In the morning we learned from the internet of the Carstens Fire, which started in Midpines and was burning Southeast towards Buckingham Mountain. We live at its Western foot, and can look up to its ridge and peak behind our place. Google Maps shows it to be about a mile away from us. Over the next few days it looked and felt a lot closer than that.
We packed up some basic stuff to evacuate with and watched the smoke grow closer. We understood the fire to be burning on the other side of Buckingham, but the winds up here shift throughout the day so it was impossible to know which way it was headed. We both agreed, though, that we would leave if we saw flames at the ridge.
I'd guess it was three days later we were out in the yard watching the smoke filling the sky behind the mountain, fulminating in turbulent clouds of brown and orange.
Them we saw the first tongues of fire at the ridge, lighting up whole Doug Fir trees in an instant, and flames shooting a hundred feet into the air. Believe me, that's not something you EVER want to see up the hill from your house!
Hurriedly, we gathered Zane, piled into our Chevy Van and drove away. We retreated to the Friedland's ranch in Catheys Valley, where Melina used to live - but it is all a blur to me after that. I don't remember what we did or how long we were there. On June 20th all evacuation orders were lifted, so we must have returned home by then. The Carstens Fire incident was considered closed on June 26. A few weeks later, a neighbor of ours who flies sent us the photo below of the backside of Bucking ham Mountain. It made me realize how lucky we were that the fire didn't burn our way. As you can see, nothing on the East side of the mountain was left in its wake.
