oldies1955 Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 (edited) Dad and I decided to take the day off and drive up to the Goodwin fire area. Wanted to scope out our little camp spot at Poland junction and make sure we can still get to it and what condition it is in. Thankfully its still there. The fire got to within a half mile of it. We drove in Poland road along Big bug up through breezy pines until the road block getting close to Mt Union/5 corners. Some of the houses along Big Bug had the fire right on their door steps....literally! The aircrews dropping the slurry did one heck of a job saving them. Unfortunately one house did get destroyed that was on top of a small hill. The wood fence around it didn't burn but somehow the house did, the house right next to it was untouched. The fire came right up to 69 in a lot of areas. After that we went out the back road from Mayer towards Turkey creek. Its blocked off about 3 miles in so we turned around. Guess that area is still closed. Its amazing when you look at what those tankers had to fly around and through to drop their slurry without hitting a mountain. Kudos to them. There were signs all over saying THANK YOU. The Poland area was wet in a lot of spots so they are getting rain up there. Tom More pics Edited July 14, 2017 by oldies1955 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McGator Posted July 13, 2017 Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 Great photos Tom!! Thanks!! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted July 13, 2017 Admin Report Share Posted July 13, 2017 Hey Tom, Those are some great pictures. Wow, the fire sure came close to some houses in the pictures. I have a good friend that lives up towards the top end of the Poland Junction Road, they were concerned their cabin was going to burn. It would be a scare seeing a huge fire come over the hill towards your house or cabin. I have hunted a few smaller burns in known gold areas, but never actually found anything. I did manage to get real dirty though .... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMPDLN Posted July 17, 2017 Report Share Posted July 17, 2017 (edited) Unfortunately the government will likely be closing areas that burned indefinitely. There was a time when the NFS was in the forestry business that they would have went back into these areas with various conservation corps, like the CCC, and replanted trees and at least attempt some kind of erosion control. These days they just block roads with downed trees, boulders and locked gates. Darn shame that the NFS 21st century definition of reclamation is close the area. Dennis Edited July 17, 2017 by IMPDLN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyy Posted July 26, 2017 Report Share Posted July 26, 2017 Hoping access opens soon to some of our claim areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldies1955 Posted July 26, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2017 Andy: I got a mail from the forest service and they said it will probably remain closed until after the monsoons. September...ish....Lots of dummies will go in there and get in trouble with the flash flooding. Tom H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyy Posted July 27, 2017 Report Share Posted July 27, 2017 Thanks for the update, Tom. I guess I'll have to just use the back roads to get to some of those areas or maybe hike in a ways. It is what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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