Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire in northeastern New Mexico...
Our best friends have a beautiful home in Angel Fire which we have visited 21 times in the last 5+ years. The Calf canyon fire started several weeks ago 35 miles to the south seemingly posing no serious threat. Then some Bozo decided to do a Controlled Burn near Hermits Peak and it went very badly. They lost control and it merged with the Calf Canyon event. Currently the fire is approaching 300,000 acres destroyed and is on pace to be the largest fire in the history of New Mexico.
Firefighters faced the worst possible conditions this past week experiencing 59 continuous hours of severe Red Flag winds of 30 mpg gusting 60 to 70 mph with just 4 percent humidity. Conventional firefighting techniques were impossible and all aircraft were grounded due to the high winds. :S
Our friends had flown to San Diego to spend a couple of weeks on their boat when everything at home went south. As there are not many flights to Albuquerque and they needed to get home ASAP Wednesday afternoon I suggested they fly to Phoenix and I would pick them up at 0600 at their hotel. They got the last flight out of San Diego to Phoenix getting in at 11.
We got back to our place in Payson at 8 and by 8:30 were on the road in our 24' Class C to Albuquerque to pick up their truck at the airport and drive the additional 3 hours back to AF. When we arrived in AF the evacuation protocol {Ready, Set, Go} was in the "Set" mode. While the population of AF this time of year is about 1,200 by Memorial day that number climbs to 10,000+. The town was completely deserted, downright spooky actually but we were able to negotiate the last 2 miles of dirt/gravel washboard of a road arriving at their place at 6.
Having recently retired as an airline pilot Paul had restocked his toy chest with a gorgeous Lance 1685 trailer, a Polaris XP1000 Rzr SXS and a new trailer to haul it with all three parked on the property. The plan was for us to tow the Rzr out of harms way with the Lance departing behind Paul's truck. If we could just get there ahead of the fire there would also be time to empty their safes and the house of as many personal items as possible loading Sherry's car. If everything was lost to the fire at least we could all stay in our coach nearby while they sorted things out.
Friday things calmed somewhat but Saturday morning the winds picked up again threatening to cut AF off, potentially eliminating any escape down through Taos Canyon on Highway 64. The mandatory evacuations was in effect just 5 miles to the south with the fire now within 8 miles of their house. They had the Lance hooked up and ready to roll so pending getting the "Go" order they elected to stay and continue packing and loading. We got the hell pout of Dodge just before noon and managed to get down to Taos on 64 without incident.
In 5.5 hours we made it to Gallup and spent the night at the USA RV park {one of our favorites} and drove the remaining 3.5 hours back to Payson this morning arriving at 1015. The Rzr is secure in my garage with the trailer locked up in our front yard. We estimated we were all able to protect about $100,000 worth of their possessions even if the fire does yet arrive.
The entire adventure took 76 hours from 0400 on Thursday to our return to Payson this morning. The trip was intense but our trusty 2012 Nexus came through for all of us which I will detail in a new thread in the Class C Forum.
Bottom line we Got er done!
:B
Firefighters faced the worst possible conditions this past week experiencing 59 continuous hours of severe Red Flag winds of 30 mpg gusting 60 to 70 mph with just 4 percent humidity. Conventional firefighting techniques were impossible and all aircraft were grounded due to the high winds. :S
Our friends had flown to San Diego to spend a couple of weeks on their boat when everything at home went south. As there are not many flights to Albuquerque and they needed to get home ASAP Wednesday afternoon I suggested they fly to Phoenix and I would pick them up at 0600 at their hotel. They got the last flight out of San Diego to Phoenix getting in at 11.
We got back to our place in Payson at 8 and by 8:30 were on the road in our 24' Class C to Albuquerque to pick up their truck at the airport and drive the additional 3 hours back to AF. When we arrived in AF the evacuation protocol {Ready, Set, Go} was in the "Set" mode. While the population of AF this time of year is about 1,200 by Memorial day that number climbs to 10,000+. The town was completely deserted, downright spooky actually but we were able to negotiate the last 2 miles of dirt/gravel washboard of a road arriving at their place at 6.
Having recently retired as an airline pilot Paul had restocked his toy chest with a gorgeous Lance 1685 trailer, a Polaris XP1000 Rzr SXS and a new trailer to haul it with all three parked on the property. The plan was for us to tow the Rzr out of harms way with the Lance departing behind Paul's truck. If we could just get there ahead of the fire there would also be time to empty their safes and the house of as many personal items as possible loading Sherry's car. If everything was lost to the fire at least we could all stay in our coach nearby while they sorted things out.
Friday things calmed somewhat but Saturday morning the winds picked up again threatening to cut AF off, potentially eliminating any escape down through Taos Canyon on Highway 64. The mandatory evacuations was in effect just 5 miles to the south with the fire now within 8 miles of their house. They had the Lance hooked up and ready to roll so pending getting the "Go" order they elected to stay and continue packing and loading. We got the hell pout of Dodge just before noon and managed to get down to Taos on 64 without incident.
In 5.5 hours we made it to Gallup and spent the night at the USA RV park {one of our favorites} and drove the remaining 3.5 hours back to Payson this morning arriving at 1015. The Rzr is secure in my garage with the trailer locked up in our front yard. We estimated we were all able to protect about $100,000 worth of their possessions even if the fire does yet arrive.
The entire adventure took 76 hours from 0400 on Thursday to our return to Payson this morning. The trip was intense but our trusty 2012 Nexus came through for all of us which I will detail in a new thread in the Class C Forum.
Bottom line we Got er done!
:B
