Month: November 2012

Prescribed Burn today in Salinas Valley

Prescribed Burn Planned for Election Day. MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif.
These things always worry me

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. – If you see smoke rising around the Salinas Valley on election day, don’t worry! Cal Fire says it’s conducting a prescribed burn in the area of Old Stage Road at Crazy Horse Road.

The burn is approximately 1,000 acres of brush and grass that is part of a plan to reduce flammable vegetation and will be visible from the Salinas Valley, Monterey Peninsula, Marina, North Monterey County, San Juan Bautista and Hollister Areas.

The burn is scheduled to begin around 10:00 a.m. and last until 5:00 Tuesday night with prime ignition planned between the hours of 12:00 and 3:00 p.m.

There will be 16 fire engines, 2 helicopters, 2 dozers, 4 hand crews and about 20 overhead personnel totaling roughly 150 personnel. Local Government cooperators include Carmel Highlands Fire Protection District, San Benito County Fire Department, Salinas City Fire Department, Monterey County Regional Fire District, Soledad Fire Department, Fort Hunter Ligget Fire Department and North Monterey County Fire Protection District.

CAL FIRE, along with the National Weather Service and Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District have worked cooperatively to plan this burn under the best weather conditions for this location.

Weather, road repair, and photos

First, could the weather be any more beautiful? But watch for a major change. According to several reports, I could have a sprinkling of snow by Friday morning – so time to stock my wood box, while the weather is so wonderful.

“The rain won’t be widespread, with most of the shower activity developing along the coastal mountains where snow levels will drop to 2,500 feet by Friday morning. Modest accumulations
of snow (2- and 4-inches) are possible Friday across the Sierra foothills with a dusting also possible in the coastal mountains of the Central Coast.”

And this is the view that greeted me at the bottom of my road

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Then I got to Alder Creek … You know the place, where that major slide happened? Was that just last year? Anyway, Cal Trans has put netting up along the whole slide, but was working it again. I stopped and took these two photos … Note the draping, the rock-catching drapery walls, and the two climbers in the bright yellow on the left.

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Further down the road, the new chip sealing between the lighthouse and elephant seal beach was tying up traffic for 15-20 minutes. At least there was cell phone signal, so I could check email, surf (which I had not been able to do since Sat am at home) and all I had missed for a day and a half, so the time went by pretty fast.