Southern CA Ladies, are you ok?

[Trek420]

Ah California, Earthquakes, Flood, Fire, repeat. Now we have fire.

I hope you are ok, or at least that you, family and animals safely away from the Southern CA fires. My thoughts and prayers to the firefighters and their families.

Check in here, please

[ACG]

I'm in Pasadena. I've had several friends who had to evacuate. I have offered my home to many people, even if it is only for storage.

Our big dilemna is we can't ride! We will probably have to drive to the Orange County and ride near the beach, we are all stir crazy here!

This is nothing compared to what the fire men are going thru right now trying to save homes.

[Fredwina]

I'm ok , but no riding had to dust ash off my car this am

[ribbit_zap]

Hanging in there. I am in Huntington Beach, but there is still plenty of smoke and ash. On Sunday, there was a big mushroom cloud of smoke...it looked like something had exploded. Very scary for those in the fire areas.

[Ninabike]

Trek, Thanks for asking. Everything is so smokey now, you can't see anything. I took this picture from my Glendale office window with my cell phone right after the fire started last Wednesday. This is nothing compared to what it later became. The plume of smoke over the weekend was just like those pictures you see of pyroclastic clouds from a volcano. I think they called it a "pyrocumulos" (sp?) cloud. Actually, it was scary and facinating at the same time. Very sad about the 2 firefighters who died. The wife of one of them is expecting their first child later this month.

[Trek420]

You're welcome. I know you gals (and guys?) would have the same concern for us if something was going on here. I was listening to NPR on the way to work about the evacuation of an animal sanctuary. I think they are putting them up at the zoo?

[Ninabike]

Yes, the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Tugunga was evacuated to the L.A. Zoo. A lot of people in the fire-affected areas have horses which have had to be evacuated also. I have lived here all my life and this fire was very unusual in that, rather than being blown by Santa Ana winds in a specific direction, with a specific "fire line', this fire burned from a central point out in all directions - Mt. Wilson on the East to Acton (near Palmdale) in the Northwest. They say it is the largest fire in L.A. County in 100 years - over 140,000 acres. The schools in Glendale are still closed, although some evacuees in the local area are being allowed back in. No report yet on how the fire started.

[Trek420]

News says human causes

[channlluv]

San Diego hasn't been affected at all by this particular fire, except that our sunsets have been particularly colorful the last few evenings. I keep looking out for an air quality warning, but nothing for here so far.

LA people, give us a reference. LA county is huge, and this fire is up in the northeast, yes? I know where Santa Monica is, and Irvine, and I took the train up to Santa Barbara once, and we've been to Anaheim twice to go to Disneyland. That's about it. The rest of LA is one big metro mass, so I have no reference points for Glendale or any of the places being directly affected by the fire.

Roxy

[Ninabike]

The Angeles National Forest kind of fills the northern half of Los Angeles County. Santa Monica is on the western edge of the central part of the County (not near the fire) and the City of Los Angeles is kind of in the west/center of the County. Anaheim is south of Los Angeles County in Orange County, and Santa Barbara is northwest of Los Angeles in Santa Barbara County. The fire is in the Angeles National Forest area and borders on the cities that span east and west just north of the City of Los Angeles i.e, Pasadena (fire just north of the Rose Bowl and JPL in Pasadena and Mt. Wilson), Altadena, Glendale, LaCanada/Flintridge, La Crescenta, Sunland, Tujunga. These cities run in an east/west line across the upper middle portion of the County. North of that is the Angeles National Forest which goes all the way north to the Antelope Valley Lancaster/Palmdale (near Edwards Air Force base where the Space Shuttle sometiimes lands). The Angeles National Forest is where the fire is, but it borders on all of the surrounding communities. Hope that helps.

[Trek420]

And here is a map:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...4337.htmlstory

[Buster]

We were evacuated last week, but everything is OK and we are back in our house. I think the bigger long term bummer (on a cycling related note) is that all of the great mtb trails around us are going to be closed for a very long time. I had just started mountain biking and had ridden Brown Mtn for the first time a few weeks ago -- I was planning on buying a mountain bike this weekend, but think I'm going to put that off. The forest service is saying that Brown Mountain & Chaney Trail will be closed at least through the rainy season, and possibly longer than that.

[nerdgirl]

We were evacuated last week, but everything is OK and we are back in our house. I think the bigger long term bummer (on a cycling related note) is that all of the great mtb trails around us are going to be closed for a very long time. I had just started mountain biking and had ridden Brown Mtn for the first time a few weeks ago -- I was planning on buying a mountain bike this weekend, but think I'm going to put that off. The forest service is saying that Brown Mountain & Chaney Trail will be closed at least through the rainy season, and possibly longer than that.

Glad you are okay and back safe at home.

Don't put off buying a bike! There are so many other trails here in the area outside of LA County that you can ride. We're in mountain bike heaven here in So Cal. Some of our trails may not be as picturesque as other areas, but we sure do have a lot of nice singletrack. I see you're in Pasadena. If you're willing to drive between 30 min- 1 hour (or a bit longer, depending on where you decide to go), there are plenty of great trails in San Bernardino County, Riverside County, and Orange County.

Keep riding!