos Pass is highway 154 which has a speed limit of something like 55mph. Signage is a bit more sparse on OSMP and it’s not like you’re going to hit anything more than 25mph average anyway. The few signs warning of sharp turns were especially disconcerting after you’ve passed 10 really sharp turns with no sign and wonder exactly how much sharper this one must be to get a sign.
The photo to the side is from the location that I think I’ll submit, and is a view southwest from the location of the map above.
I read that there are something like 1000 fires burning at any given point in time in California which seems like a large number to an outsider. I saw an odd-shaped cloud on the way home from work today and realized that it is a fire burning on the side of the hills, visible from Goleta around two miles from home. I don’t know if any structures were involved or if it was just a forest fire, but nobody seemed much alarmed about it so I suppose it’s a regular occurrence. The location was around Wylie Canyon somewhere (which is about a mile rightward of the photo here).
Update: The Independent is reporting on the fire.