Sunday, October 18, 2020

Fall Colors, Smokey Ride

Planned a walk-about ride this morning in northern New Mexico, 
but walking outside was greeted with this...

View froim FS.jpeg

Riding ten miles south, decided to change routes from southwest to southeast... instead of going to Mora, head down to Ocate and Wagon Mound.

Black Lake Smoke.jpeg

The smoke stayed further south as the road turned to gravel...

Cattle Guard.jpeg

Crossing over the ridge and heading down thru the timber... smoke appeared to be getting closer...

Long Road ahead.jpeg

Spotted something white off in the brush... went to investigate.

Elk Ribs.jpeg

Either a hunter dumped the rib cage here or this elk did not survive the winter. 
Either way the ravens had a feast.

The Fall colors were abundant... in sections, 



Even when the aspen trees were bare.. fall is here.



An AdvRider heading north stopped to tell me that smoke conditions further ahead were bad
 in Wagon Mound. That's 15 miles away. Said his lungs were hurting.

Less than a mile further I hit the smoke wall, turned around... my lungs are not what they used to be. 
Too many cigars. Gotta protect what we still have.

Wall of Smoke.jpeg

Practiced a bit with the panorama feature on the iPhone. Smoke in the distance blowing east.




Backtracking found a good spot for a final ride photo for the day...

Rig under Aspen.jpeg

Riding thru Black Lake area, past the fire, spotted both fixed wing and helicopters dumping water. The wind is not blowing north so our Angel Fire condo should be safe, though not sure how sound we'll sleep tonight.

Ride safe my friends, sanitize and mask up.

CCjon

4 comments:

  1. Oh man! Is that the Carson National Forest Fire? As beautiful as the fall colors are, wondering if the dry leaves are going to be an issue? What a wildfire season. Hope some rain or snow heads your way to help put this and the Mars fire out. Stay safe and protect those lungs, Abu.
    Beautiful pano pics.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Lily, Was surprised with the forest fire southeast of here, saw nothing on the news about it. Same location as a fire two years ago. Now I wonder if that was from a campfire over there. It was the weekend plus it is hunting season here. More people out in the forest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wildfire smoke can be a bane to one's lungs and photography. You're right to take no chances.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dom, I just attended the Angel Fire outdoors townhall meeting on the fire. If winds stay as they are, no fire danger, but that could change from one hour to the next. More concerning is they expect the valley to fill with smoke in the next day or two. So, will pack up and hightail it out. The southern escape route is closed due to the fire, so it's go east or go west. East it is, Texas bound.

      This was my last visit for 2020, be back next spring.

      Delete

please comment here: